Evans (left) with guitarist at, New York City, 1982 Background information Birth name Ian Ernest Gilmore Green Born ( 1912-05-13)May 13, 1912, Canada Died March 20, 1988 ( 1988-03-20) (aged 75), Mexico Genres, Occupation(s) Musician, composer, arranger, bandleader Instruments Piano Years active 1933–88 Labels, Associated acts, Website Ian Ernest Gilmore ' Gil' Evans (born Green; May 13, – March 20, ) was a Canadian pianist, composer and. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role in the development of, and. He is best known for his acclaimed collaborations with. Contents. Early life Born in, Canada, his name was changed early on from Green to Evans, the name of his stepfather. His family moved to where he spent most of his youth.
After 1946, he lived and worked primarily in, living for many years. Career Between 1941 and 1948, Evans worked as an arranger for the Orchestra. Even then, early in his career, his arrangements were such a challenge to musicians that bassist Bill Crow recalled that bandleader Thornhill would bring out Evans’s arrangements “when he wanted to punish the band.” Evans' modest basement apartment behind a New York City Chinese laundry soon became a meeting place for musicians looking to develop new musical styles outside of the dominant style of the day. Those present included the leading bebop performer, as well as and. In 1948, Evans, with, Mulligan, and others, collaborated on a band book for a nonet.
These ensembles, larger than the trio-to-quintet 'combos', but smaller than the 'big bands' which were on the brink of economic inviability, allowed arrangers to have a larger palette of colors by using and. Had employed hornist in 1942, and composer-arranger had scored for horns and tubas with the orchestra, but the 'Kenton sound' was in the context of a dense orchestral wall of sound that Evans avoided. The Miles Davis-led group was booked for a week at the ' as an intermission group on the bill with the Orchestra. Recorded 12 numbers by the nonet at three sessions in 1949 and 1950. These recordings were reissued on a 1957 Miles Davis LP titled.
Later, while Davis was under contract with, producer suggested that Davis could work with any of several arrangers. Davis immediately chose Evans. The three albums that resulted from the collaboration are (1957), (1958), and (1960). Another collaboration from this period, (1962) was issued later, against the wishes of Davis, who broke with his then-producer for a time as a result. Although these four records were marketed primarily under Davis's name (and credited to Miles Davis with Orchestra Under the Direction of Gil Evans), Evans's contribution was as important as Davis's. Their work coupled Evans's classic jazz stylings and arrangements with Davis's solo playing. Evans also contributed behind the scenes to Davis' classic quintet albums of the 1960s.
The demands of the score for were legendary, from the very first note for the lead trumpet. The limited time allotted for rehearsals revealed that the ability to read such a challenging score was not consistent among jazz musicians, and there are many audible errors. Yet the recording is now regarded by many as one of the greatest reinterpretations of 's music in any musical style, because Evans and Davis were each devoted to going outside the 'mainstream' of commercial expectations for jazz musicians. Evans was a great influence on Davis's interest in 'non-jazz' music, especially orchestral music. Unfortunately, Evans's orchestral scores from the Porgy and Bess sessions were later found to be incomplete (or simply lost), and and attempted to reconstruct these for Miles Davis's final 1991 concerts at, recorded as.
Davis had relented after years of refusing to revisit this material, but he was clearly ill, recovering from, and trumpeter, who was mentored by Davis, covered many of the challenging passages. Davis died before the release of the album. From 1957 onwards Evans recorded albums under his own name. Tubist and trumpeter Louis Mucci from Thornhill's band were both stalwarts in Evans's early ensembles, with Mucci finding a spot on nearly every pre1980s Evans recording. Among the featured soloists on these records were, and. In 1965 he arranged the big band tracks on 's album.
Evans was explicitly influenced by Spanish composers and, and by other Latin and Brazilian music, as well as by German expatriate. His arrangements of pieces already well known to some listeners from their original cabaret, concert hall or Broadway stage arrangements, revealed aspects of the music in a wholly original way. Sometimes in an unexpected contrast to the original atmosphere of the piece, and sometimes taking a dark ballad such as Weill's 'Barbara Song' into an even darker place.
