Centennial - Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans

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Centennial - Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans
Studio album by Ryan Truesdell

Publication
(s)

2012

Label (s) ArtistShare

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

Modern jazz

Title (number)

10

running time

74:10

occupation

production

Ryan Truesdell

Studio (s)

Avatar Studios, SoundPure Studios, Durham, North Carolina (2), Market Street Studios, Santa Monica, CA (10)

Claude Thornill, approx. 1947.
Photo: Gottlieb .

Centennial - Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans is a jazz album by Ryan Truesdell . It contains (almost exclusively) previously unreleased arrangements by pianist and bandleader Gil Evans , which were recorded in August 2011 and published on ArtistShare on May 13, 2012, the hundredth birthday of Gil Evans. It was nominated twice for the 2013 Grammy Award at the end of 2012 , in the categories of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album and Best Instrumental Arrangement .

Prehistory of the Centennial Project

Truesdell, who grew up in Wisconsin and obtained a Masters in Jazz Composition from the New England Conservatory , worked with Maria Schneider for eight years as a composer, arranger, copyist and co-producer. The band leader, who had worked with Evans in the latter years, was Truesdell's first link with Evans; During his work with Maria Schneider, he spent several years researching Gil Evans' work with friends, students and family, which led to the discovery of various, previously unpublished arrangements. Truesdell on his research:

“This project started in a selfish way […] I wanted to learn more about Gil for my own benefit. Many of the Evans arrangements available were inaccurate transcriptions . I had to get to the source. "

Truesdell said in an interview in 2011 about his motives:

“My main goal is to show the real Gil Evans and all that he's made. […] When people think of Gil Evans, they immediately think of those four albums he made with Miles Davis , especially Sketches of Spain and Porgy and Bess . But this is only a short period in the middle of his career. The important thing is to see what he was doing before getting there and what he was accomplishing afterwards. For example this Lucy Reed record - this is a beautiful record with a very unique instrumentation, but only a few knew about it. I want to change this. I want Gil's music to be replayed in a way that honors him and played the way he intended, whose music brings it into the lives of today's generation. The aim is to celebrate Gil for who he was and for the sheer beauty and genius he brought to his arranging, composing and the music as a whole. "

Truesdell was the first outside the Evans family to have access to the family archives containing Evans' manuscripts; he found many compositions and arrangements that were long forgotten and never recorded. Realizing that the family archive was incomplete, Truesdell searched for records from Evans' early work with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra; Truesdell found this in the Thornhill Collection in the Drury University Library in Springfield, Missouri . He also researched the material of musicians who had worked with Evans, such as Howard Johnson and Gil Goldstein , also in the Library of Congress .

“So I started to collect all this music,” said Truedell in an interview in 2011, “now I have over fifty pieces from Gil's entire career that were never recorded. Incredible! At that point I decided this music needed to be shared and recorded, so I decided to start the Gil Evans Centennial Project . "

After he had found complete arrangements and drafts, Maria Schneider encouraged him to record this: “ People needed to hear this stuff, I needed to hear this stuff. “These arrangements range from 1946 to 1971, five of which are from Evans' work with the Thornhill Orchestra. Truesdell said of his preoccupation with the documents:

“I wondered if I should just make a Thornhill album because everything Gil did was from the Thornhill band. That was his workshop where he tried new things, like harmonies of the French impressionists . He wrote a tremendous number of arrangements for Thornhill ... only half of them were actually recorded. "

The Centennial project soloists include Frank Kimbrough , Steve Wilson , Dave Pietro , Greg Gisbert , Scott Robinson , Donny McCaslin , Joe Locke and Marshall Gilkes . The rhythm section consists of guitarists James Chirillo and Romero Lubambo , pianist Frank Kimbrough, bassist Jay Anderson , drummer Lewis Nash and percussionist Mike Truesdell.

The Gil Evans project would be funded through upfront subscription to ArtistShare. The orchestral passages were recorded by sound engineer James Farber in the Avatar Studios in New York; the orchestra recordings took place between August 24th and 26th, 2011. The recordings lasted ten days in total. Truesdell and his musicians presented the Centennial project to the public as part of the Gil Evans anniversary celebrations in May 2012 with a series of concerts; the Gil Evans Project Ensemble performed four evenings at New York's Jazz Standard club . This was followed by appearances at the Italian Umbria Jazz Festival in July 2012 and at the Newport Jazz Festival on August 5th .

