Castles Made of Sound: The Story of Gil Evans

I haven't read the Crease bio, so I can't compare, but this is a solid work which provides a clear and well organized picture of Evan's personal and professional life, and how he was an amazingly laid-back and un-ambitious character, almost zen-like. Particularily well-described is his philosophy of his post-'69 bands, where he developed the philosophy of the "leaderless band", and where he even hated to count in the band. A strength of the book is it's many interviews with musicians who played with Evans, and it is here where we get a sharply delineated image of Evans the man: he clearly was much admired and loved, and was valued as much for his life-lessons as he was for his musical genius. If the book has a weakness, it's in the lack of penetrating insight into the music itself (for that one must search out Max Harrison's "Sheer alchemy, for a while" found in Bill Kirchner's Miles Davis Reader). Still, I've learned a lot about Evans, and have a much better feeling for the music and the man after reading this work; I'll give it a four.