Customer Reviews

Individualism of Gil Evans

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you like Gil Evans' work with Miles Davis, you'll like this. Some startling compositions -- 'Hotel Me' with its romping rhythm, the stunning 'Las Vegas Tango' -- and some splendid covers, Willie Dixon's 'Spoonful' (with the LP's edit cuts reinstated) and a beautifully funereal go at Kurt Weil's 'Barbara Song'. Listen especially to Elvin Jones' excellent drumming. A classic.

This album represents Gil Evans at the height of his creative expression. Gil Evans is an uncategorizable artist, perhaps because his style is neither exactly bop or cool jazz, but uniquely his own. This album while not a starter (that would be Out of the Cool)is still a serious contender. Lush and expressionistic, it has extra tracks culled from out of print albums or unreleased matter. From the collaborator of Sketches of Spain, this is as the title says, very uniquely one of his solo masterpieces.

Well, sometimes, the old ways are best. Some times, picking what fits on an LP forces choices that really prove to be wise. The extra, "lost" songs that were rescued from the tape vaults or from other oddball LPs don't, in my opinion, add much to a pure, utter classic LP, per its initial incarnation. I would love a disc with the original cuts in the correct order, because such a disk (like "Out of the cool") is an integrated whole -- more than the sum of its astonishing parts. I do like hearing the previously lost bits, but instead of forcing this overstuffed, clunky playlist on us, how about a two-disk set, with the original LP playlist on one, and the lost stuff on the second.

But I complain too long. The original "Individualism" is a colossal phenomenon. Gil Evans IS individual, and what a loss that he's gone.

O.K. folks here we go, from an ex- Santa Barbara disc jockey to you. The best song on this excellent CD is Las Vegas Tango. What should blow your mind about this song is the multirhythmic backing of Elvin Jones on drum. The band itself is tight and strong. The song is kinda haunting. I've hummed it to myself for the past forty years, and after losing the album a while back, I bought a new CD of it through Amazon.com from England, and I am very happy I own it. I think everyone should own at least one of this, one for themselves and one to give to a friend. This album, and particularly Las Vegas Tango, is one of the best outputs of any band during the 20th century. Buy it.

I don't think I've found a piece of music by Gil Evans that I don't like. He is perhaps most famous for his work with Miles Davis (<em>Sketches of Spain</em> is a classic). But he's also done a lot of other work - good work. While listening to <a href="http://www.xpn.org/">WXPN</a> sometime a couple of weeks ago I came across this recording: <em><strong>The Individualism of Gil Evans</strong></em>, here released on Verve. This is also important as it is Evan's only date as a leader in the mid 60's. The session features such standouts as Kenny Burrell on guitar, Wayne Shorter on tenor, Phil Woods on alto, Thad and Elvin Jones on trumpet and drums respectively and Jimmy Cleveland on trombone. The CD offers nine tracks including two previously unreleased to the original Lp. My two favorites on this are <em>Time Of The Barracudas</em> and <em>Las Vegas Tango</em>. I would highly recommend this to fans of Evans as well as any one looking for a very listenable jazz album but don't know a lot about the genre.

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Reading the other reviews of this recording, which I've owned since it was new on Lp and since it came out on CD, has caused me to review my own long-standing opinions. Apart from their apparent unfamiarity with "New Bottle Old Wine" and "Great Jazz Standards", masterpeices both, the other reviewers all made good points and missed a few boats along the way. Elvin Jones' drumming throughout deserves ***** alone, unsurpassed anywhere on record. Despite Elvin's best efforts, however, 'Time of the Barracudas', 'Hotel Me' and 'El Toreador' are hopelessly static. Shorter just noodles and practices scales through most of the former -- a solo that should have been much shorter. Previous reviewers were right on the money about 'Las Vagas Tango', however, one of Evans' best pieces. (Gary Burton has done a good cover of it, by the way.) BUT there are other highlights besides 'Las Vegas Tango', and it's worth buying "Individualism" for them: 'Nothing Like You' has brilliant swinging ensembles and a good, shorter Shorter solo. 'Concorde' is Evans' complex, fascinating take on John Lewis' fugue. I've heard the other version of this, with 4 basses, but so long ago that I can't remember how it compares with this one, but this one is a pleasure. And finally Willie Dixon's 'Spoonful', wonderful from beginning to end, every soloist outstanding: Woods, Thad Jones, Lookofsky, Burrell. And Elvin Jones is simply amazing. Evans had a great way with older Jazz pieces, as "New Bottle" and "Great Jazz Standards" proved. 'Ella Speed', from "Gil Evans & Ten", another must-to-own, and 'Spoonful' from this one proved that he is equally brilliant when mining a slightly different vein of gold.

Like Miles Davis, Gil Evans moved away from his work of the 50's and 60's. The free jazz direction with minimalist arranging that Evans took will have some listeners wondering about musical textures abandoned and undeveloped. In other words, what could have been?
'The Barbara Song' and 'Concorde' represent Evans' scoring at his finest. With its hovering, sustained sounds and breathtaking tone coloring, 'Barbara' transports us to another world. It's unsettling and beautiful at the same time.
Evans was evidently not satisfied with the rendition of John Lewis''Concorde', but without other performances of the arrangement for comparison, it emerges as a wonderful complement to the composer's vision. It features imaginative use of polyphonic scoring which Bach surely would have liked.
'Spoonful' and 'Hotel Me' both look ahead to Evans' work from the early 70's on. Each is lengthy and Gil's contribution, at least as arranger, is very sparse. Granted, his piano work on both is enjoyable. 'Time of the Barracudas' is problematic: It has those wonderful Evans colors but much repetition, and is more interesting for Elvin Jones' percussion work than the minimalist scoring. 'El Toreador' is a recycling of the Sketches of Spain concept but not as successful. 'Las Vegas Tango', despite some critical acclaim, is really one of Evans' weaker efforts, with little development and obvious progressions.

As a whole, the disc is certainly worth buying. For those of us who would have liked Gil to contribute more towards the ensemble sound in his later career, I suppose we have to remind ourselves that, on balance, he did redefine our concept of jazz orchestration.

Gil Evans in his earlier days. Picked this up when I was a kid in a cut out bin
and have been in love with it ever since. Best tune on album is "Las Vegas Tango".
Great group of top players in this orchestra. Gil Evans is better known for his
"Sketches of Spain" album with Miles Davis. If you love that you will like this.

Most of the favorable reviews of arranger/composer Gil Evans albums have been on the Impulse album,"Out Of the Cool", yet this album seems to get ignored. But it would be a shame if you're into Gil's sound to ignore this album for it is more ambituous in orchestrations and Gil's compositions. "Hotel Me" for example has a unique orchestration of 2 bassists (Gary Peacock/Richard Davis) and the propulsive drumming of Elvin Jones. In fact I really dig the recording quality on this disc than on the Impulse. Other great soloists featured on this disc are Wayne Shorter, Kenny Burrell, Johnny Coles and Thad Jones. As Miles said about Gil: "His arrangements should be studied carefully"