Music of the album

Evans created the title of the album for different line-ups, between nine and 24 voices; the arrangements were written between 1946 and 1971. The album begins with Punjab , which was originally intended for Evans' album The Individualism of Gil Evans (Verve, 1964), but has been discarded. Truesdall made this recording even though the found arrangement was not notated out for the rhythm section after he heard the tapes with the rehearsals by adding a tabla due to discrepancies in the rhythm section . Dan Weiss' tabla playing, Frank Kimbrough on piano and Steve Wilson on alto saxophone are featured.

Kurt Weill's Barbara song is featured in Evans' arrangement from 1971, which the bandleader wrote for the 24-piece Berlin Dream Band (plus guest soloists Steve Lacy and Karl Berger ) and performed with them at the Berlin Jazz Festival. The orchestra's sound is determined by the oboe , bassoon , French horn and English horn ; vibraphonist Joe Locke emerges as soloist . For the arrangement of The Maids of Cadiz , Truesdell used the version that Evans first wrote for Thornhill's band in 1950; but the later version on the Miles Davis album Miles Ahead (Columbia, 1957) became known; The soloists here are Greg Gisbert with the stuffed trumpet, Frank Kimbrough on the piano and alto saxophonist Dave Pietro. Truesdell said of this version:

“It's much longer, is modulated a few times , and has a faster pace . It's also interesting to see what parts he carried over into the later Miles [Davis] version. I found several examples of pieces that he in 1945, '46, wrote '47 and which he later used in the course of his career - for example, a melodic motif , which he had written in an arrangement for Thornhill, he built later in Nobody's Heart , a . These new discoveries therefore shed new light on Gil's development. "

Titles associated with Evans' work for Thornhill also include How About You? , Who'll Buy My Violets , with Scott Robinson on clarinet, and the swinging Dancing On a Great Big Rainbow . How About You was recorded live by Thornhill in 1947, but does not exist in a studio version; Truesdell uses the flute / piccolo section that Evans added. Truesdell described the unusual arrangement:

“The arrangement has bebop lines and complex cross rhythms between the different parts, with three piccolos on top. How many big bands played bebop with three piccolo flutes in 1947? "

The arrangement of Who'll Buy My Violets , which Evans wrote for Thornhill in 1950, is dominated by a relaxed bolero tempo. He is an example of Evans' art, an ordinary title from the 1920s (this was by Tommy Dorsey and the version in the 1930s, Pat Boone known from the 1950s) and harmoniously to change so that he fell out of the current standard. Robinson's clarinet and Kimbroughs piano create short lyrical interludes. Dancing on a Great Big Rainbow is an original composition by Evans that was part of the band repertoire of Claude Thornhill, Les Brown and Tommy Dorsey, but has never been recorded. Oppressive harmonies and complex ensemble passages contrast with McCaslin's energetic solo; there are also contributions from Kimbrough and Gisbert; the arrangement is reminiscent of West Coast jazz tracks .

Jay Anderson, 2011 in Innsbruck

There are also three vocal titles that Gil Evans originally arranged for different singers; Kate McGarry interprets Smoking My Sad Cigarette in the arrangement that Evans wrote for Lucy Reed , but was not used by Lucy Reed . Originally a blues, which was recorded by Jo Stafford in 1952 , Evans created an unusual setting for the singer and an octet with bass clarinet , bassoon , bass trombone , tenor violin and even piccolo .

Beg Your Pardon arranged for Thornhill by Evans in 1946; the pop song is interpreted in the lively girl-singer style of the 1940s by Wendy Gilles. Luciana Souza closes the album with the Yip-Harburg / Burton-Lane song Look to the Rainbow , which Gil Evans had arranged for Astrud Gilberto . However, the arrangement for the title track of the album Look to the Rainbow was not used in 1965. Romero Lubambo plays an introduction on acoustic guitar, Jay Anderson a solo on double bass; the harmonies are dominated by flutes, french horn, trombone, bassoon, tuba and trumpet.

