The Individualism of Gil Evans

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The Individualism of Gil Evans
Gil Evans studio album

Publication
(s)

1964

Label (s) Verve Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

LP 5, CD 10

occupation
  • Violin : Harry Lookovsky (8.9)

production

Creed Taylor

Studio (s)

New York City

chronology
Out of the Cool
1961
The Individualism of Gil Evans Blues in Orbit
1969

The Individualism of Gil Evans , is a jazz album by Gil Evans , recorded in six recording sessions from September 1963 to October 1964, released on Verve Records in 1964.

Prehistory of the album

Although the band leader and arranger Gil Evans attracted attention in the late 1950s with his productions with Miles Davis (such as Miles Ahead or Sketches of Spain ) and his own albums such as Out of the Cool , very few recordings were made between 1961 and 1968 . For a project with Miles Davis, the track " The Time of the Barracudas " was recorded, but not published at the time. The few recordings of Evans as a band leader during this time can be found on the album "The Individualism of Gil Evans". The line-ups of the six sessions are overlapping; in addition to musicians who already played on the previous albums "Gil Evans and Ten" and "Out of the Cool", such as Jimmy Cleveland , Johnny Coles , Steve Lacy , Elvin Jones and Jimmy Knepper , other jazz greats such as Wayne Shorter , Eric Dolphy , Phil Woods and Kenny Burrell added.

The album

With the now wider space for improvisations, Evans partially anticipated the music of his later “Monday Night Orchestra”. The title "Hotel Me" stands out in particular: the composition, created in cooperation with Miles Davis, is simple, whereby the "throaty screams" of the wind section are noticeable. Ultimately, the most impressive thing about the whole album are the soundscapes that Evans has created. Harry Lachner wrote in his recognition as one of the 50 "recordings of the century of jazz" that the album

“Like no other of his records uses the divergent language of sound, the richness of an instrumentation that is far from jazz, with harp, oboes, flutes and French horns. Evans' art of integrating the soloists into the ensemble's sound was also completely unconventional. But he also achieved this sound by writing completely surprising secondary lines for the first main lines. (...) In "El Toredor" (arranged for trumpeter Johnny Coles ) the orchestra not only acts as a primer for the trumpet solo, it alternates between pre-echo and post-reverb. "

- Harry Lachner

Roger Willemsen wrote in his meeting that it was

“An exuberantly rich album, a musical mine in which the melodic and ballad-like can be found as well as the brittle rhythm of bebop , the travesty of the blues or the reverberation of swing. Even great soloists like Wayne Shorter, Thad Jones and Kenny Burrell sound like you never heard them because they interpret their role primarily as an ensemble player "

- Roger Willemsen

reception

The music magazine Jazzwise added the album to The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World list ; Keith Shadwick wrote:

As a reluctant self-marketer, Evans was rarely asked into the recording studios to deliver albums that fully met his musical ideas [...] This is his most ambitious and satisfying album, it includes his love for Kurt Weill, the blues , Spanish music and vigorous original compositions, everything immersed in such transparent arrangements that one has the impression of entering a uniquely enchanted musical land [...] ”.

Rolling Stone magazine chose the album in 2013 in its list of The 100 Best Jazz Albums at number 43. In 1988 it was awarded the Prix ​​Fats Waller as the best re-release of the year.

The titles

  • CD version 1993:
  1. "Time of the Barracudas" (Miles Davis / Gil Evans) 7:26
  2. "The Barbara Song" ( Kurt Weill ) 9:59
  3. "Las Vegas Tango" (Gil Evans) 6:35
  4. A. "Flute Song" (Gil Evans) B. "Hotel Me" (M. Davis / G. Evans) 12:29
  5. "El Toreador" (G. Evans) 3:26
  6. "Proclamation" (G. Evans) 3:55
  7. "Nothing Like You" ( Bob Dorough ) 2:36
  8. "Concorde" ( John Lewis ) 7:39
  9. " Spoonful " ( Willie Dixon ) 1:46 pm
  • LP version 1964: Track 2, 3 and 4A & 4B, 5th
  • The session sequence:
  1. September 17, 1963: Track 4A
  2. September 18, 1963: Track 5
  3. April 6, 1964: Tracks 3 & 4B
  4. May 25, 1964: Tracks 8 & 9
  5. July 9, 1964: Titles 1 & 2
  6. October 29, 1964: Tracks 6 & 7

Literature / sources

Web links

Remarks

  1. cf. Cook & Morton
  2. In the original: “ A diffident self-promoter, Evans was only rarely coaxed into the recording studios to deliver albums that reflected fully his own musical visions away from the stars he wrapped in his sonic delights. This album is his most ambitious and deeply satisfying, covering his love of Kurt Weill, the blues, Spanish music and swaggering self-penned pieces, all of them dripping in the translucent arrangements that make you feel you've entered a uniquely magical musical land the moment the orchestra makes a sound ".
  3. ^ The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World
  4. Rolling Stone: The 100 Best Jazz Albums . Retrieved November 16, 2016.