Out of the Cool is a jazz album by The Gil Evans Orchestra, recorded in 1960 and released on the Impulse! label the following year. The album was one of Impulse!'s first four albums, released together, and featured a gatefold design and high production values.

Background

Gil Evans recorded the album a short time after completing a six-week job at the Jazz Gallery club in New York City; the personnel was largely the same, with Elvin Jones being added.

Music

The first track, "La Nevada", was also recorded by Evans less than two years earlier for the album Great Jazz Standards; the version for Out of the Cool is given a consistent rhythmic structure by Elvin Jones playing shakers, giving the rest of the band greater freedom and leading to a less boppish version than the earlier recording. "Where Flamingos Fly" has a melody stated by trombonist Jimmy Knepper, and uses an earlier Evans arrangement done for vocalist Helen Merrill The music on this album was part of a move by Evans towards greater freedom in his compositions and arrangements, this "new work integrated the written and improvised, at times allowing the balance to shift imperceptibly".

Reception

The Penguin Guide to Jazz selected this album as part of its suggested "Core Collection", calling it "Evans' masterpiece under his own name and one of the best examples of jazz orchestration since the early Ellington bands". After the album was re-issued in 2021 as part of Impulse!'s sixtieth anniversary celebrations, it entered the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart at No. 11.

Track listing

Tracks 2, 4 and 5 recorded on November 18 and 30, 1960; the remainder on December 10 and 15, 1960.

Personnel