Gil Evans' second album as a leader (a World Pacific set that has been reissued by Blue Note) features his reworking of eight jazz classics including "St. Louis Blues," "Lester Leaps In" and "Struttin' with Some Barbecue." Evans' charts utilize three trumpets, three trombones, a french horn, a prominent tuba, one reed player, altoist Cannonball Adderley and a four-piece rhythm section. Most memorable is a classic rendition of "King Porter Stomp" featuring the exuberant altoist Cannonball Adderley, who is the main soloist on most of the selections. Other key voices include Evans' piano, guitarist Chuck Wayne and trumpeter Johnny Coles. This is near-classic music that showed that Gil Evans did not need Miles Davis as a soloist to inspire him to greatness. Scott Yanow
01. St.Louis Blues (W.C.Handy) 5:26 02. King Porter Stomp (Jelly Roll Morton) 3:19 03. Willow Tree (Fats Waller, Andy Razaf) 4:40 04. Struttin' With Some Barbeque (Louis Armstrong) 4:34 05. Lester Leaps In (Lester Young) 4:17 06. 'Round Midnight (Thelonious Monk) 4:08 07. Manteca! (Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Fuller, Babs Gonzales) 5:18 08. Bird Feathers (Charlie Parker) 6:57
Recorded in New York on April 9 (tracks 1,2,5,6) , May 2 (track 3), 21 (track 4) and 26 (tracks 7,8) 1958
Gil Evans Piano Cannonball Adderley Alto Sax Johnny Coles Trumpet Louis Mucci Trumpet Ernie Royal Trumpet (1,2,3,5,6) Clyde Reasincer Trumpet (4,7,8) Joe Bennet Trombone Frank Rehak Trombone Tom Mitchell Trombone Julius Watkins French Horn Harvey Phillips Tuba (1,2,5,6) Billy Barber Tuba (3,4,7,8) Jerry Sanfino Reeds (1,2,5,6) Phil Bodner Reeds (3,4,7,8) Chuck Wayne Guitar Paul Chambers Bass Philly Joe Jones drums (3) Art Blakey drums