Gil Evans

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Gil Evans (*13 May 1912 at Toronto, Canada † 20 March 1988 at Cuernavaca, Mexico); jazz musician and important innovator of big band jazz in the United States as an arranger, composer, bandleader, and pianist; cool jazz, modal jazz, free jazz, jazz rock.

Biography

Gil, born 1912 as Ian Ernest Gilmore Green, early took the family name Evans from his stepfather. The family soon moved to California, where he spent the first time of his life. From 1946 onwards he lived and worked in New York City.

In 1941-48 he worked as arranger for the sophisticated Claude Thornhill Orchestra, from 1946 on in New York City. His modest basement apartment behind a Chinese Laundry soon became a meeting place for musicians looking to develop the music from bebop, though Charlie Parker himself was among those involved. With Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, and others Evans collaborated on a band book for a nonet starting in 1948, which had a booking for a week's appearance at the "Royal Roost" as an intermission group on the bill with the Count Basie Orchestra. Capitol Records recorded the group 12 titles at three sessions in 1949 and 1950; these recordings were reissued on LP-album as The Birth of the Cool in 1957.

Later, when Davis was under contract to Columbia Records producer George Avakian suggested several potential arrangers to the trumpeter who immediately fixed on the option of working with Evans again. The three main albums constituting their associarion are Miles Ahead (1957), Porgy and Bess (1958) and Sketches of Spain (1960). Later, another collaboration Quiet Nights (1962) was issued, but against the wishes of Davis, who broke with his then producer Teo Macero for a time, as a result. Although these four records were marketed primarily under the name of Davis (often credited as Miles Davis and the Gil Evans Big Band) Evans's contribution was just as important. Their work was a companionship of classic big band jazz with a skillful soloist. All these collaborations feature Evans's big-band arrangements, onto which Davis played with extraordinary melodic and stylistic skill. Evans also contributed behind-the-scenes help to Davis' classic quintet albums of the 1960s.

From 1957 onwards Evans recorded under his own name too, e.g. his impressionant albums Big Stuff (1957, aka Gil Evans & Ten), Out Of The Cool (1960) and The Individualism Of Gil Evans (1964). In 1965 he was responsible for the arrangements on the big band tracks on Kenny Burrell's Guitar Forms album. 1966 he took an 'special' latin album with his orchestra for the braszilian singer Astrud Gilberto Look To The Rainbow. In the 1970s, following Davis and many other jazz musicians Evans worked in the Free Jazz and Jazz Rock idioms, gaining a new generation of admirers. His tours began not before 1972, two times to Japan and til 1987 many times for festivals and concerts in old Europe.

Evans died 1988 in Cuernavaca, same place as Charles Mingus nine years before.

Discography

Gil Evans and Ten (1957) !
New Bottles, Old Wine (1958) w/ J. Adderley
Great Jazz Standards (1959)
Out of the Cool (1960) !
Into the Hot (1961) w/ C. Taylor, J. Carisi
The Individualism of Gil Evans (1964) !
Verve Jazz Masters 23: Gil Evans (1963–1964)
Guitar Forms (1965) w/ K. Burrell
Look To The Rainbow (1966) w/ A. Gilberto
Svengali (1973)
Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix (1975) !
There Comes a Time (1975)
Little Wing (1978)
Live at the Public Theater Volume 1 & 2 (1980)
Live at Sweet Basil (1984–1986)
Farewell (1986)
Bud and Bird (1986)
Live at Umbria Jazz: Volume 1 & 2 (1987)
75th Birthday Concert (1987)
Paris Blues (1987) duo w/ S. Lacy
A Tribute to Gil (1988)

External links

Maison du Jazz [link] — L. Cugny: short biography & detailed discography (fr/en)

Evans Homepage [link]

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