Gil Evans: Out of the Cool: His Life and Music

The life (1912-1988) and career of Gil Evans paralleled and often foreshadowed the quickly changing world of jazz through the twentieth century. His innovative work as a composer, arranger, and bandleader -- for Miles Davis, with whom he frequently collaborated over the course of four decades, and for his own ensembles -- places him alongside Duke Ellington and Aaron Copland as one of the giants of American music. His unflagging creativity galvanized the most prominent jazz musicians in the world, both black and white.

Gil Evans: Out of the Cool is the first comprehensive biography of a self-taught musician whom colleagues often regarded as a mentor. It traces Evans's early years: his first dance bands in California, during the Depression; his life as a studio arranger in Hollywood; and his early work with Claude Thornhill, one of the most unusual bandleaders of the Big Band Era. After Evans settled in New York City in 1946, Evans's basement apartment quickly became a meeting ground for musicians. The discussions that took place there among Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, and others resulted in the "Birth of the Cool" scores for the Miles Davis Nonet and, later on, Evans's masterpieces with Davis: Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain. Throughout his career, Evans's writing enhanced the artistry of other musicians, coaxing them into going "beyond notation," as one colleague put it. From the late 1960s on, the music he created with his experimental big band attracted pop superstars as well, notably the guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Evans's work remained compelling and uncompromising until his death.

Written with the cooperation of Evans's friends, colleagues, and family, and based on scores of interviews and newly found documentation, Gil Evans: Out of the Cool is the definitive account of one of America's greatest musical figures.