This is a very interesting recording. Aging arranger/pianist
Gil Evans agreed after much persuasion to come to Paris and play his music at a few concerts with
Laurent Cugny's Orchestra. After only one rehearsal, the first event took place, and it gratified
Evans to realize that the young French musicians were not only excellent players but big
Gil Evans fans. Their interpretations of
Thelonious Monk's "Rhythm-A-Ning," "London" and "La Nevada" rank with the best versions of
Evans's regular Monday Night Band, and
Cugny's "Charlie Mingus' Sound of Love" (an answer to
Mingus' "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love") is also excellent. Few of the sidemen, other than tenor-saxophonist
Andy Sheppard and percussionist Marilyn Mazur, are known in the U.S., but they did an excellent job of bringing
Gil Evans's music to life. ~ Scott Yanow