Orrin Evans & The Captain Black Big Band Christmas Album Release at Birdland

In the booklet notes for Orrin Evans second album, Captain Black, recorded in 1998, the pianist, then 23, made a remark that encapsulates the aesthetic hes followed ever since on his kaleidoscopic artistic journey. I go head-first for a lot of things, Evans said. I like to stretch out. Wherever the music takes me, Im going there.That attitude backdrops the title of Evans 20th album, Magic of Now (Smoke Sessions), which documents a livestream engagement at Smoke Jazz Club during the second weekend of December 2020. Evans and a multi-generational cohort of A-list partners first-call New York bassist Vicente Archer; iconic drummer Bill Stewart; and dynamic rising star alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, now 23 himself generate an eight-piece program that exemplifies state-of-the-art modern jazz...

read more

In the booklet notes for Orrin Evans second album, Captain Black, recorded in 1998, the pianist, then 23, made a remark that encapsulates the aesthetic hes followed ever since on his kaleidoscopic artistic journey. I go head-first for a lot of things, Evans said. I like to stretch out. Wherever the music takes me, Im going there.That attitude backdrops the title of Evans 20th album, Magic of Now (Smoke Sessions), which documents a livestream engagement at Smoke Jazz Club during the second weekend of December 2020. Evans and a multi-generational cohort of A-list partners first-call New York bassist Vicente Archer; iconic drummer Bill Stewart; and dynamic rising star alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, now 23 himself generate an eight-piece program that exemplifies state-of-the-art modern jazz. From the first note to the last, the quartet, convening as a unit for the first time, displays the cohesion and creative confidence of old friends, mirroring the leaders predisposition for finding beauty in the heat of the moment.

show less