Out of the Cool
Studio album by The Gil Evans Orchestra
Released	February 1961 (1961-2)
Recorded	November 18 & 30, December 10 & 15, 1960
Studio	Van Gelder Studio Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Genre	Jazz progressive big band
Length	44:06
Label	Impulse! A-4
Producer	Creed Taylor
The Gil Evans Orchestra chronology
Great Jazz Standards (1959) Out of the Cool (1961) Into the Hot (1962)

Out of the Cool is a jazz album by TheGil Evans Orchestra, recorded in 1960 and released on theImpulse! label the following year. The album was one of Impulse!'s first four albums, released together, and featured a gatefold design and high production values.^[1]: 237

Gil Evans recorded the album a short time after completing a six-week job at the Jazz Gallery club inNew York City; the personnel was largely the same, withElvin Jones being added.^{[1]: 235–6}

The first track, "La Nevada", was also recorded by Evans less than two years earlier for the albumGreat Jazz Standards; the version forOut of the Cool is given a consistent rhythmic structure by Elvin Jones playingshakers, giving the rest of the band greater freedom and leading to a lessboppish version than the earlier recording.^{[1]: 236–7} "Where Flamingos Fly" has a melody stated by trombonistJimmy Knepper, and uses an earlier Evans arrangement done for vocalistHelen Merrill^[1]: 237 The music on this album was part of a move by Evans towards greater freedom in his compositions and arrangements, this "new work integrated the written and improvised, at times allowing the balance to shift imperceptibly".^[1]: 238

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[3]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[5]

The Penguin Guide to Jazz selected this album as part of its suggested "Core Collection", calling it "Evans' masterpiece under his own name and one of the best examples of jazz orchestration since the earlyEllington bands".^[5] After the album was re-issued in 2021 as part of Impulse!'s sixtieth anniversary celebrations,^[6] it entered theBillboard Jazz Albums Chart at No. 11.^[7]

1. "La Nevada" (Gil Evans) – 15:38
2. "Where Flamingos Fly" (Elthea Peale,Harold Courlander,John Benson Brooks) – 5:14
3. "Bilbao Song" (Bertolt Brecht,Kurt Weill) – 4:13
4. "Stratusphunk" (George Russell) – 8:04
5. "Sunken Treasure" (Evans) – 4:16
6. "Sister Sadie" (Horace Silver) – 6:57 (CD bonus track, not on original LP)

Tracks 2, 4 and 5 recorded on November 18 and 30, 1960; the remainder on December 10 and 15, 1960.

• Gil Evans –piano
• Johnny Coles –trumpet (soloist)
• Phil Sunkel – trumpet
• Keg Johnson –trombone
• Jimmy Knepper – trombone
• Tony Studd –bass trombone (soloist)
• Bill Barber –tuba
• Ray Beckenstein –alto saxophone,flute,piccolo
• Eddie Caine – alto saxophone, flute, piccolo
• Budd Johnson –tenor saxophone,soprano saxophone (soloist)
• Bob Tricarico – flute, piccolo,bassoon
• Ray Crawford –guitar (soloist)
• Ron Carter –bass
• Elvin Jones –drums, percussion
• Charlie Persip – drums

• Gil Evans albums
• 1961 albums
• Albums produced by Creed Taylor
• Impulse! Records albums
• Albums arranged by Gil Evans

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