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Bill 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 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 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, ...
Continue ReadingFrank Kimbrough: Frank Kimbrough 2003 - 2006
by Pierre Giroux
Frank Kimbrough, who died in December 2020, was a pianist of passionate originality, whose playing can be defined by an ease of technique coupled with a flow of ideas and meticulous execution. This current release, Frank Kimbrough 2003-2006, features newly mixed and remastered versions of the pianist's 2003 album Lullabluebye and the 2006 follow-up release Play. These albums were thought to be representative of a particularly productive period in his career. On Lullabluebye, Kimbrough is accompanied ...
Continue ReadingFrank Kimbrough: Frank Kimbrough 2003 - 2006
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Frank Kimbrough (1956 -2020) was involved in a good deal of collaboration throughout his career, with the Herbie Nichols Project and, most notably, his twenty-four year, seven CD stint in the piano chair of the Maria Schneider Orchestra, where he elevated an already high altitude music to an even loftier level. Such was Kimbrough's willingness to give his all in sideman contexts with like-minded artists that it could be argued that his own work as a leader may not ...
Continue ReadingMotian In Motion
by Ian Patterson
Paul Motian Motian In Motion Aquapio Films 2021 There could have been no more apt title for film maker Michael Patrick Kelly's documentary film on drummer, Paul Motian (1931-2011), who buzzes about his New York business—in and out of taxis on the way to and from gigs or the recording studio—with perpetual wind in his sails. Even when simply chatting with friends, Motian always seems to be in movement. A hug is never ...
Continue ReadingPaul Motian: There's a Million Songs Out There
by Paul Olson
This interview was first published at All About Jazz in April 2006. Paul Motian doesn't like being interviewed. That said, the 75-year-old drummer has plenty to say, and doesn't hesitate to speak his mind. Motian first came to prominence in the late 1950s as one-third (with bassist Scott LaFaro and pianist Bill Evans) of the great Bill Evans Trio, which upended expectations of just what a jazz piano trio was supposed to do (at ...
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