Miles Davis, Gil Evans

The Duke

In hindsight, it is somewhat amusing that Dave Brubeck's 'The Duke' is more frequently associated with Miles Davis and Gil Evans than Brubeck himself. Nevertheless, this version from 1957's 'Miles Ahead' is yet another brilliant Evans arrangement that combines his trademark harmonic and rhythmic depth with Brubeck's cloying and cutesy compositional style, all wrapped around Davis's iconic sound (heard here on flugelhorn as opposed to his usual trumpet). Throughout the arrangement, Evans goes back and forth between a small group sound featuring flugelhorn, alto, trombone and tuba to contrast the full bore blasts of the 18-piece orchestra. The tune is a standard 32 bar AABA form; when the melody comes in at measure 9, the A sections are handled by the small ensemble while the B section (starting at measure 25) is handled by the full orchestra. The importance in differentiating the volume and intensity levels between these two contrasting sections cannot be overemphasized. A full ensemble figure based on Brubeck's original quartet version serves as a send-off into an improvised flugelhorn solo from measures 49 to 72, featuring some soft backgrounds underneath from the low brass and woodwinds. A final blast from the full ensemble at measure 73 sets up the final melody statement. The melody is first handled by the original small ensemble, but Evans switches things up at measure 89 by handing the spotlight over to two flutes, bass clarinet and bass trombone. The final bars of the piece are once again based off of Brubeck's original, with a held note in the trombones intended to serve as a segue into Evans's arrangement of 'My Ship.'