The personnel list for (1964), not only features and hornists and (along with two others), but each section features the cream of the younger (some more classically trained) musicians who were making their names in jazz. The presence of four of the most acclaimed young bassists (, and ) along with veteran would ordinarily indicate that each is used individually for separate tracks, but Evans's scores usually required at least two bassists on any given track, some playing arco (with the bow) and some pizzicato (plucking with fingers, the standard jazz method). These arrangements frequently featured greatly slowed-down tempos with percussion and no prevailing 'beat'. To his by-now standard French horns and tuba, Evans's scores added and, and; orchestral instruments not associated with 'swing' bands, providing a larger pallette of orchestral colors, and allowing him to attain the ethereal quality heard in his arrangements during his Thornhill days. He frequently wrote a part for the of. Yet, this album featured an orchestral arrangement of ' by bluesman, an early indication of Evans's breadth and a hint of things to come.
In 1966 he recorded an album with Brazilian singer,. He was discouraged by the commercial direction was taking with the Gilberto sessions, and he went into a period of hiatus.
During this period while he was somewhat depressed about the commercial and logistical difficulties of his previous scoring requirements, his wife suggested that he listen to the guitarist. Evans developed a particular interest in the work of the rock guitarist. Evans gradually built another orchestra in the 1970s, with none of the coloration instruments from his past arrangements. Working in the and idioms, he gained a new generation of admirers. These ensembles, rarely more than fifteen and frequently smaller, allowed him to make more contributions on keyboards, and with the development of truly portable, he began using these to provide additional color. Hendrix's 1970 death precluded a scheduled meeting with Evans to discuss having Hendrix collaborate with a big band led by Evans.
In 1974, he released an album of his arrangements of music by Hendrix, with guitarists and. From that date on, Evans's ensembles featured electric guitars and basses, including a notable collaboration with bassist.
In contrast to his intricate scores for large ensembles, which usually required precision orchestral playing wrapping around the 'traditional' solo 'break', his later arrangements might feature (more or less) unison playing by the entire ensemble, such as on Hendrix's ', with improvisational touches added throughout by the musicians completely. What is a perceptual motor programming. Live recordings demonstrate that entire pieces were collaborative efforts, and Evans can be heard giving cues from the keyboard (behind the band) to guide the band into a new section. Before the 1970s, his keyboard playing was sparse on recordings, because the intricacy of his music required that he conduct, but after the 1970s, he gradually moved from the front of the band back 'into' the band. (recorded 1971, released 1981) demonstrated his ability to contract the most accomplished musicians, with veterans Coles, and (who played the solo on the 'Where Flamingos Fly' track on 1961's ) alongside young multi-instrumentalist, synthesizer player (at that time still a member of ), and. In April 1983, the Gil Evans Orchestra was booked into the (, ) by jazz producer and Sweet Basil owner. This turned out to be a regular Monday night engagement for Evans for nearly five years and also resulted in the release of a number of successful albums by Gil Evans and the Monday Night Orchestra. Evans's ensemble featured many of the top-call musicians in New York, many of whom were also in the and there were many conflicts, so their 'deputies' for the night might be other world-class musicians.
Yet Evans was also known to let newcomers 'sit in' occasionally. The band also performed arrangements by band members, current and past. Stalwarts in this ensemble were, Mark Eagan, drummer Kenwood Dennard, saxophonist (no relation) and Gil Goldstein. In 1987, Evans recorded a live album with, featuring big band arrangements of songs by and with. In the same spirit of introducing new talent in his bands, he collaborated with with her as an apprentice arranger on this and other final projects.
Ryan Truesdell began the Gil Evans Project, which resulted in a 2012 CD entitled Centennial, featuring previously unrecorded compositions and arrangements. These were produced with the permission of the Gil Evans estate, who gave Truesdell access to these scores and materials. Miles Evans, Gil's son, also led the Gil Evans Orchestra for a centennial concert at New York's, featuring many of the musicians heard in the orchestra during Evans's lifetime.
Film music In 1986, Evans produced and arranged the soundtrack to the film of the book, thereby working with such contemporary artists as, 's Eighth Wonder, and. He also arranged the music for the 1986 film.
Personal life Evans first married following the 1949 recording sessions and was survived by his second wife Anita (Cooper) and two children, Noah and Miles. His son Miles played trumpet in his Monday Night Orchestra. Evans died of in, Mexico at the age of 75. Awards and honors. In 1986, Evans was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame.
