Yesterday [May 26th] was the 99th birthday of Miles Davis. No matter how much Mr Davis tried to shake it off one of the defining moments of his career was a series of studio dates that produced his iconic recordings he made with the legendary Gil Evans, a pianist, composer, orchestrator, and conductor. They began with The Birth of the Cool [Capitol, 1957], continued through Miles Ahead [Columbia, 1957], followed by Porgy and Bess [Columbia, 1959] and then Sketches From Spain [Columbia, 1960]. Then Miles effectively turned his back on his celebrated collaborator. “I have to change,” he told Quincy Troupe, “It’s like a curse,” he said.
But there is another, equally important manner in which Gill Evans has to be remembered. And that is because of Ryan Truesdell, a musician seemingly cut from the same precious cloth as Mr Evans. Mr Truesdell is an orchestrator and conductor who has turned out some of the most remarkable recordings in homage to his muse of all time. This began with Ryan Truesdell presents Centennial – Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans [ArtistShare, 2012], then Ryan Truesdell presents Gil Evans Project Live at Jazz Standard: Lines of Color [ArtistShare, 2015]. And now another altogether memorable recording – Ryan Truesdell presents Gil Evans Project Live at Jazz Standard Vol. 2: Shades of Sound.
This may be just beginning as far as Mr Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project is concerned. However, we are also into the third new iteration of appreciation for Gil Evans, but also the start of a new appreciation for orchestral work by Mr Truesdell. There is a not-so-subtle difference of course. While we are listening to pieces worked over by Mr Evans on one or other of his iconic albums as leader which came to be after his stint with Claude Thornhill. So, while there is in fact, a musical statement of the conceptions of Mr Evans – with tuba, French horns, viola, woodwinds and brass playing as if the rhythm of the poetry of William Carlos Williams were married to the narratives, the shades and timbre that also melded Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Joaquin Rodrigo together, the music was born of a new palimpsest.
It is clear that – like the literal interpretation of a “palimpsest” – this repertoire is engraved “upon” the gleaming notes of Mr Evans’ work. However, Mr Truesdell has inked “upon” the old orchestrations, his own glorious imprint. A new orchestral monarch has put his own new and individual imprint on that of the Old Master. Which does not necessarily mean that Mr Evans has been erased, improved upon or otherwise obscured. If anything – like two orchestrators and conductors voicing Bach, Beethoven or Brahms, or Debussy, Ravel or Rodrigo, Mr Truesdell brings new lines and shades to the music, and with each stroke of the pen and the arc of his conductor’s hands it is his notes that leap off the page and pirouette in the air of the listening room.
In “Spoonful,” for instance, we lose nothing either of Willie Dixon’s blues, or Mr Evans’ poetic retelling of that blues, but like Homer giving rise to Shakespeare and then T S Eliot or Ezra Pound, the chart receives an altogether aural canvas. This is also true of Mr Evans’ “Neetie’s Blues,” Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s “Barbara Song” as well as Evans’ “Buster’s Last Stand” and the rest of the magically expressions of melodic, harmonic and rhythmic conceptions [shaded by Mr Evans yet now owned by Mr Truesdell] which this brilliant orchestrator has brought to bear on all of the other works on the album. Throughout Mr Truesdell continues to ring the changes in mood, structure, and tempi, making for a constantly riveting programme.
The considerable degree of balance and integration of melody, harmony and rhythm, of composition and improvisation, of exploration, individuality and tradition is also impressively maintained throughout. Soli are brief, extraordinary, deeply songful and intensely musical. The cast is celestial, with such magnificent artists as Donny McCaslin, and Steve Wilson, Augie Haas and Greg Gisbert, Marshall Gilkes and Ryan Kaberle, Marcos Rojas, James Chirillo, Jay Anderson and the great Lewis Nash. And we are edified by the pianism of the late Frank Kimbrough. Wendy Gilles is a perfect vocalist for this music. Another album from Gil Evans Project to die for… And, of course, more music of Gil Evans to yearn for.
Deo Gratis…
Music – 1. Spoonful; 2. The Ballad of the Sad Young Men; 3. Laughing at Life; 4. Neetie’s Blues; 5. I Had Someone Else Before I Had You; 6. Barbara Song 7. It’s The Sentimental Thing To Do; 8. Buster’s Last Stand.
Musicians – Ryan Truesdell: conductor; Woodwinds – Steve Kenyon, Steve Wilson [alto saxophone solo on 3, clarinet solo on 5], Dave Pietro [alto saxophone solo on 1], Donny McCaslin [tenor saxophone soli on 1, 6, 8], Scott Robinson, Brian Landrus, Tom Christiansen [tenor saxophone solo on 3, 4] Alden Banta; French Horns – Adam Unsworth, David Peel; Trumpets – Augie Haas, Greg Gisbert [solo on 8], Mat Jodrell [solo on 1]; Trombones – Ryan Kaberle [solo on 2], Marshall Gilkes [solo on 5], George Flynn [bass trombone]; Tuba – Marcus Rojas; Rhythm – James Chirillo: guitar; Frank Kimbrough: piano [soli on 1, 2, 4, 8]; Jay Anderson: bass; Lewis Nash: drums [soli on 4, 8]; Wendy Gilles: vocals [3, 5, 7]; Lois Martin: viola.
Released: 2025
Label: Outside In Music OIM2515
[gilevansproject.com]
Runtime: 49:43