There comes a time

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There comes a time
Gil Evans studio album

Publication
(s)

1976

Label (s) RCA Victor

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

7 (LP) / 8 (CD)

occupation

production

Anita & Gil Evans, Steve Backer

Studio (s)

RCA Studio B, New York City

chronology
The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix
(1974) 		There comes a time Live at the Royal Festival Hall London 1978
(1977)
Gil Evans with Ryō Kawasaki
Billy Harper (2007)

There Comes a Time is a jazz album by Gil Evans . The recordings were made between March and April 1975 and were released as an LP on RCA Victor in 1976 . After a complete reworking by Gil Evans and Ed Michel , the album was released on CD in 1988 by RCA Bluebird .

The recordings in 1975

In the first half of the 1970s, the instrumentation of the Gil Evans orchestra changed; While in the albums of the 60s - as with his Verve album The Individualism of Gil Evans , the wind arrangements still dominated, trumpets, trombones, tuba and saxophones were now reduced in favor of the rhythm section , which was made possible by the use of numerous electronic instruments (E. Piano, organ, keyboards and synthesizers) as well as numerous percussion instruments. A total of five percussionists or drummers were brought into the ensemble for this purpose: Joe Gallivan , Tony Williams , Bruce Ditmas , Sue Evans , who also played Celesta , and Warren Smith . Instead of a double bass , Gil Evans had Herb Bushler use an electric bass ; Ryō Kawasaki played the electric guitar . Soloists among the winds were George Adams and Billy Harper on tenor and David Sanborn on alto saxophone, as well as trumpeter Lew Soloff and tuba player Howard Johnson , who also played bass clarinet, baritone saxophone and trombone.

Gil Evans had released an album with his orchestra the year before with music by the late guitarist Jimi Hendrix and had toured Europe. In March and April 1975 Gil Evans worked on the recordings for the album. There Comes A Time would be his last studio album by 1983; after that he first published live albums, such as Live At the Royal Festival Hall (1978) , which was recorded in London .

According to Evans biographer Stephanie Stein Crease, the album sounded “wilder” than the previous Hendrix album, was “more ambitious and less commercial”.

The reissue of the album in 1987

Some tracks had been reworked by Evans' musicians in April 1975 - Ed Michel wrote "sweetened" in the liner notes of the reissue of the album in 1987. Unhappy with the result, Evans left with producer Ed about twelve years after the sessions for RCA Michel worked on completely reworking and remixing the recordings. The previous changes in the mixes were partially withdrawn and earlier versions restored. Evans now also allowed lighter woven passages to come through the density of the sound. The title "The Meaning of the Blues", which had been shortened to about six minutes on the 1976 LP, has now been edited to the originally recorded length of twenty minutes. Three previously unreleased tracks, Clifford Brown's "Joy Spring", "So Long" and "Buzzard Variation" have now appeared for the first time. The 1975 recorded version of "Little Wing" was removed and appeared on the album with Evans' collected Jimi Hendrix recordings. Even Hannibal Marvin Peterson's composition "Aftermath the Fourth Movement: Children of the Fire" was not included in the CD edition; the title track, the Tony Williams composition "There Comes a Time" has been partially shortened.

The music of the album

Gil Evans recorded the short “ King Porter Stomp ” in 1958 for his album New Bottle, Old Wine ; As on this earlier recording, a soloist on the alto saxophone is particularly emphasized here; instead of Cannonball Adderley , it's David Sanborn . In contrast to the original version, the new recording of the Jelly Roll Morton title is strongly influenced by the synthesizers used; among them consistently the electronics technician David Horovitz.

The following - less than two minutes long - Evans piece "Makes Her Move" seems like the prelude to the core piece of the album in the 1987 edition, Bobby Troup's composition "The Meaning of the Blues", dominated by the sound effects of Joe Gallivan on steel guitar , synthesizer and various percussion instruments as well as the following solos by Howard Johnson on bass clarinet and then George Adams on tenor saxophone.

The "Meaning of the Blues" begins with the introduction by Joe Gallivan, who used his instruments from a self-constructed drum synthesizer, feedback noises from the electric guitar, various bells, glass bottles; then the bass line appears played on tuned Tablas by Bruce Ditmas . The soundscape gradually created by the various keyboards and synthesizers is repeatedly interrupted by short horn riffs; At 1:40 a bass clarinet solo by Howard Johnson emerges from it, which is framed by (coming and disappearing) bass and keyboard lines. The winds end his solo with the short themed play at 3:27 before George Adams begins his extended solo that sets the scene for the rest of the track. The winds create caesuras with their brief interjections; Evans keeps changing the background during Adams' game. there are brief meditative moments, created by gongs and bass drums and the mallet instruments, then the playing increases again to sequences of a short collective improvisation; there are moments when Gil Evans lets the large rhythm section slide along until he breaks the harmony with a brass riff and changes the scene. After moments of tension, phases of concentration on only a few players follow; one hears Herb Bushler's bass guitar, whose crackling figures frame Adams' playing. Finally, the long piece with Joe Gallivan's sound textures ends as it began.

