The Gil Evans Orchestra – Great Jazz Standards (UHQCD)

The brilliant arranger, composer, and pianist Gil Evans had already worked with Miles Davis on “Birth Of the Cool” and “Miles Ahead” and recorded his debut album “Gil Evans & Ten” for Prestige when he signed with World Pacific Records in 1958 and recorded the first of two albums for the label: “New Bottle, Old Wine” with soloist Cannonball Adderley. The following year, Evans returned to the studio to record his next album, “Great Jazz Standards”, with two different ensembles, including trumpeters Johnny Coles, trombonists Curtis Fuller and Jimmy Cleveland, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, tenor saxophonist and clarinetist Budd Johnson, guitarist Ray Crawford, drummer Elvin Jones and others.

As the title promises, the album presents a program of great jazz standards, beginning with Bix Beiderbecke’s “Davenport Blues” before launching into a sparkling version of Thelonious Monk’s “Straight No Chaser”. A beautiful performance of “Ballad Of The Sad Young Men” by Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf and a no-frills version of “Joy Spring” by Clifford Brown are followed by “Django” by John Lewis – with an impressionistic arrangement full of surprises – and a modernist version of “Chant Of The Weed” by Don Redman. The album culminates in an interpretation of “Theme,” Evans’ original, which later became known as “La Nevada”.

As part of the extremely popular “Blue Note 85th Anniversary Reissue Series” Universal Music Japan presents the sonically impressive remastering of this jazz classic by the legendary Kevin Gray, who is also responsible for Blue Note US’s analog reissues such as “Tone Poet” and “Classic Vinyl” – as a limited Japan only UHQCD with OBI stripe. The original recording sessions for “Great Jazz Standards” took place in New York in early 1959.

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

While Universal Music Japan’s first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, with increasing popularity, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now appearing. Typically, the Universal Archive master tapes are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not own an SACD player.

Lista pieselor

UHQCD

1. Davenport Blues

2. Straight No Chaser

3. Ballad Of The Sad Young Men

4. Joy Spring

5. Django

6. Chant Of The Weed

7. La Nevada (Theme)