CBSO Centre, Birmingham, England
28-01-2012

Hans Koller, his Ensemble and conductor/arranger Mike Gibbs rehearsing at the CBSO Centre (Picture: Russ Escritt)

There are many ways in which one can mark the 100th anniversary of the jazz composer and arranger Gil Evans. One can radically rework one of his key works, and that was done last week by Pete Wareham. One can perform a couple of his key works, playing his arrangements as they were scored, and that will happen next month at a Birmingham Conservatoire Jazz Orchestra concert.

But whoever thought up this concert, in which Evans is viewed through the ears and scoring pen of an arranger 25 years his junior, has given us possibly the richest insights into that process of musical scoring which made Evans so individual and so influential. It is a tricky process to convey, becaus while we can hear on the night it has actually happened for the most part in the composer/arranger’s head and in the rehearsal studio beforehand.

Mike Gibbs is such an engaging man. He might be 75 this year but that enthusiasm, fascination and almost naive delight that took him from Salisbury (now Harare) to New York in 1959 still twinkles behind the steel rims. “I first heard Gil Evans’ and Miles Davis’ Miles Ahead and I knew the rest of my life would be different,” he told us.

The first half was filled with pure Gil, from Sister Sadie, through Bilbao Song, St Louis Blues, Wait Till You See Her and Spring Is Here to Las Vegas Tango. The band was set in an arc, as Gil would have had it, the keys to his sound including French horn, tuba/bass trombone, and that winning combination of woodwind timbres, flute, soprano saxophone and clarinet.

Put that latter three in close and crunchy high harmony with two or three trumpets and you have that Gil Evans sound that sends tingles up and down the spine. Gibbs’ band might not ever have grown quite as loose as Evans’ did in the later years, but that was due in the most part to the difference between a group with restricted rehearsal time and one that was playing nights in a row in Sweet Basil (or Baysil, as Gibbs pronounces it in transatlantic English). They certainly did the charts full justice and had solo space to bring their own individuality into play.

The second set was a chance to hear what an Evans disciple made of it all, as Gibbs arranged the music of others and wrote his own, too. There were three Monks – Evidence, ‘Round Midnight and the encore Misterioso - as well as Carla Bley’s Ida Lupino, Steve Swallow’s Falling Grace, and Tennis, Anyone? and Antique from Gibbs’ own pen.

Perhaps Gibbs had chosen to highlight the Evans influence, or perhaps our ears were by now attuned to hear it, but what was clear was that these were arrangements every bit as sensitive and rich in improvisational material as what had come before.

And what a treat for the band! They luxuriated in the rich textures and harmonic and melodic treasures as an ensemble, and then took them as springboards in some exceptionally fine solos, with trumpeter Percy Pursglove lifting the temperature at the start, pianist Hans Koller finding the most interesting nooks and crannies, trombonist Mark Nightingale adding the warmth and double bassist Michael Janisch keeping the pulse vibrant and pliant, and “local boy” Lluis Mather elegantly matching his more experienced woodwind colleagues Finn Peters and Julian Siegel. I particularly enjoyed Mather’s solo on Evidence.

This was a brilliant start to my concert-going year, and I return to my Gil Evans recordings with enriched understanding. For which, warm thank-yous to  Mike, Hans and the band.

This line-up and material, a combined presentation by Birmingham Jazz and The Base, will get a second outing at Kings Place in London on 24 March. To book go here.