In this pilot episode of Rearranged, Lawrence Lanahan explores the life and music of someone who helped Miles Davis create some of his most unforgettable music: arranger Gil Evans. Lanahan uses "Moon Dreams," the Johnny Mercer tune that Evans rearranged into a work of art on Davis's "Birth of the Cool" album, to consider the underappreciated art of arranging…and to investigate the deepest meanings of the human song.

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Guest:

Larry Hickok is the author of Castles Made of Sound: The Story of Gil Evans, DaCapo Press, 2002. 

Thanks to:

• Glenn Askew, author of Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World, Professor of History at Georgia State University, and director of the GSU World Heritage Initiative 


• Kevin S. Fleming, Popular Music and Culture Archivist, Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library


• Andrea Appleton


• Bruce Wallace

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The theme music and other scoring music for Rearranged was written and recorded by Lawrence Lanahan.

Music discussed:

• Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Master and Everyone, Drag City, 2003,


• Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool, Capitol/Blue Note, 1957


• Martha Tilton, The Capitol Recordings, Capitol, 2000, 


• Glenn Miller, Army Air Force Band, Capt. Johnny Desmond and the Crew Chiefs, “Moon Dreams,” V-Disc


• Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain, Columbia, 1960


• Claude Thornhill and His Orchestra 1947, Hindsight, 1978

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Research notes:

• Much of this episode is drawn from Hickok, Castles Made of Sound.


• “Mercer…once said, ‘I fool around on the piano…’”: Gene Lees, Portrait of Johnny: The Life of John Herndon Mercer, Pantheon, 2004: 156. 


• “Recorded at the very first Capitol Records session”: Robert Kimball, Barry Day, Miles Krueger, and Eric Davis, The Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer, Knopf, 2009: 128.


• “This one was likely arranged by Weston”: Glenn Askew, personal communication, “That would be my hunch”


• Paul Weston and mood music: https://www.spaceagepop.com/weston.htm
  


• Weston as “almost avant-garde”: Lees, 160-161.


• “higher standards…Whiting,” Askew, 195-196.


• “Pete Rugolo,” Askew, 218.


• “Moon Dreams” from Gil Evans memorial service in 1988: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=rt3pK9SXjI8
  


• “Boplicity” from Gil Evans memorial service in 1988: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zenzUq6tn20