Purple hazer: the many lives of Gil Evans

His cool, luminous sound redefined jazz. Then he threw it all in for Jimi Hendrix. Richard Williams on the brilliant and mercurial Gil EvansIt came as a shock to hear, over dinner with Gil Evans in 1978, that in the preceding year he had made only one public appearance. A man who had already done as much as just about anyone to shape the music of the 20th century had performed, unpaid, at a benefit for his children's school in New York. And that was it.The great man's rueful revelation came a d...

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