Gil Evans Orchestra - Blues in Orbit

barabara sounds sez:

More big band madness as Gil embraces the rhythms of rock and fuses them with free (-ish) jazz charts. There's some really good stuff on here, especially the George Russell-penned title track, but I'm not sure it really adds up to a cohesive whole. That's probably because it's been welded together from two different sessions two years apart. Not (despite what Yawno says) a classic. But still mighty fine...

the guardian (John Fordham) sez:

An intriguing and overlooked curiosity from the great arranger/composer Gil Evans..., the German label Enja having remastered it and restored it to the catalogue. These eight pieces (recorded in 1969 and 1971) track the tentative and always cliche-free flirtations with jazz-fusion that marked Evans's later career - as well as his growing confidence in a looser, collective approach. Half of this programme features Evans's lightly sketched originals, including the brooding Variation On the Misery with its tremulous brass whoops over dark trombone chords, the free-jazz fanfare of Proclamation and the anthemic So Long, a vehicle for the rugged, hollow-toned tenor sax of Billy Harper. …a shade baffled, it's nonetheless a key piece in the Evans jigsaw.

AMG (Scott Yanow) sez:

Gil Evans's first recording as a leader in five years found him leading an orchestra that could be considered a transition between his 1950s groups and his somewhat electric band of the 1970s. Several of these charts, particularly his reworking of George Russell's "Blues in Orbit," are quite memorable, and Evans utilizes his many interesting sidemen, including the distinctive voices of trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, Howard Johnson on tuba and baritone, tenor-saxophonist Billy Harper and guitarist Joe Beck, in unexpected and unpredictable ways. A near-classic release...