You have probably heard that Gerry Mulligan's baritone mouthpiece was a Rico M.C. Gregory brand. You may have read the Stuff Sax blog on Lester Young's mouthpieces. Like Mr. Young, Mulligan actually played a variety of mouthpieces during his long career. No surprise and I have no doubt that Mulligan could have played a Rico Gregory at one point, or a Gale brand mouthpiece, but does that mean that is what a baritone player needs to sound like Gerry Mulligan? I don't think so and I'll try to explain why.
First, we should just look at a few Rico Gregory baritone mouthpieces. These are from various mouthpiece websites.
We should notice a couple of things about these pictures. First, M.C. Gregory baritone pieces varied over the years. Not just the band material and its placement. The actual mold. The first M.C. Gregory piece shown above has a shank that tapers and then goes to a final straight section before the band. The second picture shows a slightly longer and slimmer Gregory piece that has a continuous taper down the entire shank (which is also longer) and a different style of metal band. The third picture isn't really an M.C. Gregory brand. It is a Gale. That picture is from Theo Wanne's website, which states that Gerry Mulligan played a Gale mouthpiece, not an M.C. Gregory. Here is the accompanying picture from the Wanne website.
Look at Gerry's mouthpiece pictured above. There is clearly no band. That cannot be a Gregory or a Gale. It looks suspiciously like a Riffault.
A Riffault baritone piece with the thin shank, a "lip" between the shank and the barrel, and no metal band.
Check out these well known pictures of Gerry at his finest.
No band on this long shank baritone mouthpiece.
What, no shank band again? Was this picture taken during the "he sounds like crap" phase of his career?
A very strange band on this baritone mouthpiece later in his career and, again, not the shank shape of either a Rico Gregory or a later Gale baritone mouthpiece. It does have the three white dots, but that doesn't mean that it is a standard Rico or later Gale mouthpiece, as we will see. And check out the difference in the shank length between this one and the one shown above.
Maybe he had an Ideal mouthpiece (one of many trade names used on a Riffault stencil) like this one below. Riffault blanks were also used for Gale and Bay mouthpieces. It does have the "lip" between the shank and the barrel like the ones shown above and no metal band. I have never seen an early picture of Mulligan playing a banded-shank mouthpiece.
Check out Mr. Mulligan's discography. Most of his recording career was not with a Gale mouthpiece (and apparently never with an M.C. Gregory piece). If you like his recordings, and you think that the mouthpiece makes the player, you don't want a Gale mouthpiece, you just need a mouthpiece with three white dots (I'll show how that was done at the end of the blog). I'm guessing that you would be better off with a stencil from Riffault. Play what Mulligan played when he made his name.
There is, of course, still some confusion with Gale mouthpieces being conflated with M.C. Gregory mouthpieces. We've seen that in the multi-part blog about Rico Products producing Gregory pieces and being temporarily involved with Gale Products. But since both brands all had metal shank bands on the baritone pieces, they are clearly not the mouthpiece being played by Mr. Mulligan in most of the pictures shown above.
Judy Beechler Roan has the original M.C. Gregory brand chamber plugs for alto, tenor, and baritone. They are shown below in their cardboard tubes stamped with the Rico diamond and Gregory trademarks.
Notice that we can see the flat "window" areas of these Gregory size 18 chamber plugs (on the top left and middle right). That is the area that the reed would eventually cover up on a finished mouthpiece. The M.C. Gregory chamber plugs had a threaded hole in that area. The real Gregory molds have not yet been located, so it isn't clear exactly how these plugs were fastened into the mold for compression of the uncured rubber.
Here is a picture of a baritone mold sold as part of the estate of Charles Bay and likely acquired from Cesar Tschudin, a Los Angeles jewelry salesman, who bought some molds and inventory from Gale Products, Inc. when it went out of business in 1949.
The "ring" on the shank end of the mold creates the shape that will later hold the metal band used on all Gale baritone mouthpieces. It would not be possible to cast a Gale baritone mouthpiece without the indentation.
