One of jazz's most celebrated arrangers and composers,
Gil Evans recorded for many labels during his 50-plus years in jazz. His Columbia and RCA periods were long and particularly fruitful ones because of the musicians he surrounded himself with. While it's true that his collaboration with
Miles Davis is the most celebrated and well known, some of the other players who appeared on
Evans' own records were
Billy Harper,
Jerome Richardson,
Tony Williams,
David Sanborn,
Peter Gordon,
Lee Konitz,
Johnny Coles,
Lew Soloff,
Julius Watkins,
Elvin Jones,
Ryo Kawasaki, and dozens more. This 13-cut collection represents
Evans' pioneering arrangements and interpretations of everything from standards (
George Gershwin's "My Man's Gone Now," and the "King Porter Stomp") to his experiments with
Davis in orchestral jazz, "Solea," "The Pan Piper," and "Miles Ahead," and finally pop music, most notably the music of
Jimi Hendrix "Little Wing" and "Up from the Skies." These tracks offers a visionary look at
Evans, and a veritable rainbow of colors, textures, harmonies, and dynamics embodied in one man that we are not likely to encounter again. For the price this sampler cannot be beat. ~ Thom Jurek