EVANS, GIL

born May 13, 1912, Toronto, Ont., Can. died March 20, 1988, Cuernavaca, Mex. original name Ian Ernest Gilmore Green Canadian-born composer and arranger who was one of the finest orchestrators in jazz. A self-taught musician, Evans started his first band in 1933 and then worked as an arranger with Claude Thornhill's band from 1941 to 1948. Between 1948 and 1950 he engaged in a fruitful collaboration with the jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, arranging such cool-jazz classics as Moondreams and Boplicity for Davis' band. Evans subsequently renewed his collaboration with Davis, doing the writing and arrangements for the latter's albums Miles Ahead (1957), Porgy and Bess (1958), and Sketches of Spain (1959). Evans' own albums included Out of the Cool (1961). Evans created luminous, impressionistic arrangements whose appeal lies in the richness of their textures and tonalities and in their subtly shifting musical structures. In his later years he formed his own bands and embraced rock music, incorporating rock rhythms with an electric sound.