Upon Gil Evans’s death in 1988, Gary Giddins wrote, “Many considered him the greatest living American composer, period.” After his early years in California, Evans settled in New York City in 1946, where his apartment became a meeting ground for the greatest jazz innovators. The result was the “Birth of the Cool” scores, Evans’s four-decade-long collaboration with Miles Davis, and a host of brilliant records, both with Davis and with his own ensembles. Written with the cooperation of Evans’s friends, colleagues, and family, Gil Evans: Out of the Cool is an authoritative portrait.

Stephanie Stein Crease’s articles have appeared in the New York Times, DownBeat, JAZZIZ, and Pulse. She lives in New York City.