SNJO presents Two Gils and a Bill: Gil Goldstein celebrates the music of Gil Evans and Bill Evans 

Gil Goldstein is a 5-time Grammy-winning arranger, producer, pianist and accordionist.  

He has crossed paths with many important jazz musicians of our time, including Michael Brecker, Esperanza Spalding, Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, Gil Evans, Bobby McFerrin, and Steve Swallow. 

On his journeys, he has met many of his idols, most notably Bill Evans, who remains a major influence on Goldstein’s music and composition. He loved the pianist’s music and the two musicians enjoyed a mutual admiration; Evans wrote the foreword to Goldstein’s book, The Jazz Composer’s Companion. Goldstein continues to honour his friend’s compositions with orchestrations full of passion, grace and fire. 

Goldstein also learned everything he knew about arranging from Gil Evans, with whom he played in Evans' orchestras from 1984 until Evans' death in 1988. Goldstein was asked by Quincy Jones to reconstruct Gil Evans’s classic arrangements for Miles Davis, which were performed at Montreux Jazz in 1991, one of Miles’s last performances. 

This concert will connect Gil Goldstein’s experiences, which will be reflected in his arrangements, adaptations, and original compositions. Goldstein’s work as a pianist is broad, having worked with James Moody, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Joe Lovano, David Sanborn, Astrid Gilberto, Toninho Horta and Pat Martino. In addition, Goldstein has expanded the scope of the accordion as a jazz instrument: having played in so many bands and jazz venues he is now considered one of the leading voices on the instrument, which he began studying at age five. 

Gil Goldstein has arranged for the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra on several occasions, but this is the first time he will join them on-stage; he looks forward to guiding the Orchestra and its audiences through a travelogue of musical experiences.