Notice that the window area of this plug passes out through the mold and is secured in place through machined pin holes. It may be possible to produce a banded Gale baritone mouthpiece with this mold, but the actual M.C. Gregory baritone chamber plugs could not work with this mold. The mold can't produce a Gregory baritone piece because it can't use the Gregory chamber plug (which is in Judy Beechler Roan's attic). And it most certainly could not produce a piece identical to the baritone mouthpiece(s) that Mulligan played most of his career (as we have seen above) because it would have to have a metal band to fill in the void left by the mold.
Here are two pictures of what an"un-banded" Gregory or Gale mouthpiece would look like when it came out of the mold or if the band had fallen off (as happened with this one).
The mold forms the indentation that will later receive a thin brass band. You simply cannot have a Gregory or Gale baritone mouthpiece with the shank shape shown in the early Mulligan photos above. If a band were placed on a baritone shank that did not have the mold indentation, it would stand proud of the rest of the shank and also clearly not be a mouthpiece from a Gale or Gregory mold.
If you look closely at the Mulligan pictures above, it does look like the mouthpieces that he was playing at one point had the three white dots on them like those used on some Gale brand mouthpieces. But not all Gale embossed mouthpieces started out as Gale produced mouthpieces. By that I mean that we know that Gale marketed mouthpiece using blanks obtained from other wholesalers. Here are some Gale mouthpieces made from blanks sourced from Babbitt and Riffault.
Bay/Gale also used Riffault blanks (one actually embossed with Riffault).
Below is a Gale branded mouthpiece that was not originally a "Three Dot" being made into a Three Dot. This is from the estate of Charles Bay.
A Gale 440 being transformed into a Gale Three Dot. Tap three holes and insert a white filler. Thus, a Gale Three Dot baritone mouthpiece can be made from blanks obtained from any manufacturer. The Gale name and three white dots can be added to any maker's blank, as was apparently done for Mr. Mulligan.
So what were the blanks used to make Mulligan's mouthpieces shown above? As I said above, it sure looks like a Riffault and doesn't have the metal band used on all Rico Gregory and Gale Products, Inc. baritone mouthpieces. It could be that Mulligan's blank was sourced from Riffault.
Someone who is willing to purchase a piece allegedly pressed from an old Gale mold based on a representation that it is essentially "Mulligan's M.C. Gregory mouthpiece" would likely disagree, despite the fact that Mulligan didn't play a Rico Gregory piece. For others, you might want to try a $60 vintage Riffault baritone piece first. That appears to be what Mulligan had. Tapping three holes and filling them with white plastic might be necessary to make it sound authentic. Maybe I'll try that with an old Riffault or Babbitt piece and see if I sound like Gerry.
A Riffault baritone piece with the thin shank, a "lip" between the shank and the barrel, and no metal band.Check out these well known pictures of Gerry at his finest.
No band on this long shank baritone mouthpiece. No band on this long shank mouthpiece, either.
What, no shank band again? Was this picture taken during the "he sounds like crap" phase of his career?
If you check out Mr. Mulligan's discography, you will see that, where there are pictures that show his mouthpiece, it is not a banded Rico or Gale. When he "meets" Ben Webster, Paul Desmond, etc., he is not recording with a banded Gale mouthpiece.
A very strange band on this baritone mouthpiece later in his career and, again, not the shank shape of either a Rico Gregory or a later Gale baritone mouthpiece. It does have the three white dots, but that doesn't mean that it is a standard Rico or later Gale mouthpiece, as we will see. And check out the difference in the shank length between this one and the one shown above.
Check out Mr. Mulligan's discography. Most of his recording career was not with a Gale mouthpiece (and apparently never with an M.C. Gregory piece). If you like his recordings, and you think that the mouthpiece makes the player, you don't want a Gale mouthpiece, you just need a mouthpiece with three white dots (I'll show how that was done at the end of the blog). I'm guessing that you would be better off with a stencil from Riffault. Play what Mulligan played when he made his name.