Was created to be a specialist jazz label, a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records; Creed Taylor who had been hired to be an A&R man and producer for the parent company a few years earlier, was the man tasked with running the company. Taylor, a mild-mannered Southerner was the very antithesis of the fast talking, hustling New York executives that ran ABC-Paramount, was given the job of creating a distinctive sound for the label. It had been Harry Levine the A&R Director at ABC-Paramount who first recognised that Taylor’s approach was just what jazz artists needed and it was Levine’s studio time that Taylor used to complete his early jazz records for ABC-Paramount. One of the records that Levine’s studio time helped to create was, The Sound of New York by the Creed Taylor Orchestra.
Released on ABC-Paramount it is a musical evocation of the city and features a photo on the inner sleeve of a cinema showing a movie named Impulse. It was in late 1959 that Taylor began planning his new jazz label and initially he was going to call it Pulse records until he found out there was already a label of that name.
Settling on the name impulse! (the exclamation mark is al important) Taylor decided that to maximise his chances of success by not too tightly pigeonholing the jazz they recorded into one particular style. The first four releases featured trombonist Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson as well as another LP with just Winding, Genius + Soul = Jazz by and as AS-4, Gil Evans’s Out of the Cool.
If one album evokes the style, the ethos, and the vibe of impulse! Among these first four LPs it is Out of the Cool.
The 48 year old pianist, arranger and bandleader had done much to establish his reputation working with on his Birth of the Cool sessions in the late 1940s and the this impulse! Album’s title is a nice nod to its antecedent.
When Miles went to record for Columbia he called upon Evans for arrangements for his Miles Ahead(1957), Porgy and Bess(1958), and Sketches of Spain(1960) albums, the latter LP released 4 months before Out of the cool was recorded. Work began on this LP on 18 November 1960 at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs studio. On this day and again on 30 November three of the album’s tracks were completed by the fourteen piece band that Evans lead. Recording was completed on 10 and 15 December.
The musicians were, with the addition of drummer Elvin Jones, players that Evans worked with at a six-week engagement at the Jazz Gallery club in New York City. It features Evans on piano with Jones and bassists Ron Carter as the rhythm section are a fabulous horn section, with Ray Beckinstein, Budd Johnson, and Eddie Caine on saxophones, trombonists Jimmy Knepper, Keg Johnson, and bass trombonist Tony Studd, with Johnny Coles and Phil Sunkel on trumpet, Bill Barber on tuba, and Bob Tricarico on flute, bassoon, and piccolo. This album was a move towards greater freedom in Evans’ compositions and arrangements, but at the same time there are echoes of his recent work with Miles. It includes two great Evans compositions in ‘La Nevada’ and ‘Sunken Treasure.’ There’s the lovely standard, ‘Where Flamingos Fly’, George Russell's ‘Stratusphunk and Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's, ‘Bilbao Song’. The Penguin Guide to Jazz calls Out of the Cool, 'Evans' masterpiece under his own name and one of the best examples of jazz orchestration since the early Ellington bands'.
The Gil Evans Orchestra – Out of the Cool (Music On Vinyl MOVLP 1286. LP review by Andrew Cartmel) It is salutary to be reminded what a great writer Gil Evans was, and this Music on Vinyl reissue of Evans’s classic album provides the perfect occasion.
Recorded on Impulse in 1960 (one of the label’s very first releases) it was Evan’s fourth outing as a leader, in the wake of his successful collaborations with Miles Davis. The title evokes his first recordings with Miles, which collectively became known as The Birth of the Cool. But it’s more specifically a continuation of the work begun with Miles Ahead in 1957, a new kind of big band music, possessed of a machine-tooled polish — sophisticated, cool and modernist. The opening track of the album, La Nevada, is an extended (fifteen and a half minutes) film noir masterpiece. It begins with solo, mysterioso Morse-code piano from Evans, a signal of intent from a shadowy realm, then shakers creep in courtesy of the spectacular percussionist Charlie Persip. Upright bass from Ron Carter begins to give structure to the piece.
Drummer Elvin Jones picks up the Morse code on the cymbals. There’s a striking spatial sense to this recording as distant horns suggest themselves (trumpets by Johnny Coles, Phil Sunkel, tuba by Bill Barber).
The ensemble is now rolling with some notably wonderful guitar from Ray Crawford standing out from the mix. Crawford strums and preens. Then big, sinister trombones muscle in on the act ( Jimmy Knepper, Keg Johnson and Tony Study). Saxophone banditry ensues from Budd Johnson. There’s a dry hissing of the brushes on the cymbals from Elvin Jones and a gentle, exploratory flute by Ray Beckenstein.
