Re: GG: Tabasco, Noise, etc.

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Fri, 24 Jul 1998, Bruce Petherick wrote:

> >Just noticed something this afternoon.  The last track of "Kind of Blue," 
> >entitled "Flamenco Sketches," begins exactly the same way as Evans' own
> >"Peace Piece" from several years earlier. 
> 
> Actually it is later.  Anyway, it is well known (:->) that Bill was the
> driving force behind most of this album.  It was Evans that composed most
> of the modal pieces, and he was the person who got Miles into Modal playing.

Turns out we're both wrong in details here.  Peace Piece was indeed
earlier than Flamenco Sketches, but not "several years" - only four months
earlier.  PP was December 15th 1958; FS was April 22nd 1959.  I was
mistaken in thinking that the "Everybody Digs Bill Evans" album was
recorded in 1956 rather than 1958.

Even though Evans was a driving force, if he actually composed most of the
modal pieces on "Kind of Blue" he was exceedingly modest about crediting
himself with it.  The "Kind of Blue" liner notes by Evans claim that
"Miles conceived these settings only hours before the recording dates and
arrived with sketches which indicated to the group what was to be played.
Therefore, you will hear something close to pure spontaneity in these
performances. The group had never played these pieces prior to the
recordings and I think without exception the first complete performance of
each was a 'take.'"

During the Peace Piece session GG was away doing a concert tour of Israel; 
on the day of Flamenco Sketches he did a recital in South Carolina.  How's
that for trivial trivia, shuffling the chronologies together?  (It might
be more interesting to find days when GG and Evans were in the same city
at the same time...did they ever meet?) 

Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.45716N+78.94565W
bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/