Gil Evans

Featuring: Bruce Ditmas, Don Preston, Airto Moreira, Flora Purim

condition (record/cover): NM / EX+

Insert and obi included.

Gil Evans in the seventies is a different proposition from the orchestrator of Porgy And Bess: electric bass, rock rhythms, Hendrix on the repertoire list, and an approach to the big band that treats it as a texture generator rather than a section machine. Where Flamingos Fly collects material from that period and lets the strangeness sit out in the open, with brass voicings so unorthodox they barely register as brass and a rhythm section that keeps sliding out from underneath. The title tune is a blues so slow it seems to be dissolving. Evans conducts from the electric piano and never sounds in a hurry.

Japanese pressing on Artists House, the audiophile-minded label run by John Snyder. Superb sound and full gatefold presentation.