Gil Evans - Out of the Cool

I would like to propose a bold statement. Gil Evans should be considered the source of Miles Davis' success and his musical genius. I base this on this album alone because on this album, freed from Davis' arrogance, Evans is able to create what has to be in the running for the best large ensemble jazz album of all time. When you listen to the three albums (Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain) that Evans did with Davis in the late 50s what you hear is Evans arrangements being played by a Miles Davis who thought he could make them better with his laconic, lackadaisical, perpetually-Harmon-muted trumpet.

Strong stuff, I know, but I use those terms to denigrate Miles to emphasize how important I think Evans is as a musician. Out of the Cool is as good an album as any that Davis ever recorded, with the sole possiblity (notice it isn't guaranteed in my view) of Kind of Blue.

(As a bit of a footnote here, please recognize that I do like Miles Davis. I just think that his brilliance lay in surrounding himself with the best musicians, and that ultimately this made Davis come out looking better than his individual contributions to the music warrant.)

"La Nevada"

I know this is probably by far the most popular tune on the album. It deserves it. Evans' piano manages to create an amazing, brilliant tension that even when the piano line changes to a standard style of chording accompaniment as the piece progresses, maintains itself in the rest of the rhythm section.

I have this tune on right now, and I have no idea what to write about it. It is a cliche, but it leaves me speechless. I know why it hits me that way, too. It says what it wants to using music. What this song is trying to communicate it isn't possible to say using words.

The trombone solo on this thing just kicked in (at the 6:02 mark). After 2 recent weeks of trombone choirs and their attendant horrors, I feel like like someone finally gets what a trombone could and should be. Thank god, I was worried that the Flying Dutchman (Winding) was going to be the last word on jazz trombone.

And now a tenor sax solo - I know it is a bit of a sacrilege (especially for me), but that solo rivals any of Coltrane's from the same time period. (Not overall, Coltrane played stuff that will make your head explode and you will love every minute of it, but from 1960 - this is good stuff even compared to Coltrane).

"Where Flamingos Fly"

I would like to believe that this album might be Gil Evans' response to the trombone-schlock that Winding and Johnson put out on impulse! before Out of the Cool. I want to believe that Evans heard those albums, reacted to them the same way I did, and then turned "Where Flamingos Fly" into a musical smackdown of Winding's and Johnson's crime against the trombone. (I feel as though the Hague should get involved with the unnatural acts that two perpetrated on that fine instrument.)

The feeling in this song would make me actually weep openly, in front of other males, if my heart was not a chunk of ice-cold granite.

"Bilbao"

Listen for the dissonances in the head - it is a small thing, but they make this tune. A perfect example of how knowing the rules, and then breaking them just a little bit, can turn something from a rather mundane piece into a piece of music that is art and not just ear candy. Breaking the rules a little bit is where so many of the avant-garde guys are going to go wrong - they break every rule and a lot of what they do is just a waste of time.

"Stratosphunk"

This tune has a nice quiet energy, that frankly doesn't excite me all that much. The walking trombone line, frankly gets a bit irritating. It does have a really great horn line at about 1:53 or so that is just a great riff that doesn't end up feeling like it was destined to be played ad infinitum by a basketball pep band.

But, honestly, I just can't get over how this song just seems to plod all the way through. It isn't a bad tune, its just that its mellowness leans towards the boring and unenergetic - not the calm and relaxed vibe that I think Evans wanted with it.

"Sunken Treasure"

I think this is my favorite song on the album. (I am a contrarian. If I was not, it would be "La Nevada", but since every body else picks that one...)

It swells. There is no other way to describe it. Having relatively recently been on several boats on the ocean, this is the musical equivalent of feeling waves pass under the keel. And the part I like best about this swelling? it isn't dynamics/volume. It is tone, timbre, chord progression, etc. He does it the hard way, not the easy way.

It is also painfully relaxing.

"Sister Sadie" (this is a bonus track from the C.D. release, and I have it, so I will talk about it, but...)

This is a bonus track for a reason. It does not fit this album. "Sister Sadie" isn't bad, but its vibe is much more Genius + Soul = Jazz by Ray Charles, than it is Gil Evans Out of the Cool. It swings much harder than the rest of the tunes, and its swingingness is much more obvious. The other tunes swing, but it is a subtle type that only a true jazz aficionado is able to appreciate.

It is not that I don't like this tune, but in the context of the rest of the material on this album, I don't. It doesn't belong, and in my humble opinion it seems pretty obvious why it wasn't included on the original release. It just feels a little too much like a red-headed stepchild - it stands out and just doesn't fit in.

If you like anything that Miles Davis did before he went crazy and plugged every damn instrument in his ensemble into an amp, you will love this. This one album pushes Davis down at least one notch in the jazz musician pantheon, to at least right below Gil Evans. Seriously, Gil Evans was the genius, Miles just knew how to take advantage of him.