Out of The Cool [Vinyl 1LP 180 gram]

Modern Jazz
premiera polska: 2018-06-07
kontynent: Ameryka Północna
kraj: USA
opakowanie: kartonowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com:
Gil Evans urodził się w 1912 roku w Toronto, a zmarł w 1988 w Meksyku. Swoje powołanie odkrył w 1927 roku, zainspirowany koncertem Duka Ellingtona w San Francisco. Pierwszą własną orkiestrę założył w 1933 roku ze stanem Kentonem, a następną z Claudem Thornhillem. W 1947 roku przybył do Nowego Jorku, gdzie początkowo grywał z młodymi muzykami zanim rozpoczął pracę z Milsem Davisem. Aż do końca lat 50-ych jego kariera pozostawała w cieniu legendarnego Davisa. Jednak Evans także odegrał inspirującą rolę w muzyce jazzowej lat 50-ych, szczególnie dzięki nagraniom nonetu Milesa Davisa i własnej orkiestry ("Miles Ahead", 1957).

Sławę przyniosły mu aranżacje utworów takich artystów jak: Dizzy Gillespie, Jerry Roll Morton, Fats Waller czy Thelonious Monk. Narodziny jego pierwszego dziecka spowodowały, że przerwał karierę muzyka. Powrócił do niej dopiero w 1973 roku wraz z własną formacją.
Do najważniejszych autorskich nagrań tego legendarnego bandleadera należą dwie płyty "Out of the Cool" z 1961 roku i "Plays The Music of Jimi Hendrix" z 1975 roku. Na pierwszej z nich można usłyszeć m.in. Rona Cartera na kontrabasie i Elvin Jones za perkusją, na drugiej z kolei Davida Sanborna i Billy'ego Harpera na saksofonach, Johna Abercrombiego na gitarze i Tony'ego Williamsa za perkusją.

O Evansie mawiało się, że to „człowiek-instytucja”. To on programował rozwój Milesa Davisa w latach 50-ych. Gil Evans wykształcił całe pokolenia muzyków jazzowych, otwierał ich na nowe rejony muzyki i oświecał swoją niepospolitą wiedzą i wyobraźnią. Do mieszkania Evansa zaglądali w poszukiwaniu porady sami najwięksi – Charlie Parker, Gerry Mulligan, Cannonball Adderley, Lee Konitz czy młody Miles Davis, z którym Gil Evans nagrał cztary legendarne płyty: "Miles Ahead", "Porgy And Bess", "Sketches Of Spain" i "Quiet Nights And More".
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allmusic.com:
Out of the Cool, released in 1960, was the first recording Gil Evans issued after three straight albums with Miles Davis -- Sketches of Spain being the final one before this. Evans had learned much from Davis about improvisation, instinct, and space (the trumpeter learned plenty, too, especially about color, texture, and dynamic tension). Evans orchestrates less here, instead concentrating on the rhythm section built around Elvin Jones, Charlie Persip, bassist Ron Carter, and guitarist Ray Crawford. The maestro in the piano chair also assembled a crack horn section for this date, with Ray Beckinstein, Budd Johnson, and Eddie Caine on saxophones, trombonists Jimmy Knepper, Keg Johnson, and bass trombonist Tony Studd, with Johnny Coles and Phil Sunkel on trumpet, Bill Barber on tuba, and Bob Tricarico on flute, bassoon, and piccolo. The music here is of a wondrous variety, bookended by two stellar Evans compositions in "La Nevada," and "Sunken Treasure." The middle of the record is filled out by the lovely standard "Where Flamingos Fly," Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht's "Bilbao Song," and George Russell's classic "Stratusphunk." The sonics are alternately warm, breezy, and nocturnal, especially on the 15-plus-minute opener which captures the laid-back West Coast cool jazz feel juxtaposed by the percolating, even bubbling hot rhythmic pulse of the tough streets of Las Vegas. The horns are held back for long periods in the mix and the drums pop right up front, Crawford's solo -- drenched in funky blues -- is smoking. When the trombones re-enter, they are slow and moaning, and the piccolo digs in for an in the pocket, pulsing break. Whoa.
Things are brought back to the lyrical impressionism Evans is most well known for at the beginning of "Where Flamingos Fly." Following a four-note theme on guitar, flute, tuba, and trombone, it comes out dramatic and blue, but utterly spacious and warm. The melancholy feels like the tune "Summertime" in the trombone melody, but shifts toward something less impressionistic and more expressionist entirely by the use of gentle dissonance by the second verse as the horns begin to ratchet things up just a bit, allowing Persip and Jones to play in the middle on a variety of percussion instruments before the tune takes on a New Orleans feel, and indeed traces much of orchestral jazz history over the course of its five minutes without breaking a sweat. "Stratusphunk" is the most angular tune here, but Evans and company lend such an element of swing to the tune that its edges are barely experienced by the listener. For all his seriousness, there was a great deal of warmth and humor in Evans' approach to arranging. His use of the bassoon as a sound effects instrument at the beginning is one such moment emerging right out of the bass trombone. At first, the walking bassline played by Carter feels at odds with the lithe and limber horn lines which begin to assert themselves in full finger popping swing etiquette, but Carter seamlessly blends in. Again, Crawford's guitar solo in the midst of all that brass is the voice of song itself, but it's funky before Johnny Coles' fine trumpet solo ushers in an entirely new chart for the brass. The final cut, "Sunken Treasure," is a moody piece of noir that keeps its pulse inside the role of bass trombone and tuba. Percussion here, with maracas, is more of a coloration device, and the blues emerge from the trumpets and from Carter. It's an odd way to close a record, but its deep-night feel is something that may echo the "cool" yet looks toward something deeper and hotter -- which is exactly what followed later with Into the Hot. This set is not only brilliant, it's fun.
by Thom Jurek

