FYI...at a point Mulligan attended - Central Catholic High School here in Reading Penna in his Jr High and Sr High years. He had studied sax and some clarinet with the same man I had the fortune to study with as a child.His name was Sam Correnti. Sam was an old sax player who taught a lot of guys from around here. For example: Dick Hafer , Jimmy Reider ( whos in Jeru's Concert jazz band records on Verve) as well as Gary Klein ..a player who really sounded like Al Cohn...and was someone I heard as a kid at a local session and started to dig Al Cohn in 8th grade because of a rap with Gary Klein.

Mulligan had a brother here in Reading that was also a mailman , and looked just like Gerry !!! It's a known fact Mulligan NEVER graduated from Central Catholic HS, but the nuns probally were glad he split. He was an itererate jammer and pianist then to. Stories...when I was a kid , loomed BIG around here about him. A lot of early Elliot Lawrence charts he wrote were actually written in his teens here in Reading .

There used to be a great picture at a local recording studio here of Gerry with some ray ban style shades on..and some local cats and an accordion player.Gerry musta been 13 or so. Skinny as hell and really a hip looking guy. YEARS later I asked the accordion player what he remembered about Mulligan and he said ,Gerry knew all the tunes without music. PLUS- could play great piano to.

Also - Gerry used to go see all the bands cuz there was a theatre here , and everyone used to play there. Gerry, being the hip vagabond beat character he was ( before beat ) NEVER paid , always snuck in.

As a kid I wrote Mulligan a letter in the 60's...told him he was an idol of mine. Years later in Boston in 1970, Alan Dawson took me to Symphony Hall to see a Brubeck gig he and Gerry were on. As Dawson intoduced me to him, Mulligan started to beam with smiles and said. " You're the kid who wrote me !!! ".

I couldn't believe he remembered THAT!!! So he took the time...hung with me and told me he used Vandoren reeds. Which were hard as hell, and let me blow his Conn bari after the gig.

The next day, we were havin' a session on Newbury Street in Boston, on a Sunday. I told Gerry about this, and he said yea I'll be by and blow. I wrote down ALL the info... But figured what's the chances a guy of this stature and FAME is gonna come by? WAS I WRONG - About 5 minutes before 1:00 in afternoon when we started, in comes Gerry with his Bari in the gig bag and and said " Hey lets blow ". We played from 1 to about 10 at night. THAT DAY....I learned how to swing. OH YEA-...That was my lesson.

Gerry swung like a wild man...plus picked up my alto and played it a lot, played piano with us....and even bought ALL of us Greek salads for lunch. He was so cool. That day , was engraved in my mind.

YEARS LATER.......he shows up at a clinic I did at Sam Ash in NYC. Dave Guardala was speech less (a rare event in itself) ....Gerry spent time with me and Jane Ira Bloom talkin' about reeds - and Duke Ellingtons sax section. He saw my name in the Village Voice and came by- I was stunned again. I later asked him - why .He smiles and said "Us Reading cats gotta stck together " !!

HE KNEW music and what made it work. PLUS he respected the art form. He told me at that Boston session, it's ok to f*uk up...and art never was perfect.

Lots of guys spoke about his temper etc. - I NEVER saw it...I saw a cat who was hungry to play and see what happened next. BOY..could he PLAY !!!!!!!

- Tim Price