Gil Evans and Ten
| Gil Evans and Ten | ||||
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| Gil Evans studio album | ||||
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| Label (s) | Prestigious | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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Title (number) |
7th |
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running time |
32:59 |
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Studio (s) |
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Gil Evans and Ten is a jazz album by Gil Evans , recorded on September 6th, 27th and October 10th, 1957 in the studio of Rudy Van Gelder in Hackensack, New Jersey and released on Prestige Records .
The album
Gil Evans and Ten , also released by Prestige as Big Stuff and Gil Evans + Ten , was the first album by the band leader, arranger, composer and pianist Gil Evans under his own name. It contains his arrangements of standards by Leadbelly , Irving Berlin , Rodgers and Hart , Leonard Bernstein and Cole Porter , Tadd Dameron and an original composition by Evans, Jambangle . Contributing musicians were u. a. also Steve Lacy , John Carisi , Jimmy Cleveland , Willie Ruff , Lee Konitz , Paul Chambers , Jo Jones , Louis Mucci and Nick Stabulas .
The recordings were made a few months before the Miles Ahead session, the first joint Gil Evans / Miles Davis production. Evans had created a completely different sound environment for his own album. He only used eleven musicians, the maximum number of musicians, to create a big band sound on a modest budget ; but he took this as a creative challenge. He combined five brass and three woodwinds with the rhythm section : two trumpets , trombone , bass trombone , french horn , soprano saxophone , alto saxophone and bassoon .
The young soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy was in the foreground - three years before John Coltrane popularized the instrument. Evans had hired him after hearing him on the radio with a Dixieland band five years earlier . Another soloist was Jimmy Cleveland, a young trombonist Evans paired with swing veterans such as Louie Mucci, Jack Koven and Bart Varsalona. "These were previously unheard of compilations, but it worked," Steve Lacy later said. "Their differences, expressed through phrasing , intonation , and the use or lack of vibrato created a [musical] richness in the mix." Lacy also had the lead voice in the various ensemble passages, which is an unusual role for the soprano saxophone was. Evans was taking a certain risk, as the young musician struggled to play the difficult arrangements from sight:
- "At that point I couldn't read music very well, and I was the worst one in the band. They had to do things over and over again because I kept messing up the reading. It wasn't that the notes were so hard, it was the rhythms - they were very precise and very subtle, they were like speech rhythms. The other guys in the band were very accomplished readers, and this experience forced me to learn to read as fast as I could. "
Gil Evans chose thematic material for his arrangements according to two aspects, on the one hand based on the emotional quality, on the other hand the "sound" element was decisive, depending on how he imagined the sound of the title from the musician or group concerned should be played by instruments. Evans took the liberty of rewriting the material; Irvin Berlin's Remember , originally in ¾ time, was now played in 4/4 time. The lead belly blues Ella Sweet became a modern swing number with an arco passage by Paul Chambers. "You can see here Evans' preference for deep brass, the use of the bass and tuba and the duets of trombone and bass trombone." He played with textures that he was to take up and expand in the 1958 Porgy and Bess album with Miles Davis . This can be seen in the elaboration of the Rodgers-Hart number Nobody's Heart.
Stephanie Stein Crease also points out that this is the first time Gil Evans himself can be heard as the pianist on a recording in a prominent position:
- “Even if he was technically no rival to modern jazz pianists like his idol Bud Powell or his friend Jimmy Rowles , Evans' playing, as a soloist or as a companion, expresses all the beauty, economy and individuality of Basie or Ellington . Like them he is a rower. By playing certain harmonies or melodic and rhythmic riffs , he steers the music in the direction where he wants the ensemble to go; So here you can experience his musical concept in its entirety. Evans' way of playing is due to the low opinion of himself as a pianist, which some of his friends have already described as neurotic. "
The prestige producer Bob Weinstock put constant pressure on Gil Evans during the session to finish the album quickly; Evans later recalled:
- “You have thought it was the most expensive album in the world. It cost $ 2500 at the time, but Bob Weinstock thought that was a lot. "
reception
Stephanie Stein Crease called the sound results from Evans innovative: "his unusual choice of instruments and couplings, his scambling of tempos and themes, and his elongated phrasing - are obscured by the album's blithe spirit and breezy swing" . It should not be compared to the work Gil Evans did with Miles Davis; it should be considered the first document of Gil's own work. In Allmusic rated Scott Yanow the album five stars, noting:
- "As good an introduction to his work as any, this program includes various works ranging from Leadbelly to Leonard Bernstein, plus Evans' own" Jambangle ". The arranger's inventive use of the voices of his rather unique sidemen make this a memorable set. "
The Penguin Guide to Jazz only gave the album three out of four stars; the session was "oblique, intelligent modern jazz, with Carisi's trumpet prominent, lee Konitz and Steve Lacy ledning the reed parts the floating feel typical of an Evans chart."
Track list
- Gil Evans & Ten (Prestige LP-7120)
- Remember ( Berlin ) - 4:30
- Ella Speed ( Leadbelly , Lomax , Lomax ) - 5:47
- Big Stuff ( Amber ) - 4:46
- Nobody's Heart ( Rodgers , Hart ) - 4:22
- Just One Of Those Things ( Porter ) - 4:22
- If You Could See Me Now ( Dameron , Sigman ) - 4:15
- Jambangle ( Evans ) - 4:56
- Track 1 was recorded on September 6, 1957, tracks 2, 4 & 6 on September 27, and tracks 3, 5 & 7 on October 10, 1957.
literature
- Raymond Horricks: Svengali, or the orchestra called Gill Evans. Spellmount, Tunbridge Wells, 1984, ISBN 0-946771-40-5 .
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 .
- Stephanie Stein Crease: Gil Evans: Out of the Cool - His life and music. A Cappella Books, Chicago 2002, ISBN 978-1-55652-493-6 .
Remarks
- ↑ The opening theme of Jambangle was later used by the rock group The Doors in their hit Light My Fire ; see. Stein Crease, p. 222.
Individual evidence
- ^ Prestige Records / Discography-1957-1958 discography at jazzdisco.org
- ↑ Stein Crease, p. 220.
- ↑ Stein Crease, p. 221.
- ^ Lacy, quoted from Stein Crease, p. 222.
- ↑ a b Stein Crease, p. 223.
- ↑ Stein Crease, p. 222.
- ↑ Stein Crease, p. 224.
- ↑ Review of Scott Yanow's Gil Evans & Ten album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved September 13, 2011.
- ^ Richard Cook, Brian Morton: Penguin Guide to Jazz .