The Library of Congress has acquired the complete collection of music manuscripts by jazz arranger, composer, pianist and bandleader Gil Evans, making previously unavailable work accessible to researchers.
The archive includes approximately 350 scores, 35 lead sheets, five music sketches and 50 instrumental parts for recording projects created between 1947 and 1987, the Library said.
About 160 scores, 20 lead sheets and 35 instrumental parts were never recorded. The Library described their arrival as the first time those materials would be publicly available for researchers to examine.
The collection also contains 14 boxes of professionally copied scores, an extensive group of lead sheets Evans called his Fake Book and a large manuscript sketchbook.
Evans is especially associated with orchestrations for trumpeter Miles Davis, including the albums Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain. The archive covers a broader career that also reached film scoring and electronic instrumentation.
His arrangements drew on instruments uncommon in many jazz groups of the period, including French horn, flute and tuba. Those choices helped build the dense, dark-toned ensemble sound identified with his work.
Manuscripts in the collection arrange music connected with writers and performers ranging from Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk to Jimi Hendrix and Maurice Ravel, illustrating how widely Evans worked across styles.
The papers complement other Library music collections linked to Davis collaborators and major arrangers. Researchers can use the manuscripts to compare working drafts, orchestration decisions and recorded results.
The Library announced the acquisition in February and said the collection would be available in late spring 2026. Access conditions can depend on processing, preservation and reading-room procedures.