Gil Evans Orchestra, The

• Super High Material CD WITH OBI

• 4 STARS ALL MUSIC GUIDE

A complex orchestral work, very compatible to the genious musical mind of this canadian master.The album finds Evans leading and arranging a 14-piece band, featuring ace players like trombonist Jimmy Knepper and the killer rhythm section of bassist Ron Carter and drummer Elvin Jones. It also features Evans' typically futuristic scoring - he had a Mingus-esque tendency to push unusual instruments like the tuba to the front of his arrangements.

The orchestrations presented here are extremely vanguardists, having very little of the colossal works of Evans with Miles Davis in the '50s. The solos are all virtuosic - especially those from trumpeter Johnny Coles and Evans himself, whose piano playing is spare and tasteful while remaining as unorthodox as his arrangements.

PERSONNEL:

• Gil Evans - (piano)
• Keg Johnson - (trombone)
• Jimmy Knepper - (trombone)
• Tony Studd - (bass trombone)
• Bill Barber - (tuba)
• Charlie Persip - (percussion)
• Elvin Jones - (percussion)
• Johnny Coles - (trumpet)
• Phil Sunkel - (trumpet)
• Budd Johnson - (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone)
• Bob Tricarico - (bassoon, flute, piccolo)
• Ron Carter - (bass)
• Ray Crawford - (guitar)

TRACKS:

• 01. La Nevada
• 02. Where Flamingos Fly
• 03. Bilbao Song
• 04. Statusphunk
• 05. Sunken Treasure