londonjazznews.com:

It is salutary to be reminded what a great writer Gil Evans was, and this Music on Vinyl reissue of Evans’s classic album provides the perfect occasion. Recorded on Impulse in 1960 (one of the label’s very first releases) it was Evan’s fourth outing as a leader, in the wake of his successful collaborations with Miles Davis. The title evokes his first recordings with Miles, which collectively became known as The Birth of the Cool. But it’s more specifically a continuation of the work begun with Miles Ahead in 1957, a new kind of big band music, possessed of a machine-tooled polish — sophisticated, cool and modernist.

The opening track of the album, La Nevada, is an extended (fifteen and a half minutes) film noir masterpiece. It begins with solo, mysterioso Morse-code piano from Evans, a signal of intent from a shadowy realm, then shakers creep in courtesy of the spectacular percussionist Charlie Persip. Upright bass from Ron Carter begins to give structure to the piece. Drummer Elvin Jones picks up the Morse code on the cymbals. There’s a striking spatial sense to this recording as distant horns suggest themselves (trumpets by Johnny Coles, Phil Sunkel, tuba by Bill Barber). The ensemble is now rolling with some notably wonderful guitar from Ray Crawford standing out from the mix. Crawford strums and preens. Then big, sinister trombones muscle in on the act (Jimmy Knepper, Keg Johnson andTony Study). Saxophone banditry ensues from Budd Johnson. There’s a dry hissing of the brushes on the cymbals from Elvin Jones and a gentle, exploratory flute by Ray Beckenstein. Gil Evans provides caressing, descending runs on the piano. The surging, triumphant trombones show Evans’s exceptional talent for section writing. Johnny Coles’s cool, eloquent trumpet weaves through. Then the guitar comes strumming into ascendancy again. Fat notes pour forth and the trombones wail sorrowfully underneath. Beckenstein’s flute soars serenely high above the proceedings, chirping like a fascinated bird. Gil Evans got his start working as an arranger for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra in 1941 and one of their first triumphs was Snowfall. ‘Nevada’ means snowfall in Spanish.

But the power of the opening track shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow the beauty to be found elsewhere in this classic album. Where Flamingos Fly has big swaggering trombone by Jimmy Knepper drunkenly regaling us with its lovely, melancholy tale, Eddie Caine’s flute sharpening the sound and adding deft highlights. Kurt Weill’s Bilbao Song displays delicate sifting of cymbals from Elvin Jones and a chorus of almost abstract horns. The abstraction continues with odd bubbling percussion by Charlie Persip, who is the hero of Sunken Treasure, which is a veritable tour de force for the percussionist. Elsewhere George Russell’s Stratusphunk returns to the dramatic film noir feel and offers spiky crime-jazz. Even more than the piano, the orchestra was Gil Evans’s instrument, and he never played it better than he does here.
by Andrew Cartmel

muzycy:
Gil Evans (piano, arrangements, conductor)

Johnny Coles, Phil Sunkel (trumpet)
Keg Johnson, Jimmy Knepper (trombone)
Tony Studd (bass trombone)
Bill Barber (tuba)
Bob Tricarico (fagot, flute, piccolo flute)
Ray Beckenstein, Eddie Caine (alto saxophone, flute, piccolo flute)
Budd Johnson (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone)
Ray Crawford (guitar)
Ron Carter (double bass)
Charlie Persip, Elvin Jones (drums, percussion)

utwory:
A1. La Nevada [15:33]
A2. Where Flamingos Fly [5:12]
B1. Bilbao Song [4:12]
B2. Stratusphunk [8:04]
B3. Sunken Treasure [4:19]
B4. Sister Sadie [6:56]

wydano: 2018-06-07 (1960)
nagrano: 1960, New Jersey