Sting with Gil Evans - Live in Perugia 1987

Sting and Gil Evans - Last Session Medium: 1CD
Source: SB (excellent soundboard quality!)
Date: July 11, 1987
Location: "Umbria Jazz 87 Festival", Perugia, Italy
PAPILLON RECORDS, CD 019(CD)*
or JAZZ DOOR (JD 1228)*
RECORDED: JULY 11, 1987

Tracks:
Up From The Skies (mentioned as: Exp) [9.29]
Strange Fruit [7.34]
Shadows In The Rain [5.53]
Little Wing [10.04]
There Comes A Time [4.50]
introduction of the band by Miles Evans [2.08]
Consider Me Gone [6.46]
Synchronicity I (instrumental; mentioned as: Murder by Numbers) [6.27]
Roxanne [6.36]
Tea In The Sahara/ Walking On The Moon [9.00]

Remarks: In July 1987 Sting interrupted the recording sessions for the album Nothing Like The Sun and travelled to Italy to perform at the "Umbria Jazz 87 Festival" together with Gil Evans and his band on 11-07-1987. This became one of Sting's most special performances. Besides jazzy versions of his own songs also various cover versions were performed, including two compositions by Jimi Hendrix (Up From The Skies and Little Wing).

On March 20, 1988 Gil Evans died at the age of 75 after complications during an operation in Mexico. This was about eight months after the show in Perugia.
The quality of this recording is excellent (a very clear soundboard recording).

Line-up:
Sting - guitar, vocals
Gil Evans - keyboards
Miles Evans - trumpet
Delmar Brown - synthezisers
Gil Goldstein - DX7 synthezisers
John Surman - baritone saxophone, syntheziser
George Adams - tenor saxophone, vocals
Branford Marsalis - tenor saxophone
Chris Hunter - alto saxophone
John Clark - electric french horn
David Bargeron - tuba, trombone
Lew Soloff - lead trumpet
Shunzo Ono - trumpet, flugelhorn
Mark Egan - bass
Danny Gottlieb - drums
Urzula Dudziak - back-up vocals
Emily Mitchell - harp
Anita E. - percussion
Tom Malone - tenor trombone, bass trombone
George Lewis - tenor trombone

Sting: "I met Gil Evans one night in Ronnie Scott's club in London. He'd been a hero of mine since I was fifteen. He reminded me of one of those wise elders from Star Trek who are the only survivors of a planet after some holocaust, the sole guardians of all the knowledge of their race. I went backstage after the show and introduce myself and was amazed and flattered that he ever heard of me. He told me he liked the bass line of Walking On The Moon. I went home on cloud nine. I sang with his band a couple of years later in a little club in Greenwich Village called Sweet Basil. His fifteen-piece band was crammed onto the tiny stage so there was no room for me. So, I sang on the floor, squashed between two tables. One day I aspire to the stage. Anyway, we did three songs together. One by Tony Williams, called There Comes A Time, and two songs by Jimi Hendrix that Gil has performed for years, Little Wing and Up From The Skies" (lyric-book Nothing Like The Sun).
Sting: "We had a great time, so I said, 'Why don't you come down to Montserrat and we'll work out a set?' He came down to Montserrat where we were recording, and sat in on a session and gave me a few hints about arranging. It was really cool, and we got a set together of an hour's worth of material. [...] He arranged five of my songs. We did Little Wing. He's just a great guy to have around. I was having a problem with one song, I was concentrating on one note that I didn't think was right, and he said, 'Come outside.' He said, 'It's not the note you think it is, it's the note before. If you get that one right, then this one will carry on.' 'I don't think so, Gil.' 'Try it.' He was right. Of course, he knows his shit. He was encouraging, and soopen for a man of his age." (Musician; Dec. 1987; p.62+64).

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