George Adams; 1976

Gil Evans recorded the short jazz standard "Joy Spring" penned by Clifford Brown for the first time in 1959 - then with the guitarist Ray Crawford ( Great Jazz Standards ). The version recorded here begins with an introduction by bells and the theme played by Evans on the celesta , before the winds begin, which also end the piece with a coda .

The slow Evans composition “So Long” begins with a muffled synthesizer riff that runs through the whole piece; the first soloist here is Billy Harper, followed by alto saxophonist David Sanborn after an interlude in which Warren Smith can be heard on the marimbas .

The short "Buzzard Variation", a reminiscence of the 1958 Porgy & Bess project with Miles Davis ("The Buzzard Song"), which does not have any prominent soloists and is characterized by horn players and synthesizers, forms the prelude to the title track of the album , the (in the revised version) over 14 minutes long "There Comes a Time", the lyrics and music of which are from Tony Williams . It is introduced by atonal synthesizer abbreviations until the percussionists and the bassist (with a riff played through) create the rhythm of the theme presented by the winds; finally the voice of Hannibal Marvin Peterson sounds; "I love you more than what's happening - I. Love. You. More ... ”Then Billy Harper picks up the melody to lead into his solo; The brass section appears again and Peterson repeats a verse of the vocal part before Lew Soloff starts his solo and slows down the tempo, accompanied by keyboard abbreviations, bells, cymbal play and the continuously played bass figure. After the themed play and the singer's reappearance, Soloff continues his solo. The short, rather session-like sequence “Anita's Dance”, in which Soloff can be heard again, was appended to the title; the piece is then faded out.

Reception of the album

The critic Scott Yanow , who gave the edition of the album from 1987 in Allmusic with the second highest rating, wrote that the CD from 1987 had been revised to the extent that it was actually to be regarded as a new album. He called the remake of "King Porter Stomp" - with David Sanborn in place of Cannonball Adderley - as a classic; the "new" version of "The Meaning of the Blues" is remarkable; On the album, alongside soloists Billy Harper, George Adams and Lew Soloff, there is a creative big band that mixes acoustic and electric instruments. There Comes a Time is one of the last really great studio sessions from Gil Evans.
Richard Cook & Brian Morton particularly emphasize the excellent solos by Billy Harper (in “So Long”) and George Adams (in “The Meaning of the Blues”); however, the last two tracks "There Comes a Time" and "Anitas Dance" were less successful. Nevertheless, after its revision, the album is "probably the most perfect hybrid of old-fashioned big band jazz with the hard edges of an electric rock band."

Title of the original LP (1976 edition)

Bob Stewart
David Sanborn
Hannibal Marvin Peterson
  • Gil Evans: The Comes a Time (RCA APL1-1057; ed 1976)

A1 - King Porter Stomp (Ferd "Jelly Roll" Morton) 3:48
A2 - There Comes a Time (Tony Williams) 16:10
A3 - Makes Her Move (Gil Evans) 1:25
B1 - Little Wing (Jimi Hendrix) 5 : 03
B2 - The Meaning of the Blues (Bobby Troup, Lee Worth) 5:51
B3 - Aftermath the Fourth Movement Children of the Fire (Hannibal Marvin Peterson) 5:45
B4 - Anita's Dance (Gil Evans) 2:53

Title of the new edition 1987

  • Gil Evans: The Comes a Time (RCA Bluebird 5783)
  1. King Porter Stomp (Ferd "Jelly Roll" Morton) 3:52
  2. Makes Her Move (Gil Evans) 1:42
  3. The Meaning of The Blues (Bobby Troup, Lee Worth) 8:01 p.m.
  4. Joy Spring ( Clifford Brown ) 2:19
  5. So Long (Gil Evans) 16:37
  6. Buzzard Variation (Gil Evans) 2:35
  7. There Comes a Time (Tony Williams) 2:23 PM
  8. Anita's Dance (Gil Evans) 2:55

Session sequence

  • Mar. 06, 1975 - RCA Studio B, NYC
  1. Buzzard variation
  2. Joy Spring
  • Mar. 12, 1975 - RCA Studio B, NYC
  1. So long
  • Apr. 11, 1975 - RCA Studio B, NYC
  1. King Porter Stomp
  2. The Meaning of the Blues
  3. Anita's Dance
  4. Makes her move
  5. Aftermath the Fourth Movement Children of the Fire
  • Apr. 25, 1975 - RCA Studio B, NYC
  1. There comes a time

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The album Priestess (1977), which was made at a concert in New York, was released in 1983. See discography Gil Evans
  2. ↑ Stephanie Stein Crease: Gil Evans: Out of the Cool - His life and music. Chicago 2002, p. 291
  3. ↑ Stephanie Stein Crease: Gil Evans: Out of the Cool , p. 292
  4. ↑ Originally the piece of the merger group was Lifetime played
  5. ↑ Cook and Morton therefore only awarded the album three (out of a maximum of four) stars. Quoted from Cook / Morton, 6th edition, p. 486.