Gil Evans provides caressing, descending runs on the piano. The surging, triumphant trombones show Evans’s exceptional talent for section writing. Johnny Coles’s cool, eloquent trumpet weaves through.
Then the guitar comes strumming into ascendancy again. Fat notes pour forth and the trombones wail sorrowfully underneath. Beckenstein’s flute soars serenely high above the proceedings, chirping like a fascinated bird. Gil Evans got his start working as an arranger for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra in 1941 and one of their first triumphs was Snowfall. ‘Nevada’ means snowfall in Spanish. But the power of the opening track shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow the beauty to be found elsewhere in this classic album.
Where Flamingos Fly has big swaggering trombone by Jimmy Knepper drunkenly regaling us with its lovely, melancholy tale, Eddie Caine’s flute sharpening the sound and adding deft highlights. Kurt Weill’s Bilbao Song displays delicate sifting of cymbals from Elvin Jones and a chorus of almost abstract horns. The abstraction continues with odd bubbling percussion by Charlie Persip, who is the hero of Sunken Treasure, which is a veritable tour de force for the percussionist. Elsewhere George Russell’s Stratusphunk returns to the dramatic film noir feel and offers spiky crime-jazz. Even more than the piano, the orchestra was Gil Evans’s instrument, and he never played it better than he does here. As it happens, it was possible to compare this new Music on Vinyl edition with a copy of the 1960 Impulse A-4 stereo first pressing (with the glossy AM-PAR label and a Rudy Van Gelder stamp).
Compared to the original, the Music on Vinyl acquits itself startlingly well. In fact it sounds very fine. While there is more subtlety, scale and immediacy to the Impulse, this reissue from half a century later is surprisingly, impressively good.
An outstanding success among recent reissues. If you want this great album on vinyl you shouldn’t hesitate.
Use cursor keys to browse Gil Evans Out Of The Cool US vinyl LP album (LP record) Tracklisting / Additional Info: 1. Where Flamingos Fly 3. Bilbao Song 4. Stratusphunk 5.
Sunken Treasure Condition: This item is in Excellent condition or better (unless it says otherwise in the above description). We buy items as close to Mint condition as possible and many will be unplayed and as close to new as you could hope to find. Irrespective of the source, all of our collectables meet our strict grading and are 100% guaranteed. Click for more info.
Availability: Sold Out - 'Request Next' to get an email if it comes back into stock. Year of Release: 1961 - 57 years old Artist: (click here for complete listing) Title: (click here for more of the same title) Postage/Shipping: for a postage/shipping quote Format: vinyl LP album (LP record) Record Label: Impulse! Catalogue No: AS-4 Country of Origin: USA Language: Regardless of country of origin all tracks are sung in English, unless otherwise stated in our description. Additional info: Deleted EIL.COM Ref No GIVLPOU442201 (quote this reference in any e-mails, letters, faxes or phone calls to help identify this item) Genres:, Related Artists: Complete Stock List: email: to contact our sales team.
Alternative Names: None To order by phone: Call 10 quoting EIL.COM reference number GIVLPOU442201. eil.com (also known as Esprit) has been the world's biggest and best seller of premium quality and top condition rare and vintage vinyl records, rare CD's and music memorabilia since 1985 - that's 31 years! And we are proud of it. We have over 500,000 happy customers in over 100 countries worldwide, are a platinum seller on Ebay and have an average positive rating of over 99% on Amazon sites worldwide. Your order will be shipped the same day (Monday to Friday) in custom made superior packaging.
All orders carry our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. If you don't like it, just send it back for a full refund. You can read some reviews from customers on. We're always on the phone to answer questions and help with any orders, Monday through Saturday. It is 100% safe and secure to order from us as we have been independently verified by GEOTRUST and your data is transmitted using 128 bit encryption with 'Extended Validation SSL' achieving the highest level of consumer trust through using the strictest authentication standard.
See the padlock symbol shown by most browsers when you checkout. Your data is transmitted to us using GEOTRUST 128 bit encryption to ensure it is 100% secure and cannot be intercepted. GEOTRUST have also verified our company information.
The Gil Evans Orchestra
Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit Transcript TERRY GROSS, HOST: This year marks the centennial of the birth of the prominent jazz arranger and composer Gil Evans. He started writing for big bands in the 1940s.
