Song No.2
Once Upon A Summertime
Aos Pez Da Cruz
Song No.1
Wait Till You See Her
Corcovado
Summer Night
The Time Of The Barracudas*
Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern)*
Devil May Care*

Line up
Miles (trumpet) and a bunch of people

Another trek back into Gil Evans land. This time Gil relocated to South America. Skimming highlights from the booklet, note that in 1962 Stan Getz opened up the bossa nova sound with Desafinado and thus, “the time was ripe to take advantage of Gil Evan’s pre-existing interest in South America.” I get the impression from the notes that this album was somewhat of a partial effort at an album that spanned several disparate sessions and came together due to Teo Macero’s editing. This release has 3 additional tracks recorded during the same period. One for a Christmas album (guess which) that never came to be. One of my favorite Christmas songs, actually. Minus the bonus tracks the album only runs about 26 minutes.

The album, despite my general distaste for Gil’s arrangements, doesn’t suck like I expected it to. There are even several tracks that I enjoy. I am a sucker for the bossa sway and I think the attempt at capturing the gentleness does much to dampen down the abrasiveness of Gil. Also, as compared to SkofSp, Miles sounds more unconstrained. I think the songs also play more to Miles gifts in the softer and muted ranges. If you like Gil Evans then you’ll probably not like the careless editing. If you are fine with sporadic snippets of good stuff sprinkled about. Then you’ll be fine with this album. However, this is far far from a great album. A curio for the completist maybe.

Track 1: Song No 2 – It’s still a Gil Evans orchestral introduction, but it’s not jarring, brash or awful. Doesn’t do much for me, but at 1:40 at least its over and done with quickly.

Track 2: Once Upon a Summertime – Again not quite my cup of tea, but I will highlight some wonderfully mournful playing by Miles. The guy can play the trumpet. I kind of wish the whole track was simply a solo. I think hearing dead air between Mile’s phrases would speak more to the intent of the arrangement than cluttering it with orchestral noodling. Completely ruining what ever spell this track hopes to cast is the abrupt splice at 1:58. I mean, “Come on! Did someone fall asleep in the engineering booth?”. What was Teo thinking… also a splice at 0:51…There is some nice guitar fill in if you take the time to listen for it.

Track 3: Aos Pez Da Cruz is a pleasant little ditty. Not much going on but easy on the ears, Gil’s chords not withstanding.

Track 4: Song No. 1 – Why Gil, why? Song saved by percussion and Miles leading. The track nearly becomes a worthy thing about a minute before it ends, then shrinks.

Track 5: Wait Till You See Her – Bossa with pensive noodling.

Track 6: Corvcovado – I’m too influenced by the Getz/Gilberto (every one should have this album) to even start to like this over complicated Gil version. Miles and the percussion seem to get it. They put a little more propulsive emphasis on it that Getz/Gilberto which is interesting.

Track 6: Summer Night – Interestingly this was a filler track by the quartet of Miles, Victor Feldman (p), Ron Carter (b), and Frank Butler (d). Recorded earlier that year with not Gil. And yes, it’s nice. Out of place in this album, sure; it’s not particularly bossa or latin sounding. It does sooth some of the wounds that the previous tracks may have imparted.

Track 7: Time of the Barracuda – Suddenly the album gets interesting here. Within the first 30 seconds your already expecting something much better than anything prior on the album. Tony Williams (d) is amazing in general and really pulls this piece together. His hands are everywhere, complementing everyone else. Ron Carter (b) gives it a foundation. Miles and Herbie Hancock push the edges. Apparently still a Gil Evans arrangement according to the credits. Around the 5:20 mark there an abrupt-ish halt and a redirect in the arrangement. Can’t say I enjoyed it. Then another shift ~7:00 to something more bluesy and almost comical. I did kind of enjoy this. You can hear some talking in the background, I assume people were kind of just vamping around.

Track 8: Blue Xmas – Fan of this one. Bob Dorough (p, voc.), Wayne Shorter (ts), Paul Chambers (b), Jimmy Cobb (d), Frank Rehak (tb), Willie Bobo (bongo).

Track 9: Devil May Care – another out of place track. A bit hard to appreciate in this context. Not a bad track though. It’s got bongos.


Next up: Seven Steps to Heaven