Gil Evans

At 75 years old, Gil Evans physical status not available right now. We will update Gil Evans's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Career

Evans served as an arranger for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra between 1941 and 1948. And then, early in his career, his arrangements were so difficult to musicians that bassist Bill Crow recalled that Thornhill would cancel Evans's arrangements "when he wanted to punish the band." Evans' humble basement apartment behind a Chinese laundry in New York City soon became a meeting place for musicians looking to produce new musical styles outside of the traditional bebop style of the day. Those on stage included Charlie Parker, the best bebop performer, as well as Gerry Mulligan and John Carisi.

Evans, Miles Davis, Mulligan, and others, in 1948, collaborated on a nonet's album. These ensembles, which were larger than the trio-to-quintet combos but smaller than major bands, on the verge of losing money, allowed arrangers a wider palette of colors by using French horns and tuba. Claude Thornhill had employed hornist John Graas in 1942 and composer-arranger Bob Graettinger had scored for horns and tubas with the Stan Kenton orchestra, but the "Kenton sound" was in the context of a thick orchestral wall of sound that Evans omitted. The Miles Davis-led group was booked for a week at the Royal Roost as an intermission group on the bill with the Count Basie Orchestra. At three sessions in 1949 and 1950, Capitol Records received 12 figures by the nonet. These recordings were reissued on a 1957 Miles Davis LP titled Birth of the Cool.

Davis may have collaborated with one of the various arrangers later in life, while Columbia Records' George Avakian suggested that Davis might work with any of the many arrangers. Davis chose Evans straight away. Miles Ahead (1957), Porgy and Bess (1958), and Sketches of Spain (1960) are among the three albums that resulted from the collaboration. Quiet Nights (1962) was a second collaboration from this time, against Davis' wishes, who then parted with his then-producer Teo Macero for a time as a result. Despite the fact that Davis' name was primarily marketed (and thanks to Miles Davis with Orchestra Under the Direction of Gil Evans), Evans' contribution was as important as Davis's. Evans' work complemented Davis' solo performance of his classic big band jazz styles and arrangements. Evans was also responsible for the 1960s' classic quintet albums.

From the very first note for the lead trumpet to the score, Porgy and Bess's demands were legendary. The limited time allowed for rehearsals revealed that the ability to read such a demanding score was not consistent among jazz players, and there are several audible mistakes. Nevertheless, the album is now considered one of the best reinterpretations of Gershwin's music in any musical style, because Evans and Davis were both dedicated to going beyond "mainstream" of commercial ambitions for jazz players. Evans had a major influence on Davis' interest in "non-jazz" music, particularly orchestral music. Evans' orchestral scores from the Porgy and Bess sessions were later discovered to be incomplete (or even lost), and Quincy Jones and Gil Goldstein attempted to recreate them for Miles Davis' final 1991 appearances at Montreux as Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux. Davis had relented after years of refusing to revisit this information, but he was obviously ill, recovering from pneumonia, and trumpeter Wallace Roney, who was mentored by Davis, covered several of the troubling passages. Davis died before the album was released.

Evans released albums under his own name from 1957 to 2008. Bill Barber and trumpeter Louis Mucci of Thornhill's band were among Evans' early ensembles, with Mucci landing a spot on virtually every pre-1980s Evans album. Lee Konitz, Jimmy Cleveland, Steve Lacy, Johnny Coles, and Cannonball Adderley were among the featured soloists on these albums. He arranged the main band songs on Kenny Burrell's Guitar Forms album in 1965.

Evans was influenced by Spanish composers Manuel de Falla and Joaqun Rodrigo, as well as German expatriate Kurt Weill. His arrangement of works that were already well known to some listeners from their humble cabaret, concert hall, or Broadway stage arrangements revealed elements of the music in a completely new way. Often in an unexpected contrast to the piece's atmosphere, and in other cases, taking a shadow ballad such as Weill's "Barbara Song" into a much darker place.

The personnel list for Gil Evans (1964) includes Bill Barber and hornists James Buffington and Julius Watkins, but not only does the section include Bill Barber and Julius Watkins (along with two others), but each section features the cream of the younger (more technically trained) musicians who were making their names in jazz. The presence of four of the most well-known young bassists (Richard Davis, Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, and Ben Tucker) as well as veteran Milt Hinton would usually indicate that each musician is used for separate projects, but Evans' scores often required at least two bassists, some playing arco (with the bow), and some pizzicato (plucking with fingers, the traditional jazz method). These sets often featured slowed-down tempos with polyrhythmic percussion and no prevailing "beat." Evans' scores included alto and bass flutes, double reeds, and harp; orchestral instruments not associated with "swing" bands; a larger palette of orchestral colors is available; and allowing him to achieve the ethereal quality heard in his Thornhill days. He appeared on stage for Harry Lookofsky's tenor violin. However, this album contained an orchestral arrangement of "Spoonful" by bluesman Willie Dixon, an early indication of Evans' breadth and a hint of things to come.