He helped organize Miles Davis' 'Birth of the Cool' sessions, and then arranged Miles' celebrated orchestra albums like 'Sketches of Spain.' Evans also had his own big bands that went electric in the '70s and '80s. Gil Evans died in 1991, but some of his rare music has been newly recorded. Our critic Kevin Whitehead has a review. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, 'PUNJA') KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Gil Evans' composition 'Punja,' previously known only by reputation.
His early '60s band used to rehearse it, but never made a good recording. This new version's from the album 'Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans,' led by Evans scholar and fan Ryan Truesdell. These rarities date from the mid-1940s to the mid-'60s. Even the music Gil Evans wrote for swing bands was sleek and airy. A godfather of cool jazz, he could make dissonance sound pretty, vanilla chords sound exotic, and a big band seem to float. This is a 1950 tune he wrote for Tommy Dorsey, 'Dancing on a Great Big Rainbow.'
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, 'DANCING ON A GREAT BIG RAINBOW') WHITEHEAD: Ryan Truesdell's 14-piece orchestra with Donny McCaslin on tenor saxophone and Lewis Nash on drums. Truesdell's research turned up unheard Gil Evans scores, revised versions of a couple of pieces he'd already recorded, and one arrangement that looks forward to his collaborations with Miles Davis.
A setting of Delibes' pop classic 'The Maids of Cadiz' dates from 1950, seven years before the hushed version on 'Miles Ahead.' (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, 'THE MAIDS OF CADIZ') WHITEHEAD: Greg Gisbert on trumpet. Other soloists on the session include Steve Wilson on alto sax, Frank Kimbrough on piano and Joe Locke on vibes. The album 'Centennial' also features three fine singers.
Given the current crop of cooing, low-key jazz vocalists, these Gil Evans revivals are perfectly timed. He'd arranged the torch song 'Smoking My Sad Cigarette' for the emotive singer Lucy Reed in 1957, though she didn't record it.
Kate McGarry's approach is suitably smoldering. I love that sustained piccolo note behind her, which is in the original score: the sound of a smoke alarm, decades too early. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, 'SMOKING MY SAD CIGARETTE') KATE MCGARRY: (Singing) Seems like someone knocking.
Can you stop your rocking? But it's just the window blind. Lord, the night is haunted, when you are wanted. Your heart goes out of its mind. Looking out the window, smoking my sad cigarette. The blue smoke rings. WHITEHEAD: Gil Evans wrote such transparent, quietly lovely harmonies.
He was a natural for showcasing singers - the cooler, the better. In the '60s, he arranged 'Look to the Rainbow,' from the show 'Finian's Rainbow,' for the cool Brazilian Astrud Gilberto, who recorded a bare-bones version instead.
On the remake, Luciana Souza crosses Gilberto with her onetime teacher, Dominique Eade. The singing's lovely, but check out those backgrounds. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, 'LOOK TO THE RAINBOW') LUCIANA SOUZA: (Singing) So I bundled my heart, and I roamed the world free, to the east with the lark, to the west with the sea. And I searched all the earth, and I scanned all the skies. But I found it at last in my own true love's eyes. Look, look, look to the rainbow.
Follow it over the hills and the streams. WHITEHEAD: In this case, the reboot beats the original. It's more richly textured, instrumentally and vocally. Gil Evans' orchestral music was about more than the notes on the page. He was proactive in the studio, coaxing the musicians along and changing details on the fly.
Free Build your own football stadium online games, Build Your Own Room, Draw Your Own Cartoon, Create Your Own Superhero, Design Your Own Dress. Make your own football stadium game. Play online create your own football stadium games for free on PlayAllFreeOnlineGames.com, the largest source of free Create Your Own Football Stadium games, girl games. Free Build your own stadium online games, Build Your Own Room, Draw Your Own Cartoon, Create Your Own Superhero, Design Your Own Dress, Build.
As with other jazz composers whose music survives them, this revival band can sound a little less vivid than the real thing, maybe because these players hadn't lived with the music long. So you wouldn't want to pick up 'Centennial' before Evans' own 'Out of the Cool' or 'The Individualism of Gil Evans' or Miles Davis' 'Sketches of Spain' or 'Porgy and Bess.' But it's the next best thing to a classic Gil Evans record. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) GROSS: Kevin Whitehead is a jazz columnist for emusic.com and the author of 'Why Jazz?' He reviewed the newly discovered works of Gil Evans by the Ryan Truesdell orchestra.
They'll perform Gil Evans' music at the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island this Sunday. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.