Gil Evans

A quasi-legal European issue, this turns out to be a succinct summary of Gil Evans' limited output under his own leadership in the late '50s. It includes most of the selections from his World Pacific albums New Bottle, Old Wine and Great Jazz Standards (six from the former, five from the latter), plus a single track, "Ella Speed," from the Prestige album Gil Evans Plus Ten. Always thought-provoking and moody in timbre, even at fast tempos, Evans' charts on these albums are at a creative level just a bit below the masterpieces that he wrote for Miles Davis in these years -- which was still a cut above almost everyone else on the market then. The New Bottle tracks are dominated by the joyous wailing of Cannonball Adderley on alto, spelled by such Evans favorites as Johnny Coles (trumpet) and Chuck Wayne (guitar), and propelled by bassist Paul Chambers and either Art Blakey or Philly Joe Jones on drums. The Great Jazz Standards tracks retain Coles and feature Budd Johnson on clarinet, Steve Lacy on soprano, and Curtis Fuller and Jimmy Cleveland on trombone. Given the 65-minute playing time, there could have been a bit more from Plus Ten for balance's sake, but what we get has Lacy and altoist Lee Konitz doing solo honors. The remastering is mostly very good, although there are some distracting tape dropouts in some of the Great Jazz Standards tracks. Stunningly for an item of this dubious origin, there are complete details on session dates and personnel. ~ Richard Ginell, All Music Guide