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Pianist Orrin Evans uses his Captain Black Big Band as a showcase for musicians and composers other than himself, leading the group through five albums of varied tunes that demonstrate the strength of ensemble playing. Walk a Mile in My Shoe (so named due to the specialized shoes Evans had to wear as a child due to the neurofibromatosis in his left foot) is no different, pulling in singers and songs from inside and outside what we think of as jazz.
The arrangements lean away from the good-time bombast of a lot of big band music, with the horns used less as bludgeoning melody than lush orchestration. A lot of this has to do with making room for the guest vocalists, giving them the space they need to shine without their accompaniment fading into the background mists. For a good example, check the band’s cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Save the Children,” on which R&B singer Bilal gracefully navigates the horn arrangement, riding the winds alongside sax soloist Caleb Curtis. Or opening cut “Dislocation Blues,” a sharp interpretation of a Chris Whitley song sung soulfully by Paul Jost, as Evans and organist Jesse Fischer duet without overshadowing their mouthpiece. Speaking of Fischers, singer Lisa Fischer owns her two cuts, making Stevie Wonder’s jubilant “Overjoyed” and the smoldering Arlen/Mercer ballad “Blue in the Night” into set pieces for both herself and the CBBB. Jost returns again to surprisingly and successfully turn Bread’s bathetic ballad “If” into a middle of the night lament.
The band showcases its own playing from time to time, with a brass band arrangement on the classic “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and Evan beautifully essaying founding member John Raymond’s “Hymn.” But for the most part Walk a Mile in My Shoe dials down any hint of ego in order to serve the singer and the song, and does so magnificently.
