Gil Evans - New Bottle, Old Wine - 180g Vinyl LP

2019 release

The album, recorded in 1958 and originally released via World Pacific, by Gil Evans – one of the most innovative arrangers in jazz. Evans' orchestra on this session is packed with a superb set of players, including Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey, Paul Chambers and Johnny Coles. Sourced from a previously unknown analog stereo master, the incredible session comes in the highest fidelity on this Tone Poet LP. Blue Note Records' Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series is produced by Joe Harley and features all-analog, mastered-from-the-original-master-tape 180g audiophile vinyl reissues in deluxe gatefold packaging, with vinyl manufactured at RTI.

"The titles for the Tone Poet series, handpicked by Harley with input from Blue Note president Don Was, cover lesser-known releases from both the classic and modern Blue Note eras as well as labels like Pacific Jazz, World Pacific, and Solid State... Gil Evans' 1958 album, New Bottle, Old Wine, is an overlooked masterpiece. Sandwiched between Evans' landmark collaborations with Miles Davis in 1957 (Miles Ahead) and 1959 (Porgy & Bess), it was originally issued on Pacific Jazz. Evans' second album as a leader features his 14-piece band on polished renditions of W.C. Handy's 'St. Louis Blues' and Jelly Roll Morton's 'King Porter Stomp', both enhanced by Cannonball Adderley's exuberant alto sax solos and fleshed out with Evans' unique horn orchestrations. There's also a dynamic updating of Lil Hardin Armstrong's 'Struttin' With Some Barbecue'. Evans puts a new suit of clothes on Lester Young's 'Lester Leaps In', with Cannonball burning white hot and guitarist Chuck Wayne chipping in a fleet-fingered solo, and delivers inventive takes on Dizzy Gillespie's 'Manteca' and Thelonious Monk's 'Round Midnight'. The album closes with a bristling romp through Charlie Parker's 'Bird Feathers'." - Bill Milkowski, The Absolute Sound, July/August 2019