Although this is probably not what Harold Arlen had in mind when he wrote the music for his Broadway hit Jamaica, the astounding arrangements Gil Evans did in 1957 for the octet of multi-instrumentalist Don Elliott, are a welcome surprise. His unique jazz approach and the solo talents of Elliott on trumpet, mellophone, vibraphone, marimba and bongos breathe new life into a classic. All the musicians involved perform superbly, with Candido giving excellent support on conga, but the real glory belongs to Evans, whose kaleidoscopic arrangements dominate the album. About A Musical Offering, recorded the previous year with a sextet, Elliott said he was searching for the sound of beautiful simplicity. With that in mind, he had commissioned a young and skilled arranger, Quincy Jones, to write clear-cut, modern arrangements for twelve tunes that, in Quincy s own words, were without the complexity of Bird and without the dissonance of Kenton. Polite, nonchalant pleasing music. You may call them daylight arrangements . They all feature fine soloing by great jazzmen.