{"id":702,"date":"2012-09-02T17:21:52","date_gmt":"2012-09-02T17:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=702"},"modified":"2012-09-07T15:10:30","modified_gmt":"2012-09-07T15:10:30","slug":"reviving-the-distinctively-american-individualism-of-gil-evans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=702","title":{"rendered":"The Magician Behind Miles: Reviving the American Individualism of Gil Evans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cGil had the distinct ability to stay out of the way of the musical interaction and inspire the players with amazing orchestration .\u201d — saxophonist Bob Mintzer. *<\/p>\n

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Gil Evans conducting, and letting in happen,\u00a0in the early ’60s. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Ryan Truesdell \/Gil Evans Project – Centennial : Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans<\/em> (artistShare) <\/strong><\/p>\n

In America there is individualism that begins selfishly, of necessity, but then stays selfish, feeding hubris and often greed. Then there is individualism that nurtures its own creativity and, when the time is right, shares it — feeds it into simpatico compatriots, who help make it great American culture, begetting wealth to be shared by generations.<\/p>\n

The late Gil Evans was the godfather-Svengali of modern jazz arranging, the bridge between Debussy and Ellington to Vince Mendoza, Darcy James Argue and Maria Schneider, who helped realize this project. Evans\u2019 brooding tapestries engulfed the stunning silhouettes of Miles Davis’ exquisite solos on Sketches of Spain <\/em>and Porgy and Bess<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Evans\u2019 exploratory affinities stretched to Hendrixian textures. Now, Ryan Truesdell (who studied with another great modern arranger, Bob Brookmeyer) has dug up early \u201860s scores from the Evans family archives. Centennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans<\/em>\u00a0almost brings Gil back to life in unheard material and re-casting of Evans classics, from the tabla-tinged \u201cPunjab\u201d to the world-weary \u201cSmoking My Sad Cigarette\u201d and Weill\/Brecht\u2019s \u201cThe Barbara Song,\u201d whose sonic mysteries rise more full-throated than the original. Luxuriate in this.<\/p>\n

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As he studied these scores, Truesdell discovered \u201cfascinating musical references and techniques that illuminated dimensions of Gil’s personality and gave me more insight into him as a person,\u201d the arranger and conductor writes in the liner notes. So this music — with superb vocals by Kate McGarry and Luciana Souza and solos from pianist Frank Kimbrough, vibraphonist Joe Locke, and tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin, among others — feels mighty damned true to Evans.<\/p>\n

And yet, as thrilling as Centennial <\/em>\u00a0is to hear in all of its high-tech digital detail, there is something missing. That must be Evans himself — in<\/em> the studio or on the bandstand. There\u2019s an uncanniness to his own recordings that isn’t contained in the scores, I suspect. It was the jazz element — that of the leader with his players, hearing the voices in his head then subtly re-shaping and re-blending the colors to the strengths and even the moods of his musicians. The best Evans sounds like alchemy.<\/p>\n

And here’s where the Duke Ellington connection comes in. Ellington knew precisely what to get out of the unique talents of each of his players. And they became greater players for that contextual opportunity. For example, the great saxophonist-composer Wayne Shorter probably learned a lot about dynamics and nuance in a large setting as a soloist in the original \u201cThe Barbara Song\u201d <\/em>on The Individualism of Gil Evans<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where Evans\u2019 phantom Svengali -like sensitivity to the musical moment comes in, as Bob Mintzer notes above. \u00a0And Like Ellington and Basie, he also played some of the greatest less-is-more orchestra leader jazz piano, his dense voicings and breathless grace notes infusing the players with evanescent Evans magic.<\/p>\n

Or as Jim McNeely has said: \u201cSome people consider me a pretty good composer\/arranger. When I start to believe them, I put on \u2018Barbara Song.\u2019 To this day I am reduced to tears. It’s a humbling experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans probably learned a large measure of those wizardly skills from studying The Duke. \u00a0And from Claude Thornhill, when he began arranging in Thornhill’s ground-breaking orchestra. Here\u2019s where you start hearing what Gunther Schuller described as the \u201csubdued pastel-shaded backgrounds and low-register counter melodies\u201d that would become part of his mature style. With a chamber music writer\u2019s deftness, Evans would score striking contrasts of, say, bright clarinets against the darker-hued brass, horns and tuba, creating an odd intervallic spaciousness filling with billowing tonalities. 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

Evans, though hardly Ellington\u2019s equal as a composer, clearly had his own genius, expanding Ellington\u2019s vast sphere of influence into his own sonic galaxy. On \u201cIndividualism\u201d<\/em> alone, consider the strange range from winsomeness to debauchery evoked in \u201cFlute Song\/Hotel Me,\u201d or the pensive Catalan clouds and piercing brass light shafts of the brief tone sketch \u201cEl Toreador.\u201d And yet he could dig down and distill 90-proof essence of the blues, as in \u201cSpoonful.\u201d<\/p>\n

And no one will ever retell the soulful, quintessentially American saga of Porgy and Bess<\/em> in pure, worldless music as vividly is Evans and Davis did. Schneider, today\u2019s most acclaimed jazz orchestra arranger\/ composer, calls \u201cP & G<\/em>\u201d her \u201cfavorite music on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Gil Evans and Miles Davis (on flugelhorn, right) making alchemy in the studio. Courtesy allaboutjazz.com\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Slightly less lovable perhaps is the more psychologically reflective\u00a0Sketches of Spain. <\/em>By turns stoic and heartbreaking in its eloquence, it touches on tragedy, so penetrating is its beauty.<\/p>\n

The point is to start with Centennial <\/em>— an exciting, revelatory addition to Evans\u2019 legacy. But then, go back to the magnificent analog collaborations with Miles (including Miles Ahead<\/em> and the pioneering Birth Of The Cool <\/em>), and to Evans\u2019 own great albums, \u201cIndividualism\u201d, Out of the Cool, Where Flamingos Fly, Svengali, Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix, 75th Birthday Concert\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n

Evans is the sort of quietly humble, pay-it-forward genius that individualist America needs today, as it always has.<\/p>\n

________________________________<\/p>\n

This article grew out of a review of a CD, Gil Evans Project, Centennial, <\/em>originally published in the August 30 issue of tThe Shepherd Express <\/em>in Milwaukee.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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*Down Beat<\/em> magazine, from \u201cMy Favorite Big-Band Album: 25 Essential Recordings\u201d by Frank John Handley, April 2010. Mintzer’s quote is also from the same article. The Schneider quote is from Down Beat<\/em>, \u201cGimme Five,\u201d October 2000.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945<\/em>, Gunther Schuller, Oxford University Press, 1989 p. 756<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGil had the distinct ability to stay out of the way of the musical interaction and inspire the players with amazing orchestration .\u201d — saxophonist Bob Mintzer. * Gil Evans conducting, and letting in happen,\u00a0in the early ’60s. Ryan Truesdell … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-bk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":800,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions\/800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}