Bill Evans: The Legendary Trio At Birdland 1960 Revisited

Keen-eyed Bill Evans aficionados will know that this album is the pianist's third in the Revisited series by ezz-thetics, following At The Village Vanguard 1961 Revisited and the double-CD Duos with Jim Hall & Trios '64 & '65 Revisited, both released in 2023. "The Legendary Trio" refers to the threesome of Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, the same group that recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1961. The Legendary Trio was brought to a tragic end ten days after that Vanguard recording, when LaFaro was killed in a car accident, aged 25.

In contrast to Evans' Village Vanguard live recordings, which all originate from five sets on June 25th 1961, his Birdland recordings come from four different dates between March 12th and May 7th 1960. It is worth noting that the first of those dates was less than a year after Evans had recorded Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959) with Miles Davis, so no surprise that the Birdland album contains a version of the Evans-Davis composition "Blue In Green" and the Davis composition "Nardis."

Being recorded on four different dates meant that some Birdland pieces were recorded more than once, so "Autumn Leaves" and "Come Rain Or Come Shine" are each heard three times. The repeats are not duplicates. For example the March 12th "Autumn Leaves" clocks in at 4:54, that from April 30th 7:08; both feature a bass solo before Evans enters and soloes himself, but on the longer version their soloes are longer. At the end of most tracks there is a radio announcement, which suggests that the recordings were not made at Birdland itself but from a radio broadcast of the performances.

Although the 1961 Village Vanguard live recordings were released by Riverside in 1961 and 1962 and were greatly praised, the 1960 Birdland live recordings were not legitimately released until The 1960 Birdland Sessions (Cool 'n' Blue Records, 1992), twelve years after Evans' own death. The current release, with ezz-thetics usual high standards of sound and documentation, is very welcome and deserves to finally be considered on a par with the Village Vanguard 1961 recordings.