Bill Evans’ Some Other Time: The Lost Session From the Black Forrest

This article was first published at Blogcritics.

On the one hand, the release of previously unknown recordings of jazz icons long deceased should be cause for celebration, but then, and there is a but, how are today’s unknown young musicians looking to find an audience for their music to compete. It is not far-fetched to argue that what seems to be a constant stream of newly hatched material from past masters may well have a less than happy effect on the development of new voices. After all why take a chance and buy the debut album of an unfamiliar musician when you can load up on classics?

That said, it would be churlish to complain when newly discovered work from a jazz genius like the great Bill Evans comes available. So, to those unknown young musicians struggling for notice, apologies, but while Resonance Records’ upcoming release of Bill Evans’ Some Other Time: The Lost Session From the Black Forrest a two-disc studio set recorded at MPS Studios in Germany on June 20, 1968 may be taking the air out of your market, but we’re talking about Bill Evans.

The set gets the full Resonance treatment with an elaborate 40-page booklet including an essay by producer Zev Feldman detailing how he came across the recordings, a brilliant essay on Evans from critic Marc Myers and interviews with trio members Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJonette, as well as a special limited edition hand numbered two-LP set in addition to the deluxe two-CD set and digital edition.

The recordings have the pianist playing in solo, duo and trio settings. Disc One has 11 tracks and contains the material from the session that was intended for release when and if contracted approvals could be arranged. The second disc contains the rest of the recorded material which producer Feldman felt was just as worthy of public attention.

While bassist Gomez was to play with Evans for quite a few years, this is the only studio recording of the pianist with drummer DeJohnette who only played with him for about six months. Myer’s essay tries to explain the impact of the drummer on Evans’ playing. DeJohnette’s “tender, kinetic drumming style caught Evan’s ear, educating him on the interplay possible when percussive figures are feathery and challenging.” He hears in the collaboration between them an indication of Evans’ future direction.

Highlights on Disc One include the opener “You Go to My Head,” a lyrically intense “My Funny Valentine,” duo versions of “I’ll Remember April” and “Baubles, Bangles and Beads.” Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” gets a classic treatment as does Evans own composition “Very Early.”

Disc Two which opens and closes with versions of “You’re Gonna Hear From Me,” also has an alternative trio version of “Baubles, Bangles and Beads” providing for some interesting comparisons. There are solo versions of “It’s All Right With Me” (which is marked incomplete” and “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?).”

Some Other Time is a welcome addition to the Bill Evans canon.

Review: "The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings" (Vinyl or CD)

This article was first published at Blogcritics

Put two great artists in a recording studio and leave them to their own devices, and if those artists are Tony Bennett and Bill Evans, you’re likely to come up with something special. At least that’s what you’d expect. And while just how special the music from the duo’s 1975 and 1976 sessions which produced first The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album and then its sequel Together Again is debatable. There is no debate but that the performances are exceptional, even, if at least for some listeners, not quite as exceptional as expected: once again suffering the curse of great expectations.

Now comes the release April 28, of a “deluxe” four-LP Box set of The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings, and it is something of a mixed blessing. The set includes both original albums plus two discs made up of bonus tracks and alternate takes, as well as what they call a “collectible 12X12 photograph” of the duo  and a 12-page booklet with liner notes by Will Friedwald. But since the music itself is already available on a 2009 two-disc CD, the audience for the new release would seem to be the audiophile with a jones for vinyl and the most devoted of Bennett, Evans fans, the kind of obsessive collectors who must have everything.

Since I only had access to CD versions of the “Audio from the Forthcoming Vinyl Box Set,” which I presume is comparable to, if not actually the same as the 2009 release, I have no way of commenting on the sound quality of the new release. As far as the music itself, Bill Evans can’t make a mediocre album, and Tony Bennett in the seventies is at his best, so put me in the great expectations met camp. Their alternate takes would have been gems for other artists. And it is interesting to hear and try of compare rejected takes with those used on the album.

The songs for the album were chosen on the spot. Bennett and Evans worked out the arrangements “semi-spontaneously.” There are a number of stalwarts from the Great American Songbook: tunes like “Young and Foolish,” which opens the first album, “My Foolish Heart,” “Make Someone Happy,” and “Days of Wine and Roses.” There are some less familiar pieces, songs like “When in Rome” and “You’re Nearer.” There is a version of the classic Evan’s instrumental, “Waltz for Debby” with lyrics by Gene Lees (although why you would want to burden that masterpiece with lyrics is beyond me).

I can’t speak for the vinyl set, but the two-CD album is a joy.

Music Revew: Bill Evans- Bill Evans Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of the Gate.

This article was first published at Blogcritics

The first time I ever had a chance to really listen to the Bill Evans Trio was back in 1961 when the Columbia Record Club sent me its monthly selection because I had forgotten to return the notification that I wanted some other record or nothing at all that month.  The record that arrived was Waltz For Debby. Certainly I must have heard some of Evans' work on some of the jazz radio shows, but I don't know that I ever really listened seriously.  As pianists went then, the names in my pantheon were Peterson, Brubeck, Shearing and the like.  Waltz For Debby arrived and with it the discovery of something that  more than a few jazz  lovers already knew—Bill Evans was an artist who could play with the best of them, and a good deal better than most.