There is, of course, still some confusion with Gale mouthpieces being conflated with M.C. Gregory mouthpieces. We've seen that in the multi-part blog about Rico Products producing Gregory pieces and being temporarily involved with Gale Products. But since both brands all had metal shank bands on the baritone pieces, they are clearly not the mouthpiece being played by Mr. Mulligan in most of the pictures shown above.
Judy Beechler Roan has the original M.C. Gregory brand chamber plugs for alto, tenor, and baritone. They are shown below in their cardboard tubes stamped with the Rico diamond and Gregory trademarks.
Notice that we can see the flat "window" areas of these Gregory size 18 chamber plugs (on the top left and middle right). That is the area that the reed would eventually cover up on a finished mouthpiece. The M.C. Gregory chamber plugs had a threaded hole in that area. The real Gregory molds have not yet been located, so it isn't clear exactly how these plugs were fastened into the mold for compression of the uncured rubber.
Here is a picture of a baritone mold sold as part of the estate of Charles Bay and likely acquired from Cesar Tschudin, a Los Angeles jewelry salesman, who bought some molds and inventory from Gale Products, Inc. when it went out of business in 1949.
The "ring" on the shank end of the mold creates the shape that will later hold the metal band used on all Gale baritone mouthpieces. It would not be possible to cast a Gale baritone mouthpiece without the indentation.Notice that the window area of this plug passes out through the mold and is secured in place through machined pin holes. It may be possible to produce a banded Gale baritone mouthpiece with this mold, but the actual M.C. Gregory baritone chamber plugs could not work with this mold. The mold can't produce a Gregory baritone piece because it can't use the Gregory chamber plug (which is in Judy Beechler Roan's attic). And it most certainly could not produce a piece identical to the baritone mouthpiece(s) that Mulligan played most of his career (as we have seen above) because it would have to have a metal band to fill in the void left by the mold.
Here are two pictures of what an"un-banded" Gregory or Gale mouthpiece would look like when it came out of the mold or if the band had fallen off (as happened with this one).
The mold forms the indentation that will later receive a thin brass band. You simply cannot have a Gregory or Gale baritone mouthpiece with the shank shape shown in the early Mulligan photos above. If a band were placed on a baritone shank that did not have the mold indentation, it would stand proud of the rest of the shank and also clearly not be a mouthpiece from a Gale or Gregory mold.
If you look closely at the Mulligan pictures above, it does look like the mouthpieces that he was playing at one point had the three white dots on them like those used on some Gale brand mouthpieces. But not all Gale embossed mouthpieces started out as Gale produced mouthpieces. By that I mean that we know that Gale marketed mouthpiece using blanks obtained from other wholesalers. Here are some Gale mouthpieces made from blanks sourced from Babbitt and Riffault.
Bay/Gale also used Riffault blanks (one actually embossed with Riffault).Below is a Gale branded mouthpiece that was not originally a "Three Dot" being made into a Three Dot. This is from the estate of Charles Bay.
A Gale 440 being transformed into a Gale Three Dot. Tap three holes and insert a white filler. Thus, a Gale Three Dot baritone mouthpiece can be made from blanks obtained from any manufacturer. The Gale name and three white dots can be added to any maker's blank, as was apparently done for Mr. Mulligan.So what were the blanks used to make Mulligan's mouthpieces shown above? As I said above, it sure looks like a Riffault and doesn't have the metal band used on all Rico Gregory and Gale Products, Inc. baritone mouthpieces. It could be that Mulligan's blank was sourced from Riffault.
Someone who is willing to purchase a piece allegedly pressed from an old Gale mold based on a representation that it is essentially "Mulligan's M.C. Gregory mouthpiece" would likely disagree, despite the fact that Mulligan didn't play a Rico Gregory piece. For others, you might want to try a $60 vintage Riffault baritone piece first. That appears to be what Mulligan had. Tapping three holes and filling them with white plastic might be necessary to make it sound authentic. Maybe I'll try that with an old Riffault or Babbitt piece and see if I sound like Gerry.
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