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This year marks 60 years since Gill Evans and his orchestra entered the studio with Miles Davis to record their arrangements of George Gershwin’s 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess”. The album was recorded in four sessions on July 22, July 29, August 4, and August 18, 1958, at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in New York City and was released in March the following year.
This year marks 60 years since Gill Evans and his orchestra entered the studio with Miles Davis to record their arrangements of George Gershwin’s 1935 opera “Porgy and Bess”. The album was recorded in four sessions on July 22, July 29, August 4, and August 18, 1958, at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio in New York City and was released in March the following year.
Porgy and Bess is now possibly the most musically successful of the albums Davis did with Gil Evans. The album gained wide critical acclaim and still today holds its place as the top selling jazz albums on the all time list. The recording of Porgy and Bess is often seen as a precursor to the classic album Kind Of Blue that was released in 1959. At the time the album was recorded Miles was already heading down the Modal route and in a 1958 interview with Nat Hentoff of The Jazz Review, Davis remarked on the modal approach:
“When Gil wrote the arrangement of “I Loves You, Porgy,” he only wrote a scale for me. No chords… gives you a lot more freedom and space to hear things… there will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them. Classical composers have been writing this way for years, but jazz musicians seldom have.”
To Mark the 60th anniversary Gil Evan’s son Miles will lead the Gil Evans Orchestra in a one off concert at the eclectic New York venue “The Cutting Room”. The concert will take place on Friday 1 June.
Miles Evans was born and raised in the world of Jazz music. Learning from his father, Gil Evans and his namesake Miles Davis, Miles strives to create new and exciting ways to push Jazz into the future. Evans is seen as a skillful and soulful trumpet player that is never afraid to experiment with both his phrasing and his tone. Apart from leading the Gil Evans Orchestra, Miles has also collaborated with musicians including Miles Davis, Quincy Jones, Jaco Pastorius, and Sting.
The Gil Evans Orchestra led by Miles Evans.
Gil Goldstein-Piano | Pete Levin-Keyboards | Mark Egan-Bass | Jeff Watts-Drums | Miles Evans-Trumpet | Shunzo Ohno-Trumpet | Alex Sipiagin-Trumpet | Rob Scheps – Soprano Sax | Chris Hunter-Alto Sax | Alex Foster-Tenor Sax | Alden Banta-Baritone Sax | David Bargeron-Trombone | John Clark-French Horn
Concert Details:
Date: 1 June 2018
Time: 9:30
Venue: The Cutting Room
Address: 44 E. 32nd St. New York, NY, 10016
Last modified: April 25, 2020
