Rabble Without A Cause
Wednesday April 18th, 2012 with Bernard Stepien
Gil Evans - Out of the Cool, 1960

Gil Evans was particularly known through his work with Miles Davis. Sketches of Spain is probably the most impressive work in collaboration with Miles Davis. However, few know that his best work ever, Out of the Cool, was on his own and with a well populated band using the various emerging or well established artists of the time like Elvin Jones, Jimmy Knepper, Ron Carter, etc… As its title suggests, Out of the Cool signals a new era or even more after the abrupt changes from wild Be Bop to Cool Jazz to Free Jazz, a radical departure or at least some soul searching. As usual, Jazz being based primarily on fast evolution, Gil Evans was beyond Duke Ellington which by definition was a challenge. The recipe for this success is somewhat simple, a very uncommon distribution of musical instruments with a penchant for the very low pitch tuba, trombones vs the higher pitch trumpets (two of them) and alto saxophones with few tenor saxophones and the unusual sound of the oboe that Yusef Lateef explored so well. In any case, this recording should be a pretty good antidote to schmooze jazz!