Gil Evans Birthday Broadcast: 9pm on 5/12 - 7pm on 5/13

This weekend, WKCR will be celebrating the 100th birthday of jazz pianist, composer, and arranger Gil Evans (5/13/1912 ¬3/20/1988). Evans’s long career included notable collaborations with Claude Thornhill and Miles Davis, and he led his own innovative large ensemble for many years. With Davis, Evans provided arrangements for such seminal recordings as Birth of the Cool, Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, and Sketches of Spain. With his own ensembles, Evans presented a wide repertoire of originals and arrangements, which covered styles ranging from modal jazz and bebop to jazz-rock fusion. Evans’s expansive, orchestral horn textures and unusual instrumentations were revolutionary, and remain utterly unique. The 22-hour marathon begins at 9pm on Saturday, May 12, and runs until 7pm on Sunday, May 13.