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Ryan Truesdell

Ryan Truesdell is a composer of diverse musical tastes and influences with a healthy reverence for jazz tradition and an ever-broadening sonic palette. He received his Masters degree in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music and immersed himself in a broad range of musicals styles while studying composition with Bob Brookmeyer and Lee Hyla. He composes and arranges music for an eclectic variety of ensembles ranging from small ensembles to big bands, wind ensembles to string quartets. Recent commissions include arrangements for trumpeter Ingrid Jensen with the U.S. Air Force Band of the Pacific, new music for pianist Frank Kimbrough with the University of Minnesota’s Jazz Ensemble, and a new piece for Bob Brookmeyer’s 80th birthday concert at the Eastman School of Music. Ryan was also awarded the First Music commission from the New York Youth Symphony’s Jazz Band Classic, and conducted its premiere at the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center in 2009.

Ryan is also an accomplished and in-demand copyist. He is Maria Schneider’s primary copyist and also copies for Jim Hall, Geoffrey Keezer, Bob Brookmeyer, Luciana Souza, and Miles Evans and the Gil Evans Estate, among others. His work has been published in Rutgers University’s Annual Review of Jazz Studies and Chamber Music America’s Chamber Music magazine.

As a producer, Ryan has already distinguished himself as a valuable resource in the studio. In 2004, he served as production assistant for Maria Schneider’s record, Concert in the Garden, which won a Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble. He co-produced Schneider’s next recording in 2007, Sky Blue, which has received unanimous praise, including the honor of “Jazz Album of the Year” from the Village Voice Critics Poll, a Choc Award in France, and was one of only two albums to receive a five-star review from Downbeat in 2007. It was also nominated for two Grammy Awards, and won the category of “Best Instrumental Composition” ("Cerulean Skies"). Most recently, Ryan traveled to Hamburg, Germany to produce a recording with Bob Brookmeyer and the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) Big Band, recording both new and old works from Bob’s catalog.

Currently, Ryan is embarking on an extensive project, in cooperation with the Evans family, to unearth and bring to light some of the lesser known music of Gil Evans. Throughout this process, he has discovered more than forty works of Evans’ that were never before recorded or released.

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Album Review

Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project: Lines of Color

Read "Lines of Color" reviewed by Maurizio Comandini


Ryan Truesdell continua nella sua opera di esplorazione dell'universo di Gil Evans con un secondo album che fa seguito all'ottimo Centennial: Newly Discover Works by Gil Evans pubblicato da ArtistShare nel 2012. Un album molto ben accolto dalla critica e dal pubblico, al punto di aver addirittura vinto un Grammy Award. Per questo Lines of Color vengono utilizzati brani registrati dal vivo al Jazz Standard di New York, a metà maggio del 2014, dove l'orchestra diretta da Truesdell si era ...

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Album Review

Ryan Truesdell Gil Evans Project: Lines of Color

Read "Lines of Color" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The biggest ribbons in composer/arranger Gil Evans' (1912-1988) resume are three groundbreaking Columbia Records albums he recorded with trumpeter Miles Davis: Miles Ahead (1958); Porgy and Bess (1959); and Sketches of Spain (1960). These were orchestral jazz of the finest caliber, recorded a decade after Evans' earlier work with Davis on the seminal Capitol Records set Birth of the Cool, released in 1957. Evans' charts--written with the the inclusion of the then unusual (in jazz) French horns and the then ...

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Album Review

Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project: Lines Of Color

Read "Lines Of Color" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


How do you create a follow-up to an album like Centennial-Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans (Artist Share, 2012)? That beauty--the debut from Ryan Truesdell's Gil Evans Project--was more than a standout record; it was an artistic tour de force and a recording for the ages. In crafting that album, Truesdell married his archeological skills, curatorial instincts, arranger's eyes and ears, organizational savvy, and profound respect for the Gil Evans legacy. All of those aspects are also wedded on this ...

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Live Review

The Gil Evans Project directed by Ryan Truesdell at Jazz Standard

Read "The Gil Evans Project directed by Ryan Truesdell at Jazz Standard" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


The Gil Evans Project directed by Ryan TruesdellJazz StandardNew York, NYMay 17, 2013 Somewhere along the way, the centennial of a notable jazz figure's birth became a major cause for celebration and reflection. Unfortunately, these celebrations have occasionally become last hurrahs for the dearly departed, as their life's work fades into the mist of time after they get their hundred-year due; the hardcore jazz community never really forgets or forsakes them, but the rest ...

