Gil Evans – Gil Evans & Ten (Analogue Productions, Stereo)

In 1957, Miles Davis, high on the success of his recent collaborations with his old friend Gil Evans, persuaded Prestige Records to give Evans his own record date. Evans packed the resulting album with the brilliance that music insiders had recognized since his days as an arranger for Claude Thornhill in the 1940s and his work on Davis’ Birth of the Cool recordings. Writing for only 11 instruments, Evans used his wizardry with dynamics, motion and harmonic voicings to create orchestral effects suggesting a substantially larger orchestra. His settings stimulated his musicians to inspired improvisation. Among the soloists are trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, saxophonists Steve Lacy and Lee Konitz, and Evans himself, making his first recorded appearance as a pianist.