Gil Evans: The Individualism Of Gil Evans (180g) [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

A 180g remastered pressing in a gatefold jacket of the Grammy-nominated 1964 album, Gil Evans's big band at its most adventurous. It includes "Flute Song" and "Hotel Me," both co-written with Miles Davis, and Evans' arrangement of Kurt Weill's "The Barbara Song."

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Gatefold jacket
• The original five-track running order

About the album

Gil Evans was the arranger behind Miles Davis's Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain, which is to say the man who taught the big band to whisper. In 1963 and 1964 he took his own orchestra into A&R Studios, Webster Hall and Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, and Verve put the results out in 1964 as The Individualism of Gil Evans.

It is the work of someone with nothing left to prove. "The Barbara Song," from Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, unfolds over ten slow, shadowy minutes; "Las Vegas Tango" glides on low brass and shimmering woodwinds; and "Flute Song" into "Hotel Me," both co-written with Davis, swings from hush to roar. AllMusic's Scott Yanow gave it four stars and called it highly recommended, and it was nominated for a Grammy. Individualism, indeed; nobody else voiced a French horn quite like this.

Tracklist

Listen

Out July 10, 2026 on Verve (cat# 5733742), a reissue of the 1964 album.