The Gil Evans Orchestra - Plays The Music Of Jimi Hendrix (1978 Japanese Limited Edition Vinyl LP)

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Sleeve: VG+
Obi: VG+

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The Gil Evans Orchestra - Plays The Music Of Jimi Hendrix | Vinyl LP - 1978 Japanese RCA Limited Edition Reissue (PG-100, RVC Corporation)

Evans had been talking to Hendrix through producer Alan Douglas. The plan was to build orchestral arrangements around Hendrix's guitar and voice, the same approach Evans had used with Miles Davis on Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain. Hendrix had even asked Evans to teach him to read and write music. They were scheduled to begin work on a Monday in September 1970. Hendrix died the previous Friday. Four years later, Evans presented an all-Hendrix programme at Carnegie Hall as part of the New York Jazz Repertory Company's season, then took the orchestra into RCA's Studio B days later to record. The result treats Hendrix's compositions as raw material for Evans's orchestral imagination. "Angel" opens with David Sanborn's alto saxophone carrying the melody in a reading so lyrical it barely sounds like rock music. "Crosstown Traffic" and "Little Miss Lover" are stitched together into a single piece with Abercrombie soloing and Hannibal Marvin Peterson singing the vocal parts. "Castles Made Of Sand" runs into "Foxey Lady" with the theme stated on timpani, a transition only Evans would attempt. Billy Harper's tenor solo cuts through the arrangement with the same intensity he brought to his own Denon sessions.

The band plays electric instruments alongside conventional jazz orchestration. Two electric guitarists (Abercrombie and Ryo Kawasaki) share the chair that Hendrix would have filled. Tom Malone, Howard Johnson and Trevor Koehler contributed arrangements alongside Evans (only two of the seven tracks are definitively Evans's own arrangements; the orchestra functioned collaboratively). Synthesisers, electric piano and electric bass sit beside French horn, tuba, vibraphone and congas. "1983-A Merman I Should Turn To Be" is the most transformed piece, its psychedelic original rebuilt as an extended orchestral tone poem. "Voodoo Chile" keeps closer to the source material, with the full ensemble pushing hard against the riff. Evans told Rolling Stone: "Stop and think about Hendrix's guitar work, about how difficult it was, and is, to play a guitar that way. A very, very great guitar player."

This is the 1978 Japanese limited edition on RCA PG-100, from the Jazz Grand-Prix 1500 series, manufactured by RVC Corporation. Still in original shrink wrap with obi and insert.