Gil Evans Orchestra Into The Hot

Out of the Cool, released in 1961, was the first recording Gil Evans issued after three straight albums with Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain being the final one before this. Evans had learned much from Davis about improvisation, instinct, and space (the trumpeter learned plenty, too, especially about color, texture, and dynamic tension). Evans orchestrates less here, instead concentrating on the rhythm section built around Elvin Jones, Charlie Persip, bassist Ron Carter, and guitarist Ray Crawford. The maestro in the piano chair also assembled a crack horn section for this date, with Ray Beckinstein, Budd Johnson, and Eddie Caine on saxophones, trombonists Jimmy Knepper, Keg Johnson, and bass trombonist Tony Studd, with Johnny Coles and Phil Sunkel on trumpet, Bill Barber on tuba, and Bob Tricarico on flute, bassoon, and piccolo…

One of the great alto saxophonists to emerge from the hard bop era, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley possessed an exuberant, bright tone that communicated directly and emotionally. With live audiences, his intelligent banter about the music's presentation, combined with wry humor, made him popular.

One of the great alto saxophonists to emerge from the hard bop era, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley possessed an exuberant, bright tone that communicated directly and emotionally. With live audiences, his intelligent banter about the music's presentation, combined with wry humor, made him popular.

This is an attractive eight-CD set (+ Bonus CD), whose discs are also available as eight separate releases, that could have been a great reissue but settled for being merely quite good. To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first jazz recording, RCA released a disc apiece covering each of the past eight decades. In listening to the music straight through, one becomes aware of RCA's strengths and weaknesses as a jazz label. Victor was one of the most important jazz labels during the 1920s, '30s and '40s, catching on to bebop a little late (1946) but still documenting many classic recordings. By the 1950s, the label's attention was wandering elsewhere; it missed free jazz almost completely in the '60s, and in the last three decades has only had a few significant artists, mostly Young Lions whose output sounds conservative compared to the earlier masters…