Last time (and first time) on Jazz Impressions you heard Elvin Jones, who plays shakers here on ‘La Nevada’, because if someone has to play shakers it might as well be the greatest drummer who ever lived.
He’s one of 15 musicians playing for 15 minutes under the leadership of another cat Ollie mentioned, the pianist Gil Evans. Fresh from a string of classic collaborations with Miles Davis, the notoriously disorganised arranger cut a pair of records for the brand new Impulse! label with the wonderful names Out of the Cool and Into the Hot (1961).
The first album’s opening track exemplifies this bridge between cool jazz and fiery post-bop; even the name means “snowfall” in Spanish while invoking the heat of the desert state. Evans helped define the “cool” sound as arranger on Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool (another great name) sessions (1949-50), creating a smoother colour palette than bebop, “preferring to blend the voices of the horns like a choir rather than pit them against each other,” to quote jazz historian Ted Gioia.
For ‘La Nevada’ that’s only half the story. Largely improvised, the track’s moody guitar and film noir horns give it a smoky, brooding, propulsive energy. It could almost be the soundtrack to a Vegas heist.
Make sure to check out our ‘Big Band Bonanza’ playlist over on Spotify for more big band action!
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