Gil Evans: Four Classic Albums (AVID Jazz AMSC 1077)
by Mark Gabrish Conlan • Copyright © 2022 by Mark Gabrish Conlan • All rights reserved The Gil Evans CD contained four LP’s, only three of which were actually by Gil Evans. In 1960 he signed a contract with World Pacific for two albums, New Bottle, Old Wine and Great Jazz Standards , both of which reflected Evans’ interest in the jazz of the past. In fact, New Bottle, Old Wine counts as a virtual capsule history of jazz, starting with W. C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues” and Jelly Roll Morton’s “King Porter Stomp” and moving through Fats Waller’s “Willow Tree,” Louis Armstrong’s “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue,” Count Basie’s and Lester Young’s “Lester Leaps In,” and then moving into the modern realm with Thelonious Monk’s “‘Round Midnight,” Dizzy Gillespie’s “Manteca” and Charlie Parker’s “Bird Feathers.” This album was dismissed by Don Heckman in Jazz Review as a “relative failure” because it featured Julian “Cannonball” Adderley as soloist and Heckman felt Adderley’s “dissociation from