Gil Evans

Related Content

• The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Are You Experienced turns 45
  May 14, 2012
• Sounds of Blackness: Jimi Hendrix
  February 6, 2012
• Denver's ten best jukeboxes
  April 17, 2012
• The Black Keys
  April 26, 2012
• Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe on Beck, living in Germany and Bright Channel
  May 8, 2012

More About

• Gil Evans
• Jimi Hendrix
• Peggy Lee
• Fusion Jazz
• Big Band and Swing

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

In 1974 and 1975, when the dynamic arranger and bandleader Gil Evans set out to reinterpret the music of rock icon Jimi Hendrix, jazz purists cried foul. What in the world was Miles Davis's brilliant collaborator, a man who'd written songs for Peggy Lee and conducted albums for Kenny Burrell, doing in the teen trash slums? Heard today, on a beautifully remastered Bluebird reissue, Evans's daring project sounds fresh and vital: Hendrix anthems like "Little Wing" and "Gypsy Eyes" retain the martyred guitarist/singer's raw, slithering aggression, despite the radical transformations effected by Evans's complex and urbane big-band arrangements. In the '70s, a tough time for mainstream jazz, many a heretic sought to pay the rent by fusing jazz and rock, but Evans's labor of love continues to serve two great musicians well.