With a handful of brilliant collaborations and one full-length masterpiece,
Miles Ahead, under their belts, trumpeter Miles Davis and arranger
Gil Evans were ready to see if lightning would strike twice. It did. Their 1957 adaptation of selections from George Gershwin's opera
Porgy and Bess is a masterwork that exhibits the best of both musical partners. Gorgeous songs like "Summertime," "Bess You Is My Woman Now," and "My Man's Gone Now " bring out all the unmatched lyrical qualities that had already made Davis a living legend. Up-tempo versions of ''Here Come De Honey Man," and "There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon For New York" also find the trumpeter blowing radiant, beautifully constructed improvisations. Evans was also in peak form, his trademark writing for a brass-heavy, pianoless ensemble featuring arresting tonal colors that made judicious use of tuba and woodwinds. Evans was just as effective thinking big, as in his dramatic climax to "My Man's Gone Now," or scaling down, best exemplified in his brilliant seven-note motif that circles around "Summertime." And Davis and Evans were smart enough to know that it wouldn't be jazz without a cooking rhythm section: "Gone, Gone, Gone" becomes a mini-feature for drummer Philly Joe Jones, whose inspiring playing takes an already glorious project a few notches skyward.
