js When The “Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix” came out in the early 70s, it was a big deal, and for good reason too. Attempts to merge heavy rock and orchestral music were still a new thing then and many attempts at such a merger were often a clumsy mess. Gil was given much well deserved praise in that he quite successfully took the music of Jimi Hendrix and gave it a big band treatment that somehow managed to capture the best of both the rock and big band jazz worlds. Flash forward several decades to today and this album still holds up, but since it became a blueprint for others to follow, its rockin big band sounds are hardly unusual anymore. Late night entertainment shows such as Saturday Night Live and David Letterman have been featuring big bands playing classic rock and RnB tunes for some time now and several tracks on the ‘Evans Plays Hendrix’ album sound like they would fit in well during a commercial break while Paul Shaffer or G.E. Smith is trying to keep the audience hyped.

Opening track, “Angel”, is probably the one closest to a late night break rave up, especially since it features the sax melody and solo of David Sanborn, the owner of one of the most imitated horn sounds on late night TV. “Cross Town Traffic” and “Foxey Lady” are the other two that also fall more in this direction. “Castles Made of Sand” is the first track to really head in an interesting and alternative direction as Evans introduces counter melodies that hang like dissonant clouds and totally transform the song. “Up from the Skies” is essentially a jazz song to begin with, which might explain why it works so well as Evans once again produces an appealing murkiness that takes the track towards exotic Sun Ra territory. “1983 - A Merman I Should Turn to Be” is also given an interesting facelift as it becomes a spaghetti western movie theme. The least successful track is “Voodoo Chile”, whose melody is played by Howard Johnson who sounds like he is humming through his horn producing a non-appealing kazoo type sound.

This is a Gil Evans album, so the performances and orchestrations are outstanding, its just that this album probably would have aged better if he had gone more in the experimental direction, and less in the rockin direction.

js After three very successful albums with Miles Davis, Gil Evans set out on his own again and came up with this excellent set of groovy orchestrations called “Out of the Cool”. Unlike many other big band arrangers, Gil Evans does not try to literally blow you away with screaming horn ensemble passages and other sorts of fireworks, instead, subtlety and an almost effortless nonchalance are all a big part of what makes Evans’ music unique and attractive. Evan’s orchestrations sound like no one else, the tendency towards smeared murkiness and weird undercurrents may sometimes recall Ellington or Sun Ra, but other than that, there are not many others to compare against. A few years before "Out of the Cool" came out, the young Quincy Jones had emerged with a new big band sound that was bright, crisp and featured razor sharp ensemble playing, Evan’s more quirky, laid back and personally odd approach made for an interesting contrast to all that.

“Out of the Cool” opens with “La Nevada”, which is basically a long modal jam session on which Evans mostly stays out of the way while the soloists play excellent solos in a very relaxed and personal style that reflects the Evan’s approach. After this lengthy workout, the first side closes with the ballad “Where Flamingos Fly”, which is nicely played by trombonist Jimmy Knepper while Evans constantly shifts the harmonic and rhythmic background in subtle ways. Side two opens with Kurt Weil’s “Bilbao”, on which bassist Ron Carter carries much of the melody while being surrounded by horn dissonances that hang in the air while odd home-made percussion rumbles in the background. This side continues with one of those George Russell experimental numbers that combine modern concert hall structures with walking blues. While the soloists dig into the blues, the rhythm section keeps shifting in and out of double time and sometimes the bass is replaced with a walking trombone. The album closes with an Evan’s original, “Sunken Treasure”, which has Johnny Coles playing a trumpet solo over what sounds like a closing theme from a movie. You could see a piece like this having a big influence on Henry Threadgill.

Gil Evans is a tough artist to write about, its hard to explain why his orchestrations sound like no one else, you’ll just have to listen for yourself. One of the biggest compliments I could pay this album is that this music still sounds very modern today, and will probably continue to sound that way for a long time. Fans of modern orchestration from a jazz viewpoint will definitely want to get this.

Sean Trane Well, there was an almost three-year gap in Evans’ solo career before the present on a different label (Verve, this time), in which I’m not sure what he did (outside Miles collabs) and it would almost seven years before another album would come out under his name. In the meantime, this isolated album just happens to be among his top 3 most essential albums, along with previous Out Of The Cool and the latter Svengali 70’s release. As often with GE, the music has a cinematic film (meaning it would be perfect to illustrate images, either documentaries or fiction), but it never gets boring and certainly don’t need visuals to exist and explode in your brains. Actually, as often, the music will induce images before you aural eyes. Among the cast of actors, you’ll find Shorter, Peacock, Elvin & Thad, Dolphy, Carter, Lacy, Chambers, Coles and Knepper and that’s only the name-dropping part.