Waltz / Variation on the Misery / So Long is a nearly five hundred bars long medley of three Evans compositions that Evans arranged for the Berlin Dream Band in 1971 and performed at the Berlin Jazz Days. Each of the three titles was recorded separately by Gil Evans in the studio, but not as a whole in this form, which for Truesdell represents the magnum opus by Evans. In Waltz there is an interplay between Locke's vibraphone and Kimbrough's piano before the brass section begins; after unison passages and counter lines, Marshall Gilkes has a trombone solo. Variation on the Misery (based on characters played by Phil Woods on The Individualism of Gil Evans in the piece "Spoonful") reminds Scott Albin of parts of Duke Ellington's Far East Suite (1966) with its timbres in the lower registers . The medley ends in So Long with an alto saxophone solo by Steve Wilson.

Lewis Nash in New Haven, CT 2007

Track list

  • Ryan Truesdell: Centennial - Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans (ArtistShare - AS 0114)
  1. Punjab (Gil Evans) - 14:20 - Soloists: Steve Wilson, Frank Kimbrough, Dan Weiss
  2. Smoking My Sad Cigarette ( Bee Walker , Don George ) - 4:23 - Soloist: Kate McGarry
  3. The Maids of Cadiz ( Léo Delibes ) - 6:20 - Soloists: Dave Pietro, Frank Kimbrough, Greg Gisbert
  4. How About You ( Burton Lane , Ralph Freed ) - 3:06 - Soloists: Scott Robinson, Frank Kimbrough, Greg Gisbert
  5. Barbara Song ( Kurt Weill ) - 11:52 - Soloist: Joe Locke
  6. Who'll Buy My Violets ( Ray Goetz , José Padilla ) - 3:55 - Soloists: Scott Robinson, Frank Kimbrough
  7. Dancing On a Great Big Rainbow (Gil Evans) - 3:23 - Soloists: Frank Kimbrough, Donny McCaslin, Greg Gisbert
  8. Beg Your Pardon ( Beasley Smith , Francis Craig ) - 2:53 - Soloists: Dave Pietro, Wendy Gilles
  9. Waltz / Variation on The Misery / So Long (Evans) - 19:02 - Soloists: Steve Wilson, Donny McCaslin, Marshall Gilkes, Joe Locke
  10. Look to the Rainbow ( Burton Lane , EY Harburg ) - 4:14 - Soloists: Jay Anderson, Luciana Souza

reception

The album received consistently positive reviews; Radio France called Centennial - Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans as " l'un des évènements discographiques de l'année " Nate Chinen praised it in the New York Times as "an exceptional album." And Scott Albin held it in Jazz Times for " one of the most important jazz releases of 2012. “Also in JazzTimes, Thomas Conrad made the connection with Evans own achievements:

“ The greatest jazz musicians are revered. A few of the greatest jazz musicians are beloved. Gil Evans was beloved, and not just for his masterpieces, like Out of the Cool and Sketches of Spain. Almost any Evans arrangement explores emotions that listeners had once assumed were unique to themselves. For many people, Evans is personal. The elusive beauty of his arrangements hints at what life might have been. "
Romero Lubambo 2006

Ken Dryden rated the album four (out of five) stars on Allmusic , highlighting Truesdell's accomplishment in exposing, adapting (where necessary) and performing these long-forgotten arrangements. It is clear that the musicians involved are taking part in Truesdell's project by fully exploiting the potential of Gil Evans' timeless arrangements.

Kevin Whitehead wrote on National Public Radio , "In this case, the reboot beats the original - it's more textured, instrumental, and vocal." This revival band may sound a little less lively, which may be because these players haven't been long into the music be familiar. Even if you first listen to Evans 'own Out of the Cool or The Individualism of Gil Evans or Miles Davis ' Sketches of Spain or Porgy and Bess , this album is the next best that has what it takes to become a classic Gil Evans album.

In Edward Blanco's opinion, Ryan Truesdell uncovered “a treasure trove, a treasure trove of music, when he searched the archives. One can only wonder what future treasures he will reveal and can only hope that he will do so and call the same musicians that he has hired for this excellent project ”.