Look to the Rainbow, Astrud Gilberto's debut in 1966, he recorded an album with Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto. He was dissatisfied by Verve Records' commercial course, and he went into a period of hiatus.

His wife suggested that during this time, when he was still worried about the commercial and logistical difficulties of his previous scoring requirements, he listen to Jimi Hendrix. Evans developed an obsession with the rock guitarist's work. Evans grew another orchestra in the 1970s, but he did not have any of the coloration equipment from his previous orchestras. He earned a new generation of followers while working in the free jazz and jazz-rock idioms. These ensembles, few more than fifteen and often smaller, allowed him to make more contributions on keyboards, and with the advent of true portable synthesizers, he began using them to add more color. Hendrix's death in 1970 prevented a planned meeting with Evans to discuss Hendrix's collaboration with a big band led by Evans.

He released an album of his, and other band members', recordings of music by Hendrix guitarists John Abercrombie and Ryo Kawasaki in 1974. Evans' ensembles featured electric instruments from then onwards, i.e. Live Under The Sky Tokyo '84 features guitars, basses, and synthesizers as a result of bassist Jaco Pastorius Gil Evans' collaboration with bassist Jaco Pastorius Gil Evans. In contrast to his intricate scores for large ensembles, which necessitated precision orchestral accompaniment of a single soloist, his later arrangements would feature more unison playing by the entire ensemble, such as on Hendrix's "Little Wing," with improvisational flourished throughout by the musicians. Some entire pieces were collaborative creations, as Evans can be seen on live recordings, with the keyboard (behind the band) leading the band. His keyboard playing was mostly sparse on recordings prior to the 1970s, but he took on a more active role in the band's rhythm section.

Flamingos Fly (recorded 1971, 1981) where he demonstrated his ability to subpoena the most popular musicians, with veterans Coles, Harry Lookofsky, Richard Davis, and Jimmy Knepper (who appeared on 1961's Out of the Cool) and Billy Harper.

By jazz producer and Sweet Basil owner Horst Liepolt, the Gil Evans Orchestra was booked into the Sweet Basil Jazz Club (Greenwich Village, New York) in April 1983. This proved to be a regular Monday night concert for Evans for almost five years, which resulted in the unveiling of a number of popular songs by Gil Evans and the Monday Night Orchestra. Many of the top-call performers in New York performed in the NBC Saturday Night Live Band, many of whom were also in the NBC Saturday Night Live Band, caused several conflicts, so the night's "deputies" could have included other world-class performers. Nevertheless, Evans was also known to allow newcomers to "sit in" every other day. Former and former band members also handled arrangements. The stalwarts in this group were Lew Soloff, Alan Rubin, Marvin Peterson, Tom "Bones" Malone, George Adams, Hiram Bullock, Mark Egan, drummer Kenwood Dennard, saxophonist Bill Evans (no relation), and Gil Goldstein.

Evans recorded and performed live with Sting in 1987. Last Session – Live At Perugia Jazz Festival, July 11, 1987, starring Monday Night Orchestra players, guest star Branford Marsalis, and big band arrangements of songs by and with The Police and Jimi Hendrix. He collaborated with Maria Schneider as an apprentice arranger on this and other final projects in the spirit of discovering new talent in his bands. On Emarcy/Polygram's recording "Golden Hair," his final project was Nov. 3 & 26, 1987, his arrangements for the Laurent Cugny Big Band in Paris.

Columbia Studio Recordings released a box set in 1996 that included the masterpieces, featured outtakes, and rareties of Miles Davis and Gil Evans.

Ryan Truesdell (de) began the Gil Evans Project, which resulted in the release of Centennial, which featured previously unhearded compositions and arrangements. These were produced with the permission of the Gil Evans estate, who gave Truesdell access to these scores and documents. Miles Evans, Gil Evans' uncle, also conducted the Gil Evans Orchestra in New York's Highline Ballroom for a centennial concert that featured several of the musicians' voices in Evans' lifetime.

Source

Awards and honors

• In 1986, Evans was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame.
• He was also inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1997.