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Gil Evans Remembered: Gil Evans Remembered (Live At The Cutting Room, NYC)

By Jack Kenny
November 26, 2024
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Gil Evans Remembered: Gil Evans Remembered (Live At The Cutting Room, NYC)

Few people have a better right to remember

Gil Evans

composer / conductor
1912 - 1988

" data-original-title="" title="">Gil Evans than these musicians. The serrated wail of this band enraptured, touched and torched the listeners. It is easy to see why musicians from the Monday Night Band would want to play, creating under Evans' beatific musical vision. It must have been inspiring. Most of the musicians on the album played sometime over the years at Sweet Basil from 1983 to Evans' death and even beyond. He loved the way that the band sounded, teetering on the edge of formlessness before coalescing into something definite, the process of becoming.

How did Evans inspire them? He had moved slowly, and controversially, from the precision writing of "Sketches of Spain" music with

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis to a looser, wilder freewheeling sound.

John Surman

saxophone
b.1944

" data-original-title="" title="">John Surman said recently,: "Having been lucky enough to have toured a few times with Gil's band, I have often wondered exactly what he was doing to make the band work as well as he did. It certainly wasn't anything that he said—I can hardly recall him saying anything much about the music. I guess he just wanted us to listen to each other and develop the music together as we felt it."

Lew Soloff

trumpet
1944 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Lew Soloff also talked about Evans as if he was talking about

Duke Ellington

piano
1899 - 1974

" data-original-title="" title="">Duke Ellington. He said Evans thought about the individual musicians rather than just the instruments. "What Gil liked to do was to think of the person. He didn't think of the tuba he thought of

Howard Johnson

tuba
1941 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Howard Johnson. He didn't think of a saxophone sound, he thought of

George Adams

saxophone, tenor
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">George Adams." Soloff said that Evans wanted individual sounds. "He wanted the particular people he hired to sing this thing together in their very own individual manner."

Dave Bargeron

trombone
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Dave Bargeron, talking to Evans' biographer, said: "This is not like free jazz was in the late '60s. It's not that. This is relating in your own personal way to whatever the core of this is that's going on. That's quite different. There are some organizing elements of this that pull you in and help you along. There is usually a mood that's played on, if nothing else. There are usually chord changes, there is usually some kind of set context that the tune is about. There are organizational factors that are a step more organized than just playing free jazz. You're encouraged to play as freely as you can against this core. That's the deal."

There are some important voices missing on the album:

Hiram Bullock

guitar, electric
1955 - 2008

" data-original-title="" title="">Hiram Bullock, Adams,

Howard Johnson

tuba
1941 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Howard Johnson,

David Sanborn

saxophone
1945 - 2024

" data-original-title="" title="">David Sanborn, all dead. Other prominent jazz musicians flitted into the club occasionally:

Johnny Coles

trumpet
1926 - 1997

" data-original-title="" title="">Johnny Coles,

Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson

" data-original-title="" title="">Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson,

Gil Goldstein

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Gil Goldstein.

They came to play the music. Two of the pieces here are by Evans; one by

Jaco Pastorius

bass, electric
1951 - 1987

" data-original-title="" title="">Jaco Pastorius who worked with the band occasionally; one by

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus; two by

Jimi Hendrix

guitar, electric
1942 - 1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Jimi Hendrix and "Nana" by Brazilian composers

Moacir Santos

composer / conductor
1926 - 2006

" data-original-title="" title="">Moacir Santos, Mario Telles and Yanna Cotti.

The lemony alto sound of

Chris Hunter

flute
b.1957

" data-original-title="" title="">Chris Hunter dominates "La Nevada," together with

Dave Stryker

guitar
b.1957

" data-original-title="" title="">Dave Stryker and the bass settings of

Mark Egan

bass
b.1951

" data-original-title="" title="">Mark Egan. The simple but rich theme is inspiring. The noirish, slightly sinister, opening to "London" is played by

Pete Levin

keyboards
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Pete Levin and backed by the deep brass of Bargeron and

Tom Malone

trombone
b.1947

" data-original-title="" title="">Tom Malone. The build-up includes Stryker's guitar. This is probably the best (and longest) arrangement on the album. The French horn solo of

John Clark

french horn
b.1944

" data-original-title="" title="">John Clark gives cool relief. There is intense drama in the way that the ensemble builds behind the horn. The whole arrangement has a profound, pungent, inexorable beautiful shape.

The noble Mingus theme "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" was colonized by Evans. The introduction is played by Levin. He is too good, too professional, lacking the tentative feel of Evans' piano playing. The solo by Soloff is a reminder of how frequently the great trumpeter played with the band. The tenor solo by

Alex Foster

saxophone
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Alex Foster has faint pointers in the direction of Adams, but is wholly Foster. The ensemble playing including the deep brass graces the melancholy beautiful composition and arrangement.

Hendrix had a profound impact on Evans. Evans said that he heard the wail and scream of the blues in the music of Hendrix. Pieces by Hendrix became an essential part of the band's book. The excoriating solo from Hunter on "Stone Free" has the edgy quality that Evans loved in Hunter's playing, suiting exactly the Hendrix piece.

The

Danny Gottlieb

drums
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Danny Gottlieb and

Beth Gottlieb

percussion

" data-original-title="" title="">Beth Gottlieb percussion team opens "Nana." Evans discovered the theme on a Brazilian album by a singer called

Nara Leão

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Nara Le?o. It is easy to see why Evans and the band chose to use this powerful theme and Soloff enjoys soloing in his go-for-broke playing over the weighty rhythm. The clarity of the recording shows the complexity of the arrangement.

Those blessed enough to meet up with the Monday Night Band, live, will remember the sensation and leaps of pleasure as the band pulled their diversity triumphantly together to realize the power and beauty of their playing. There is enough of that glistening in this beautifully recorded album to whet the memory.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

La Nevada; Goodbye Pork Pie; Teen Town; London; Little Wing; Nana; Stone Free.

Personnel

Gil Evans Remembered

band / ensemble / orchestra

Dave Bargeron

trombone

Mark Egan

bass

Alex Foster

saxophone

Beth Gottlieb

percussion

Danny Gottlieb

drums

Chris Hunter

flute

Pete Levin

keyboards

Tom Malone

trombone

Dave Stryker

guitar

Album information

Title: Gil Evans Remembered (Live At The Cutting Room, NYC) | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Dot Time Records

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