Dan Bilawsky writes in All About Jazz that Centennial is both "tribute, archaeological unveiling and career-spanning imitation, all three of which complement each other perfectly to make a brilliant album." [...] "All ten tracks that made it onto this album are." not only appropriate examples of Evans' brilliant use of the pen, but also serve as a guide to Truesdell's vision. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alternative title: Centennial: Ryan Truesdell Presents Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Thomas Conrad: Ryan Truesdell: Unearthing the Cool - Bringing newly discovered Gil Evans music to life (2012) in JazzTimes
  3. ↑ a b c d Victor Schermer: Ryan Truesdell: The Gil Evans Project (interview with Ryan Truesdell 2011) in All About Jazz
  4. ^ Grammy nominations 2013
  5. ↑ In the original: This project began selfishly […] I wanted to learn more about Gil for my own benefit. Many of the available Evans arrangements were inaccurate transcriptions. I needed to go to the source.
  6. ↑ In the original: My main purpose is to show the true Gil Evans and everything he did. As you said earlier, when people think of Gil Evans, they immediately think of those four records he did with Miles Davis, especially Sketches of Spain and Porgy and Bess. But that only represents a short time in the middle of his career. It's important to look at what he did before he got there, and what he accomplished afterwards. For example, that Lucy Reed record that I mentioned earlier — it's a beautiful record with a very unique instrumentation, but very few people are familiar with it. I want to change that. I want to have Gil's music performed again in a way that honors him and how he intended it to be performed, bringing his music into the lives of the present generation. The goal is to celebrate Gil for who he was and the sheer beauty and genius he brought to his arranging, composing, and music as a whole.
  7. ↑ In the original: So I started amassing all this music, and now I have over 50 pieces throughout Gil's entire career that have never been recorded. Amazing! That's when I decided that this music had to be shared and had to be recorded, so I decided to start the Gil Evans Centennial Project.
  8. ^ In the original: " I struggled with whether I should do only a Thornhill record, everything Gil did came out of the Thornhill band. It was his workshop where he tried new things, like French Impressionist harmonies. He did an enormous number of arrangements for Thornhill. ... Only about half of them were ever recorded. "
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h Scott Albin: Centennial-- Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project (2012) in ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. JazzTimes  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / jazztimes.com
  10. ↑ Hilary Brown: New York's Highline Ballroom To Host Gil Evans Centennial Concert on May 21 in Downbeat ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.downbeat.com
  11. ^ In addition to appearing in the New York Jazz Standard , Truesdell played the music of Out of the Cool (Impulse !, 1960); there was also a concert with Thornhill music, where u. a. and Phil Woods , Frank Kimbrough and Andy Bey participated. Truesdell also performed Gil Evans' arrangements for Cannonball Adderley with musicians from the Eastman School of Music . See interview with V. Schermer 2011
  12. ↑ Truesdall writes in the liner notes : “I immediately heard why Gil never wanted these tapes to be realized. ... The performance was a bit rough, and there was something in the groove from the rhythm section that just didn't seem to fit into the arrangement. ... I have to unify the rhythm section with the rest of the orchestra. "
  13. ↑ In the original: It's much longer, modulates a few times, and is at a faster tempo. It's interesting to see what parts he took from that to use in the Miles version, too. I've found that there are many instances of things he wrote in 1945, '46, '47 that he reuses later on in his career — for example, a melodic motive he wrote in an arrangement he did for Thornhill that he later incorporated into "Nobody's Heart." These new discoveries really shed a new light on Gil's history.
  14. ↑ In the original: " The chart has bebop lines and complex cross rhythms trading between different sections, with three piccolos on top. How many big bands were playing bebop with three piccolos in 1947? "
  15. ↑ Dan Bilawsky: Ryan Truesdell: Centennial - Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans (2012) in All About Jazz
  16. ↑ so in the liner notes.
  17. ↑ Centennial - Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans at Discogs
  18. ↑ Gil Evans, par Alex Dutilh, avec Ryan Truesdell (20/20) at Radio France ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sites.radiofrance.fr
  19. ^ Nate Chinen: Showcasing a Jazz Legacy From Big Band to Hendrix (2012) in The New York Times
  20. ↑ Review of Ken Dryden's album at Allmusic (English)
  21. ↑ Kevin Whitehead: Digging Up The 'Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans' in NPR
  22. ^ Edward Blanco: Ryan Truesdell: Centennial - Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans (2012) in All About Jazz
  23. ↑ Dan Bilawsky: Ryan Truesdell: Centennial - Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans (2012) in All About Jazz