The CD version of this album is a rather strange format that includes plenty of bonus tracks: nothing strange to that you’ll tell me, but to have the disc open on a bonus track is a relatively odd manner to reissue a classic album. There is somewhat of an explanation: if Time Of The Barracudas was recorded in the same session as Barbara Song, both are exquisite typical Gil Evans tracks that fit rather well together in terms of musical continuity. So much for preserving the integrity of the original release, but the cause is indeed a valid one. Past the exciting but still-swingy new opener, we come to the amazing Barbara, one of the masterpiece of this album, which starts out over some excellent horn works over Peacock’s excellent bass, soon joined by Elvin’s always excellent drumming, then it continues with an anguished piano over a smooth and very slow but brooding low-brass background. Excellent stuff!! Another chef d’oeuvre is the outstanding Las Vegas Tango, with its opening piano prefacing awesome Spanish-type mid-tempoed brass lines, before exploding your mind in pieces with an amazingly effective three notes high-brass ostinato riff coupled with low-brass single note answers, while guitarist Burrell sends one of those most definitive jazz-guitar solo ever through your eardrums, thus spending chills in your spine. Awesome stuff, really

Across the slice of wax, on the flipside, there was the 12-mins+ Flute-Hotel suite, the mood remains Rodrigo-styled in the intro, before Elvin bangs a tempo forcing the blowers and Gil to rolling over in a semi-bluesy groove, but it kind of overstays its welcome. Closing the original album is another Spanish-tinged track called Toreador that puts on an extra layer of dramatics. The album gets a prolonged life with the excellent and very à-propos Proclamation, another slow, brooding and dramatic cinematic piece. So far the new version of the album is nearly flawless, but it stops here, because the remaining tracks (however good they might be in their own genre) have simply nothing to do with the original album, at least musically speaking.

The Ellington-typed big band piece Nothing Like You sticks out like a toe, while the semi-goofy bluesy-swing jazz Concorde is again out of subject from the original lp. However, the last (and lengthy) bonus track, the Willie Dixon classic blues Spoonful is much more in line with Individualism, because the album’s aesthetics are respected. So the Cd version of the album is an undeniable plus to the vinyl version, if you’re willing to use the skip button on two ill-advised additions. But by all means, don’t let this slight imperfection discourage you from this absolutely essential album. Your life won’t be complete without this one, really!!!!!

Sean Trane Svengali is the generally-agreed masterpiece of Gil Evans in the 70’s, but if you’re a fan of Evans’ 60’s warm arrangements, you might not always find that Gil’s 70’s re-orchestration are in your tastes, because many consider the ambiances as colder, despite being of a groovier feel. Difficult to argue with that, but I certainly don’t think it’s a flaw, and IMHO this is Evans’ apex in his second career (the 70’s), after a fairly lengthy silence between 61 and 69, with only the astounding Individualism album of 64. Armed with an extensive big band - from which will emerge David Sanborn and Billy Harper (both saxmen) some time later on in the decade - Evans pulls off another very strong work, if a tad uneven at places. The weird thing about this album is that two of its longer tracks were already on the previous Blues In Orbit album from 71.

Opening on the enthralling Harper-penned Thoroughbred, the album continues with the uneven 10-mins+ Blues In Orbit, where you’ll find some odd synth sound that clash somewhat over the modern funky big-band instrumental fusion, but in general, Evans’ arrangements are quite tasty. Too bad the inconsequent (but thankfully short) rear-guard rendition of Miles’ Eleven closes the A-side. The flipside opens on Cry Of Hunger, but Harper’ slightly dissonant sax solo over some strange background clash a bit with the blues nature of the piece. This is the typical track that the 70’s-Evans-work detractors will point out as “cold feel”, but it’s nothing shocking to me. The rearranged Gershwin-classic Summertime is up next, and it is very much slowed-down, but it adds a unique feeling, reinforced by Dunbar’s excellent guitar solo up front. Cool stuff. The closing live-recorded Zee Zee is an absolutely stunning slow-paced almost-gloomy track, with some splendid Hannibal trumpet interventions.

Definitely Evans’ best 70’s album - by a long shot (haven’t heard them all, though) -, even if the first two tracks had appeared on a previous album with different arrangements, Svengali renews with Gil’s full splendour. I’ve seen the album come with a very different abstract artwork on a German label, but prefer the original one. Not totally indispensable maybe, but still rather essential.

Sean Trane A daring attempt to legitimize Jimi Hendrix’s music, this is a big band arrangement of some of Hendrix’s lesser-known works, but also some higher profile works. Armed with a very different big band than during his prime, Gil Evans’ big band features the usual wide array of brass instruments (including future star saxman Sanborn), but also two lead guitarists (including the future star John Abercrombie), some synthesizers and a bunch drums and percussion players.

Among some of the tracks Gil chose to interpret and rearrange there are some that come from the Cry Of Love posthumous release, including the opening Angel and Up From the Skies, which are not the most enthralling, IMHO. Some of the arrangements made on some of the better-known Crosstown Traffic, Foxy Lady, Little Wing, Voodoo Chile can actually surprise or disappoint, because they either render the songs less accessible or less recognizable. Some very pleasant surprises come with the generally overlooked 1983 and Gypsy Eyes (actually a Noel Redding track). Indeed both of these come from the depth of the excellent Electric Ladyland album’s second disc. As for the closing “reprise” of the Up From the Skies, I find it rather ill-advised closer, because it’s less interesting than the first version on the opening side.

Generally seen as a major Gil Evans oeuvre, the present album is relatively disappointing for me, but then again, this is always a risky bet for rockheads like me, but if you’re into Evans and Hendrix, this is definitely worthy of investigation, if you don’t already have it.