Where Flamingos Fly

chronology
Where Flamingos Fly
Gil Evans studio album
Publication ; (s)	1981
Label (s)	Artist House ; re-release 1989, A&M Records
Format (s)	LP, compact disk
Genre (s)	jazz
Title (number)	6th
running time	46:07 (1989 CD)
occupation	Tenor saxophone : Billy Harper ; Baritone saxophone , tuba [1], flugelhorn [5]: Howard Johnson ; Soprano saxophone : Trevor Koehler [2, 3, 4, 5]; Trumpet : Johnny Coles ; Trumpet : Stan Shafran [2, 3, 4, 5]; Trumpet : Hannibal Peterson [2, 3, 4, 5]; Trombone : Jimmy Knepper [2, 3, 4, 5]; Tenor Violin : Harry Lookowsky [1, 6]; Guitar , mandolin [6]: Joe Beck [1, 6]; Guitar : Bruce Johnson [2, 3, 4, 5]; Piano , electric piano [4]: Gil Evans ; Synthesizer : Phil Davis [2, 3, 4, 5]; Synthesizer : Don Preston ; E-bass : Herb Bushler [1, 6]; Double bass : Richard Davis [2, 3, 4, 5]; E-bass : Bill Quinze [2, 3, 4, 5]; Percussion : Sue Evans [1, 2, 6]; Percussion , vocals : Airto Moreira ; Singing , percussion : Flora Purim ;
production	John Simon
Studio (s)	New York City

Where Flamingos Fly is a jazz album by Gil Evans that was recorded in 1971 and only released ten years later in 1981 by Artists House. It shows rock jazz and Brazilian influences and was created at a turning point in Evans' musical creation.

History of origin

Brokered by Albert Grossman , Evans recorded an album for Capitol Records in the fall of 1971 . The album was produced by John Simon, a member of Grossman's loose circle of music industry professionals who lived in Woodstock and who also produced recordings for The Band . Evans was familiar with the work of Morton Subotnik and other electronic music composers; He used synthesizers here for the first time after receiving one of the first Minimoogs from Robert Moog . He was interested in exploring the possibilities of the timbres produced by electronic instruments and incorporating them into his arrangements. This is why he had connected ring modulators to his electric piano, which he had been playing since 1968 . Evans did not play synthesizers on the album himself, but left this to specialists from the west coast, Don Preston and his friend Phil Davis; The latter was willing to work with Evans even without a fee (and accompanied him on a European tour under this condition).

The record is one of a series of recordings that Evans made with the (later so-called) Monday Night Orchestra . After the release on Capitol failed, the recording sessions were released on different labels in the early 1980s. The newly founded label Artists House went bankrupt just a short time after its release, in September 1982.

The music of the album

The band plays six pieces in two overlapping line-ups, some of which will long remain in Gil Evans' standard repertoire. The main soloists are Billy Harper (ts) and Howard Johnson (bs, tuba).

The title of Gil Evans' first track, Zee-Zee , refers to Basque rhythms that are danced very quickly, called Zort-ziko .

Nanã is a track from Brazil for which Gil wrote a new arrangement. Airto and Flora Purim are overdubbing this piece because he had finished the piece before they met (he heard them sing with Edu Lobo at a dinner party and decided to insert them). It contains solos by Trevor Koehler and Howard Johnson.

Love Your Love is a feature for tenor saxophonist Harper, who also wrote it, with a slightly “old-fashioned touch” in the spirit of Duke Ellington's music . The band reportedly found the Harpers piece so hard to get along that Gil Evans had to cut it sharply.

Jelly Rolls by Gil Evans when he was working with Miles Davis on The Time of the Barracudas in 1963 . The title of this composition was incorrectly given as Hotel Me in the 1981 edition for Artists House .

The title track Where Flamingos Fly comes from John Benson Brooks , a singer, composer and friend of Gil Evans, he had already processed it with Helen Merrill in 1956 and on his Out of the Cool album from 1960.

The track El Matador was added to the CD released in 1989 by A&M Records .

The title of the album

Zee-Zee (Gil Evans) - 10:58
Nanã ( Moacir Santos , Mário Telles, Yanna Coti) - 4.42
Love Your Love (Billy Harper) - 2.13
Jelly Rolls (Gil Evans) - 5.32
Where Flamingos Fly (John Benson Brooks, Eltha Peala, Harold Courlander) - 5.12
El Matador ( Kenny Dorham ) - 17.30

literature

Gil Evans in conversation with John Snyder (Liner Notes for Where Flamingos Fly )
Stephanie Stein Crease: Gil Evans: Out of the Cool - His life and music. 2002, Chicago, A Cappella Books / Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-55652-493-6 .

Web links

Discography Gil Evans
Where Flamingos Fly at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

^ Billboard, June 26, 1982
↑ ^a ^b Review of the album by Cadence 15 (1989), p. 27
↑ Stein Crease, p. 275.
↑ Stephanie Stein Crease Gil Evans: Out of the Cool - His Life and Music 2002, p. 275
↑ The other recordings from autumn 1971 were combined with those from 1969 on the album Blues in Orbit by Enja (or in North America by Inner City ).
↑ Stephanie Stein Crease: Gil Evans: Out of the Cool - His Life and Music , 2002, p. 187, and Max Harrison (inter alia): The Essential Jazz Records: Modernism to Postmodernism , 2000, p. 426.

[1] Billboard, June 26, 1982

[CAD-2] Review of the album by Cadence 15 (1989), p. 27

[stein-3] Stein Crease, p. 275.

[SSC-4] Stephanie Stein Crease Gil Evans: Out of the Cool - His Life and Music 2002, p. 275

[5] The other recordings from autumn 1971 were combined with those from 1969 on the album Blues in Orbit by Enja (or in North America by Inner City ).

[6] Stephanie Stein Crease: Gil Evans: Out of the Cool - His Life and Music , 2002, p. 187, and Max Harrison (inter alia): The Essential Jazz Records: Modernism to Postmodernism , 2000, p. 426.