LINES OF
COLOR: Live at Jazz Standard, the sophomore album from composer/producer Ryan
Truesdell's award-winning Gil Evans Project, will be released on March 17, 2015
on the newly-formed Blue Note/ArtistShare label (www.GilEvansProject.com). This
highly anticipated release follows Truesdell's debut CD CENTENNIAL: Newly
Discovered Works of Gil Evans, which won a posthumous Grammy Award for Gil
Evans and the New York Times called "an extraordinary album." LINES OF COLOR - the next step in Truesdell's
endeavor to reveal hidden layers of Gil Evans' musical legacy - features some
of New York's finest musicians including Lewis Nash, Donny McCaslin, Steve
Wilson, Ryan Keberle, Marshall Gilkes, and Scott Robinson. The CD was recorded
by Grammy award-winning engineer James Farber with the live engineering team of
Tyler McDiarmid and Geoff Countryman.
LINES OF
COLOR was recorded during the Gil Evans Project's annual week-long engagement
at Jazz Standard in New York City from May 13-18, 2014. It consists of six
newly discovered, never before recorded works (including "Avalon
Town," "Can't We Talk It Over," and "Just One Of Those
Things"), two arrangements with previously unheard sections
("Davenport Blues" and "Sunday Drivin'"), and three of
Evans' well-known charts from his classic albums ("Time of the Barracudas,"
"Concorde," and "Greensleeves"). Throughout the engagement,
the Gil Evans Project presented nearly fifty of Evans' works, most of which
were performed live for the first time. Truesdell decided to record live for
the Gil Evans Project's second album to honor the essence of Evans' music that craves
live performance. "It allows Gil's colors and the overtones of the music
to sound and blend in the room in a way that you can't get from a close-mic
studio recording," says Truesdell. "Live recording captures this
intangible energy that's created when music is performed for an audience. It
gives listeners a sense of the magic that happens when the notes are lifted off
the page by these amazing musicians."
The
eleven selections that make up LINES OF COLOR represent everything you hope for
in a live recording: a beautiful sound, a lively, involved audience, and
precise and inspired performances of remarkable music. Of this collection, six
of the charts were originally written during Evans' tenure with the Claude
Thornhill orchestra, including never-before-heard arrangements of "How
High the Moon," "Avalon Town," and a rare Evans original
composition, "Gypsy Jump," written in 1942. A fun tune with an
unusual 36-bar form, "Gypsy Jump" seems to show a slight influence
from the "Arabian Dance" from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, also arranged
by Evans for Thornhill during this time. "Can't We Talk It Over," a
gorgeous ballad from the Thornhill Orchestra's late 1940s repertoire,
illustrates Evans' strong bebop influences as evidenced by a direct musical
quote from a Charlie
Parker
solo. It is a wonderful feature for the Gil Evans Project's resident vocalist,
Wendy Gilles. Bruce Lundvall,
Chairman Emeritus of Blue Note Records said, "Wendy has an amazing voice
which is a perfect fit for this music."
Two
charts on the record represent the middle of Evans' career; one of which he and
his band never recorded, and only performed once. In the spring of 1959, Evans
and his orchestra played the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, sharing the
billing with Dinah Washington and Thelonious Monk. For this concert, Evans
chose to revisit a few charts from his past, including Cole Porter's "Just
One of Those Things," which was based on the arrangement Evans did for his
first album as a leader in 1957, Gil Evans + 10. Ever the reviser, Evans took
the opportunity to do a bit of rearranging as well as re-orchestrating the
chart to fit the instrumentation for the concert. The Gil Evans Project's
first-time recording of this great Evans arrangement features incredible solos
from Steve Wilson on soprano, trombonist Ryan Keberle, and pianist Frank
Kimbrough. The other tune from this era is Evans' great adaptation of Bix
Beiderbecke's "Davenport Blues," originally recorded on the 1959
album, Great Jazz Standards. "I was ecstatic when I discovered Gil's score
to "Davenport," says Truesdell. "There were four pages in the
middle of the score that were omitted from the original version. I'm thrilled
we were able to record the entire chart as Gil first conceived it." Rather
than imitating trumpet soloist Johnny Coles' definitive performance on Evans'
Great Jazz Standards album, Truesdell decided to take a slightly different
approach. The slower tempo and Lewis Nash's heavy, slightly dirty swing feel
emphasizes the bluesy elements and perfectly articulates Gil's hard-swinging
rhythms. "I was blown away by Mat Jodrell's performance; he poured every
bit of his soul and personality into the solo and really made it his own,"
says Truesdell.
Rounding
out LINES OF COLOR is a collection of tunes from Evans' output in the
mid-1960s, including the Gil Evans Project's dynamic renderings of "Time
of the Barracudas," and "Concorde," which both first appeared on
the Individualism of Gil Evans recording. "Greensleeves," originally
arranged for guitarist Kenny Burrell, receives a fresh take from trombonist
Marshall Gilkes, whose unparalleled tone and inventive melodicism uplift this
familiar tune and Gil's singular writing.
With
LINES OF COLOR, Truesdell has solidified his reputation as one of the foremost
Gil Evans scholars, while leading a band of industry giants in an historic and
invaluable undertaking. Picking up where the Gil Evans Project's 2013 Grammy
award-nominated album CENTENNIAL: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans left off,
LINES OF COLOR is an exciting glimpse into how Truesdell and his critically
acclaimed band are fulfilling the most crucial aspect of his vision: to bring
Evans' music to new ears, and to extend his legacy into the 21st century.
UPCOMING
GIL EVANS PROJECT PERFORMANCES:
Saturday,
March 28, 2015
ROYAL
CONSERVATORY-KOERNER HALL, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Sunday,
March 29, 2015
DRAKE
UNIVERSITY-HARMON FINE ARTS CENTER, Des Moines, Iowa
Ryan
Truesdell and the Gil Evans Project perform selections from LINES OF COLOR and
CENTENNIAL, as well as other classic Gil Evans' arrangements.
Thursday,
May 14 through Sunday, May 17, 2015
LINES OF
COLOR CD RELEASE, Jazz Standard, New York City
Fourth-annual
residency at Jazz Standard, debuting selections from the new CD, as well as
other rarely performed works from Gil's catalog - including music from the
albums New Bottle Old Wine, Great Jazz Standards, Individualism of Gil Evans,
and more.
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