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Extended Analysis

Ryan Truesdell‎: Centennial - Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans

Read "Ryan Truesdell‎: Centennial - Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer


Ryan Truesdell Centennial: Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans Artist Share 2012 This CD, released to celebrate the 100th birthday of the late Gil Evans, provides a wealth of listening pleasure. It is also a US national treasure that deserves a place in the Smithsonian Institute and every jazz record library. It is a Hope Diamond for everyone to enjoy often. Gil Evans (1912-1988) was a giant, one of the two greatest arrangers in the ...

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Extended Analysis

Ryan Truesdell: Centennial - Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans

Read "Ryan Truesdell: Centennial - Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Ryan TruesdellCentennial: Newly Discovered Works of Gil EvansArtistShare2012Composer/arranger/pianist Gil Evans broke new ground in the arena of arranging in the late 1940s with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra, and the 1949-50 singles which later came out as the album Birth of the Cool (Columbia Records, 1957), made up of sessions with trumpeter Miles Davis. He went on the arrange the music for three more of Davis' extraordinary Columbia sets--Miles Ahead (1958), Porgy and ...

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Album Review

Ryan Truesdell: Centennial - Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans

Read "Centennial - Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans" reviewed by Edward Blanco


Pianist, band leader and composer Ian Ernest Gilmore Green, or as he is better know, Gil Evans, played an instrumental role in the development of free, modal, fusion and most of all, cool jazz. Evans numbers extensive collaborations with the great Miles Davis and arranging duties for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra in the 1940s among his many accomplishments.To mark the hundredth anniversary of Evans' birth date, 13 May 1912, producer and conductor Ryan Truesdell unveils Centennial: Newly Discovered ...

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Recording

See What People Are Saying About The Gil Evans Project's Lines Of Color

See What People Are Saying About The Gil Evans Project's Lines Of Color

Source: Brian Camelio

The Gil Evans Project's new live album, Lines of Color has won Jazz Magazine's CHOC award and been receiving reviews from jazz publications around the world. See what people are saying about “Lines of Color". “The gorgeous lilt of Evans' still startling original arrangements for horns is preserved, not in the aspic of academia but in the living, breathing performances of a group of New York’s finest musicians such as Evans might have selected himself." —Cormac Larkin, THE IRISH TIMES ...

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For Sale

Gil Evans Project Live Album, Lines Of Color, Now Available For Download

Gil Evans Project Live Album, Lines Of Color, Now Available For Download

Source: Prawit Austin Siriwat

The Gil Evans Project's live album, Lines of Color, is now available for download from the ArtistShare site and available for pre-order on iTunes. The band was nominated for three Grammy awards in 2013, and their first album, Centennial, won Gil a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement. The ensemble also won two JJA Jazz Awards, record of the year and Large Ensemble of the Year. This new live recording took place May 13-18th, 2014, for the Gil Evans Project’s ...

Award / Grant

Composer/Producer/Conductor Ryan Truesdell’s Groundbreaking Project "Centennial: Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans" Nominated For Grammy Awards In Three Categories

Composer/Producer/Conductor Ryan Truesdell’s Groundbreaking Project "Centennial: Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans" Nominated For Grammy Awards In Three Categories

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications

CD also earned one of France’s highest honors: LES COUPS DE COEUR from the Académie Charles Cros Renowned composer/producer/conductor RYAN TRUESDELL’s highly acclaimed CD CENTENNIAL: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans (ArtistShare) has earned three nominations in the 55th annual GRAMMY Awards. CENTENNIAL has been nominated in the categories of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album, Best Instrumental Arrangement (How About You) and Best Arrangement Featuring a Vocalist (Look To the Rainbow featuring Luciana Souza). “I share these nominations with everyone ...

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Performance / Tour

Producer/Conductor Ryan Truesdell Releases "Centennial: Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans" May 17-20 At Jazz Standard

Producer/Conductor Ryan Truesdell Releases "Centennial: Newly Discovered Works Of Gil Evans"  May 17-20 At Jazz Standard

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications

Join producer/conductor Ryan Truesdell as he celebrates the release of his debut CD CENTENNIAL: Newly Discovered Works of Gil Evans at the Jazz Standard, 116 E. 27th Street, NYC for four nights: Thursday, May 17 – Sunday, May 20. Sets at 7:30 and 9:30 every night, with an 11:30 set on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $25 Thursday and Sunday, $30 Friday and Saturday. Call 212-576-2232. Joining conductor Truesdell for this performance are some 30 top musicians including Lewis Nash, ...

Bob Brookmeyer
trombone
Gil Evans
composer / conductor

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