CiTR

Gil Evans place in Jazz history was essentially made alongside Miles Davis. Beginning with the famous Miles Davis nonet that recorded for Capital Records in 1949-50 as "The Birth Of The Cool" and then later in the 50's and 60's with a trio of albums recorded by Miles Davis with the Gil Evans Orchestra: "Miles Ahead", "Porgy and Bess" and "Sketches of Spain" and to a lesser extent "Quiet Nights". These collaborations brought fame to Gil Evans and in 1960 he decided to form his own band where he conducted and played piano and through a 6 week engagement at a New York club called The Jazz Gallery in Greenwich Village, he took the band into the studio to record for a new label called "Impulse Records" run at the time by producer extraordinaire, Creed Taylor. They produced this classic statement called "Out Of The Cool". Gil's hand picked band featured some great soloists like trumpeter Johnny Coles ('Little Johnny C'),bass trombonist Tony Studd and trombone great Jimmy Knepper, tenor saxophonist Budd Johnson, underrated guitarist Ray Crawford, powerhouse drummer Elvin Jones and Mr. Evans himself conducting and playing piano. Intricate ensemble passages abound with the use of bassoons, flutes, piccolos etc. Ron Carter is on bass and Charli Persip adds some effective percussion sounds. The tunes are by different composers but all have the Gil Evans touch as he arranged everything here. He wrote two tunes ("La Nevada" and "Sunken Treasure"), there is one by Weill and Brecht ("Bilbao Song"), two by Jazzers Horace Silver and George Russell ("Sister Sadie" and "Stratusphunk") and a beautiful obscure ballad called "Where Flamingos Fly" featuring Jimmy Knepper. All of this adds up to a truly classic album and one of the finest statements by the legendary Gil Evans. Incidentally, Mr Evans was born in Toronto, Canada on May 13,1912 and died in Cuernavaca, Mexico on March 13, 1988 at age 76.