Gil The Great

If you're as dumb as what I am, you might of thunk Gil Evans rose from a comfortable upper-middle class background, where his mother held musical salons for a sophisticated circle of friends, under whose patronage the young Gil flourished at Juilliard, soon commissioned by major jazz orchestras to write arrangements. That is, if you thought about Gil at all. His wiki page tells a different story, and rather than copy-paste chunks of it I suggest those of youse lazy-ass bums what share my lamentable ignorance click over here for a humbling story of how talent and skill and hard work and dedication brought success. Don't start me on insta-influencers or whatever the fuck those people are.

His Plays The Music Of Jimi Hendrix ['74, left - Ed.] is well enough known, but a later album, Parabola ['79, above - Ed.] which is a Slight Return Of Plays The Music Of Jimi Hendrix remains undeservedly obscure even here on the internet, generally escaping attention and reviews. The sprawling double [all double albums sprawl, by recording industry law - Ed.] features explorations of Up From The Skies and an epic Stone Free. A shit cover - a goddamn disgrace - couldn't have helped (so I done a new one [above - Ed.]), nor that it was issued on an obscure Italian label.

If you're a fan of late 'seventies Davis [Miles - Ed.] and who isn't - apart from those withered souls who *cough* "don't like jazz" - you'll dig these sides.

Like, solid, Jackson!