MILES DAVIS & GIL EVANS:
Miles Ahead (continued)

<<Previous Page

The issuance of Evans’ two 1958 releases, New Bottle—Old Wine and Great Jazz Standards on a single CD entitled Gil Evans: The Complete Pacific Jazz Sessions reveals that Evans could work magic with musicians other than Miles. The featured soloist on New Bottle—Old Wine is Cannonball Adderley, who would also distinguish himself on Kind of Blue, not to mention his own Davis-produced session, Somethin’ Else, recorded the same year as New Bottle. Adderley’s bright alto sound is in sharp contrast to Miles’ more melancholy trumpet sound, and the concept here is quite different, as Evans tackles nothing less than a kind of history of jazz music, presenting arrangements of “St. Louis Blues,” “King Porter Stomp,” Fats Waller’s “Willow Tree,” “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue,” “Lester Leaps In,” “Round Midnight,” “Manteca,” and Charlie Parker’s “Bird Feathers.” Many of these tunes are decidedly ‘hot’ in nature, but Evans’ arrangements manage to display a ‘cool’ palette even though there is never a lack of energy. The tunes are given modern harmonic orchestration, and Evans certainly displays sensitivity towards the music itself, as evidenced by this observation from David Baker’s liner notes, written for a 1975 Blue Note reissue of these albums: (speaking of ‘King Porter Stomp’)

The remaining seven tracks on The Complete Pacific Jazz Sessions—“Davenport Blues,” “Straight No Chaser,” “Ballad of the Sad Young Men,” “Joy Spring,” “Django,” “Chant of the Weed,” and the Evans original “La Nevada (Theme)” come from the followup album Great Jazz Standards. Recorded in 1959, this album doesn’t feature Adderley, and indeed features several different soloists rather than relying on a single instrumental voice to carry the recording. Trumpeter Johnny Coles solos on the Bix Biederbicke piece “Davenport Blues,” while Monk interpreter supreme Steve Lacy solos on “Straight No Chaser.” Other musicians contributing to this effort include Curtis Fuller, Jimmy Cleveland, Bill Barber, Al Block, Ray Crawford, Tommy Potter, Budd Johnson, and Elvin Jones.

Evans continued to record under his own name as well as working with artists such as Kenny Burrell and Astrud Gilberto. He eventually became very interested in the work of guitarist Jimi Hendrix and recorded a couple of albums dedicated to interpretations of Hendrix’ music. Certainly Evans’ place in jazz history is secure, even if albums such as the two collected on The Complete Pacific Jazz Sessions as well as recordings like Out of the Cool and Into the Hot have not really received the attention they deserve. It is his work with Miles that Evans will always be most remembered, at least in part because of the enduring popularity of Miles Ahead, Sketches of Spain, and Porgy and Bess in the Davis canon of recorded work.

Last night, driving coolness of an early summer evening with windows and sunroof open, my girlfriend and I were flipping radio stations when, suddenly, we hit on Miles’ performance of “Summertime” from the Evans/Davis Porgy and Bess album. It was the perfect accompaniment to the gorgeous weather and the beautiful city evening that was unfolding before us. We listened in awe, and then I realized that this was being played on our local smooth jazz radio station. Indeed the track that followed (which I did not recognize) was standard smooth jazz radio fare, complete with sequencer rhythm section. Miles is something of the patron saint of smooth jazz trumpet, as players like Chris Botti and Rick Braun aping his trademark late fifties/early sixties sound, and his work with Evans is likely popular (as is Kind of Blue) among the jazz music as lifestyle accessory set. The argument is that these are essentially ‘smooth’ recordings, with soft, cool sounds and late night trumpet, and so it is not legitimate to criticize Botti and Braun on the basis of their smoothness, since Davis and Evans were mining the same area. But, while these musicians are decent within the confines of their chosen genre, their music only matches the Evans/Davis collaborations on the surface. Beneath the surface, there is nowhere near the depth and attention to detail that Evans lavished on his arrangements, nor is there anything like the soul that Davis put into his trumpet work in front of those arrangements.

To those seeking some great listening and an opportunity to understand what was going on with some of the greatest arrangements and collaborations in modern jazz, I highly recommend the Davis/Evans albums as well as Evans’ Complete Pacific Jazz Sessions. All of these recordings provide both relaxation and musical intensity, not to mention the opportunity to hear some of the greatest jazz musicians and one of its most talented arrangers do their thing. Just right for that perfect summer’s day.