Out of the Cool
Occupation
- Piano: Gil Evans
- Trumpet: Johnny Coles, Phil Sunkel
- Trombone: Keg Johnson, Jimmy Knepper
- Bass trombone Tony Studd
- Tuba: Bill Barber
- Alto Saxophone, Flute, Piccolo Ray Beckenstein, Eddie Caine
- Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone: Budd Johnson
- Flute, Piccolo, Bassoon: Bob Tricarico
- Guitar: Ray Crawford
- Bass: Ron Carter
- Drums: Elvin Jones, Charlie Persip
Out of the Cool is a jazz album by Gil Evans, recorded in New York City on 18 November and 15 December 1960 and published in the studio of Rudy Van Gelder, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and in 1961 on Impulse! Records.
The album
Out of the Cool was the result of two years of efforts of the pianist and arranger Gil Evans to return to work with his own band. He had already in 1957 - during his collaboration with Miles Davis - with a loose formation Album Gil Evans and Ten produced that involved mostly colleagues from the Claude Thornhill orchestra, and then two more albums recorded (New Bottle, Old Wine (1958 ) and Great Jazz standards ( 1959) ). They documented " the search for better tonal contrasts ," says the biographer Raymond Evans Horricks. These albums ultimately act as a preliminary exercise to the resulting (first) "The Gil Evans Orchestra ," which he introduced in a six-week engagement at New York club The Jazz Gallery in the fall of 1960. After a series of experiments, he had put together the instrumentation here, which he needed for his ideal sound; it consisted of two trumpets, three trombones (including one bass trombone), the two alto saxophones, flutes and piccolo, tuba, electric guitar, himself. pianist, bass and two drummers, Elvin Jones and Charlie Persip
Evans biographer Horricks compares the first - and longest approach with a short - piece La Nevada with Marcel Proust's Search temps perdu and a la " to entering a cathedral; the whole thing was a microcosm of what the band leader and arranger should adopt in his later projects take shape. " and classic albums such as The Individualism of Gil Evans (1963 /64), Where Flamingos Fly ( 1970) Svengali (1973 ) and There Comes a Time (1975 ) arrived at the one-time completion.
Unlike his previous studio productions Evans had with this big band also public appearances, which explains the degree of organization, but also the spontaneity of the music on the Out of the Cool album. Gil Evans reach up to that point so was not part of his distinctive orchestral colors and textures handwriting. At the same time La Nevada was a model of simplicity - it allowed long solos with passages of improvised music or Head Arrangement; "La Nevada " theme comes back again and again. This more "open" style, which should characterize especially his work in the 1970s and 1980s differed from his earlier works, such as the Miles Ahead album from 1957 or Sketches of Spain ( 1959/60 with Miles Davis as the main soloists).
" La Nevada " begins with a solo piano piece by Gil Evans; the rhythm instruments then begin to play one after the other "and it is a high-intensity game in a mid-tempo: Gil Evans used the maracas to strengthen the role of the drums. The topic is broken down by the trumpeters and flutists in fragments, with a sprinkling of guitarist Ray Crawford. Then the topic of the pianist, three trombonists, and finally put forward the trumpets, together with the muted trumpets and woodwinds. " Horricks raises the level of the soloists in the former Evans Band forth, Johnny Coles on trumpet, Tony Studd as a bass trombonist, Budd Johnson as a tenor saxophonist, finally, the young Ron Carter on bass and guitarist Ray Crawford.
Producer Creed Taylor recalls:
Twenty years later, Gil Evans recalled the recording session:
Framed between the Evans compositions La Nevada and the last track, Sunken Treasure, the album contains three foreign compositions, Where Flamingos Fly from the pen of his friend John Benson Brooks, which was based on the arrangement, which he for Helen Merrill (Dream of You, 1956 had written ), further Kurt Weill Bilbao song and George Russell Stratusphunk.
Album Review
Stein Crease cites the contemporary critics of Down Beat writers John S. Wilson on May 25, 1961:
Richard Cook and Brian Morton, the album awarded in their Penguin Guide to Jazz the highest rating, Out of the Cool regarded as " Evans ' masterpiece under his own name and the best example of a jazz orchestration since the early Duke Ellington bands ". There are mainly the soloists - like Johnny Coles in the ghostly " Sunken Treasure", or lonely sounding Jimmy Knepper in Where Flamingoes Fly - which draw attention to the handset. With multiple play back the recordings, however, reveal the serene sophistication of Evans ' arrangements, which provide the immediacy and flexibility of a quintet of strong operating band. La Nevada is for the authors Evans ' best, but also noticed the least score, which - typical of Evans -. Was based on very simple basic patterns "
Ian Carr also emphasizes the album from Gil Evans ' discography and calls it " probably the most perfectly produced work which has published under his own name the band leader. Coles have developed a musical personality that is strong enough to take on the role of Miles Davis Gil Evans Orchestra. "
A rating of four stars also awarded the All Music Guide; Thom Jurek stressed the importance of Miles Davis emerged as his partner in the preceding project, Sketches of Spain, which was completed in mid- 1960; Evans was doing a lot of Miles Davis about improvisation, instinct, and learned musical space, as well as orchestral colors, textures and generate the dynamic tension. Evans orchestrate less here, but rather leave it to the rhythm section of Elvin Jones, Charlie Persip, Ron Carter and Ray Crawford, promote the event. The music on the album is from a wonderful variety, framed by two outstanding Evans compositions, La Nevada and Sunken Treasure.
According to the Evans biographer Stephanie Stein Crease Out of the Cool represents an important step in Evans ' artistic expression. " Titles such as La Nevada were Gil's response to the jazz of the early 1960s - especially the violent exploring improvisation of John Coltrane, whose music touched him highly. Gil's new work integrated Fully Specified and improvised [ ... ] He created a completely different sound world than that which he had created with and for Miles Davis and his previous two albums standard - [ that] now so harmless [ act ] in comparison! Now he reached - even if only subtly - the open plan against deficiencies limits of Chaos touching music that should make up the bulk of his later work, " Stein Crease is supported by the " bleak emotional landscape "which Evans created here. ; this was " a terrain that was forced to explore. From there comes the cry - how to listen for the first time in Porgy and Bess - which should find its counterpart in everything that followed in Gil's work "
Title of the album
Gil Evans Orchestra - Out of the Cool ( Impulse A ( S) 4 )