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Bill Evans: Ten Essential Sideman Albums
by Chris May
Bill Evans attracts a special sort of fan. Clinically obsessive is a reasonable description. While far from undiscerning, we find something, usually plenty, to enjoy in every record Evans played on. And we want them all in our collection. Evans' hardcore fans include practically every musician who played with him. Eddie Gomez, his bassist for 11 years, spoke for many when, in an interview for the liner booklet of Bill Evans Treasures (Elemental, 2021), he said: “Every ...
Continue ReadingBill Evans Trio: At The Village Vanguard 1961 Revisited
by Mark Corroto
Imagine yourself in Greenwich Village June 25, 1961. You are in attendance at a small pie shaped club called the Village Vanguard run by Max Gordon. This is before it was to be crowned as a jazz holy ground. Sonny Rollins had recorded his famous A Night At The “Village Vanguard" (Blue Note, 1957). John Coltrane would record there in November of 1961 and again in 1966. The spot is a shrine with sessions from legends such as Albert Ayler, ...
Continue ReadingBill Evans Trio: At The Village Vanguard 1961 Revisited
by Chris May
Liner notes generally avoid referencing current affairs, for the good reason that what is front page news when the notes are being written may be gone and forgotten by the time the album is released. But there are exceptional circumstances, and here is one of them. On his father's side, Bill Evans was of Welsh heritage, and on his mother's side, Russian, or rather Ukrainian, the two countries during his lifetime often being conflated as a result ...
Continue ReadingTony Bennett / Bill Evans: The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings
by Chris May
In the mid-1970s, when singer Tony Bennett got together with pianist Bill Evans to record The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (Concord, 1975) and Together Again (Concord, 1976), Bennett was considered terminally uncool by most jazz fans under 30, and rock fans of any age. Despite a few earlier outings in jazz contexts, including an album recorded with Count Basie's orchestra, Basie Swings, Bennett Sings (Roulette, 1959) he was primarily regarded as an MOR singer, defined in the public consciousness by ...
Continue ReadingBill Evans: Waltz For Debby
by Mark Corroto
In a very unscientific survey, 9 out of 10 jazz connoisseurs listed Waltz For Debby by the Bill Evans Trio as one of their desert island picks. For more than sixty years it has been a best seller and this reissue, like its companion release Sunday At The Village Vanguard (Craft Recordings, 2023), is part of a newly relaunched Original Jazz Classic series. From the original tapes, both are all-analog masters by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, pressed on 180-gram ...
Continue ReadingBill Evans: Treasures: Solo, Trio and Orchestra Recordings from Denmark (1965-1969)
by Mike Jurkovic
At first one might wonder how long good fortune can last so that previously unheard and unreleased Bill Evans sets such as Treasures: Solo, Trio and Orchestra Recordings from Denmark (1965-1969) seemingly fall from the heavens on a regular basis. Is it not fact that all good things must come to an end is the cruelest of ironies? But it would appear, at least for the expectant moment, that we are living in the best of times. So ...
Continue ReadingEvans / LaFaro / Motian: Complete Trio Recordings
by Chris May
Christmas is coming early for Bill Evans aficionados this April 2023 with the release of two box-sets. Hard on the heels of Elemental's 2-CD / 3-LP Treasures: Solo, Trio & Orchestra Recordings From Denmark 1965-1969 (reviewed here), comes this 5-CD Complete Trio Recordings set. The aptly titled Treasures is essential listening, containing as it does 30 high-end previously unreleased tracks which were professionally recorded for radio broadcast. Complete Trio Recordings has value but is less than essential, ...
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