" data-original-title="" title="">Gil Evans could have succumbed to this fate if not for his living-and-breathing guardian angel, Ryan Truesdell. Much attention was rightly heaped on Truesdell when he put together Centennial—Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans (ArtistShare, 2012), but he humbly deflected much of that praise back toward Evans. That release, timed to hit the marketplace as the Evans centennial got underway in May of 2012, did much to raise the profile of its architect and subject, and it positioned Truesdell as the rightful carrier of the Evans torch; he played that role to perfection and carried that torch proudly during this ambitious stand at New York's Jazz Standard, which took shape exactly a year after the centennial stir began.

The purpose of Centennial—Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans was to present and honor music that never properly saw the light of day during Evans' lifetime, but this stint at Jazz Standard was about his known successes. Three major touchstones in Evans' artistic life—his writing for the