Ryan Truesdell: Shades Of Sound

Ryan Truesdell's Shades of Sounds: Gil Evans Project Live at Jazz Standard Vol. 2 is a triumphant continuation of his lovingly curated Gil Evans Project—a musical venture focusing on both preservation and revelation. With this latest volume, Truesdell guides us through Evans' well-known sonic landscape and deeper into the vaults, unearthing four never-before-recorded arrangements that offer a renewed understanding of the composer's nuanced brilliance.

Truesdell's decision to record live at Jazz Standard is both philosophical and practical. Evans, ever the alchemist, often preferred the spontaneity and emotional volatility of the stage. Here, the music has the freedom to breathe, swirl, and shift—the brass decays into the room, the reeds melt into soft harmonics, and the rhythm section pulses with an urgency. This exemplifies how the context of performance alters perception; these arrangements are not just played—they happen.

The album opens with "Spoonful," a blues-infused song originally written by Willie Dixon and popularized by Howlin' Wolf. Raw, dark, and gloriously unvarnished, the number crackles with kinetic energy. The band enters the blues framework with conviction, and Danny McCaslin offers a gritty tenor solo that barrels along, filled with rhythmic jabs. The Fran Landesman/Tommy Wolf composition "The Ballad Of The Sad Young Men" was a fixture of the Evans book and is a study of subtlety and melancholy. The piece is approached with restraint and exquisite control. The tasteful solos from pianist Frank Kimbrough and trombonist Ryan Keberle work well with the ensemble's inner voices.

The first of the previously unrecorded Evans numbers is "Laughing At Life" and features the band's long- time vocalist, Wendy Giles, who swings the tune with an unhurried elegance. Solos by tenor saxophonist Tom Christensen and altoist Steve Wilson gently ride the pocket, while the rhythm section provides just enough propulsion to allow the arrangement to bloom organically. Another of the previously unknown Evans originals is "Neetie's Blues." This is a slow-burn gem with its simmering tempo and haunting voicings. The soloists Christensen, Kimbrough and drummer Lewis Nash dig in with earthy authority, elevating the track into a soulful meditation on longing and resilience. Returning to Evans' well-known repertoire, the Kurt Weill/Bertolt Brecht number from The Threepenny Opera, "Barbara Song," is constructed as a ballad and is a marvel of orchestral storytelling. Evans builds the musical narrative as the orchestration grows in complexity. The ensemble plays with theatrical flair but never loses its jazz backbone. McCaslin's solo navigates the twists and turns with nimble lyricism.

The closer is "Buster's Last Stand" from the 1940s and was written for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra. Drummer Nash sets the pace, which is angular and rhythmically volatile. The orchestra hits like a machine in overdrive with every accent and phrase calculated for maximum tension and release. Trumpeter Greg Gisbert provides a scalding ride that is fierce, unrelenting, and urgent.