So when over 50 years from the date of its recording a release of two live sets from an October, 1968 gig at the Top of the Gate, a recording that had had only been heard one time on the Columbia University radio show of George Klabin, now president of Resonance Records and the man who had managed to record it, becomes available, it has to be a cause for celebration.  This, of course, is not the original Evans trio that had played on Waltz For Debby.  Bassist Scott LaFaro had died in a car accident, and a drummer Paul Motian had left some time after.  Eddie Gomez eventually took over the bass and Marty Morell the drums, and this was to become the trio that was to play together through the end of the 60's and into the 70's.  This is the trio playing on the two disc release from Resonance: Bill Evans Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of the Gate.

The only thing for fans to lament about this recording is that it took over 50 years to get it released.  Not only does it show the virtuosity of the individual musicians, it clearly demonstrates their collaborative dynamism.  Each disc features one complete set—nine tracks in the first set, eight in the second.  Three of the songs in the first set are repeated in the second ("Emily," the Jerome Kern "Yesterdays" and Monk's jazz classic "'Round Midnight") giving listeners an opportunity to compare the variations in the musician's performances on the same evening.  The only Evans original is his "Turn Out the Stars" which closes the first set, otherwise the sets are made up of some jazz standards and familiar tunes, with perhaps one or two representing some of the trio's earliest live and recorded versions of the songs. 

The first set features a swinging "Gone With the Wind" and an elegant take on "My Funny Valentine."  "Emily," which opens the set begins almost introspectively before taking off with some nice interaction between Evans and Morell.   "Witchcraft" has some inventive solo work from Evans and Gomez.  But if you're looking for some exceptional bass work,  "Autumn Leaves" in the second set is truly something special.  Indeed Gomez makes his presence felt through both sets.  Duke Ellington's "In a Sentimental Mood" is a sweet reading of the classic tune and "Someday My Prince Will Come" will make you forget Snow White, if not Miles Davis.  The set ends with a subtly moody "Here's That Rainy Day."  These are two sets that show convincingly that Evans, Gomez and Morell are at the top of their game.

The two disc set includes a 27 page booklet with a wealth of vintage photographs and essays and notes by producer Zev Feldman, jazz critic Nat Hentoff, and vibraphonist Gary Burton.  Gomez and Morell contribute some personal memories.  There are some notes from Klabin about the recording where he explains that Evans and the trio had not yet garnered the "respect" they were later to command, and that accounts for some of the background chatter that can be heard during the sets.  It may also account for the sometimes less than enthusiastic applause.  There is also a short piece on Art D'Lugoff and the Top of the Gate by his son Raphael.

All in all this set is a welcome addition to the Bill Evans discography.  Release is scheduled for June 12, 2012. Besides the two disc CD set, Resonance will be issuing a limited pressing of 3,000 hand numbered 3-LP vinyl box sets which will include the content from the CD booklet.  The music will also be available for downloading for those who prefer a digital version.

Music Review: Bill Evans Trio - Moonbeams

This article was first published at Blogcritics
(Note: A comment on Blogcritics says the name of the album should read Moom Beams.  As a matter of fact the CD has it both ways.)

May will be a good month for fans of pianist Bill Evans' trios.  A two disc set of a previously unreleased 1968 gig, Bill Evans Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of the Gate is due out from Resonance records, and Jazz Classics is releasing a remastered edition of his 1962 studio recording, Moonbeams.  Moonbeams was the first recording Evans made with his new trio after a period of depression following the accidental death of his first trio's bassist, Scott LaFaro in June of '61.  Drummer Paul Motian was still on board, and Chuck Israels replaced what many thought was the irreplaceable LaFaro.  It and one other, How My Heart Sings!, were the only two albums recorded by this second trio, which soon gave way to the trio—Eddie Gomez on bass and Marty Morell on drums--that played together into the '70's.

An all ballad album, Moonbeams capitalizes on Evans' lyric sensitivity, but producer Orrin Keepnews, according to Doug Ramsey's liner notes for the remastered release, worried that the "steady dose of slower tempos" might make the band lethargic, had them intersperse up tempo pieces throughout the sessions.     He needn't have worried; Evans is a master at playing with tempos.  According to Israels: "The rhythms are more sophisticated, more inventive, more creative than almost any other jazz musician I know."  Turns out there were enough of these faster tunes for the second album.

The original album had eight tracks and included two of Evans' original compositions.  The new release includes alternate takes of three pieces as bonus tracks. It opens with Evans' "Re: Person I Knew" which according to the original liner notes was meant as an anagram of the producer's name, although the tense of the verb seems to have been changed to protect the spelling.   While Evans work is often compared to the 19^th century Impressionist composers, it's haunting opening reminds me a lot of Erik Satie, as do a lot of other moments on the CD. The other Evans composition is the waltz time "Very Early" which closes the album.  While the waltz is not typical jazz fare, in Evans' hand you have to wonder why that should be.

In between there is a stunning version of "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," for my money the highlight of the album.  It is Evans at his lyrical best.  And the rest of the set is equally fine.  "I Fall in Love Too Easily" is followed by a powerful take on "Stairway to the Stars" which is given a bit of a bluesy vibe. "If You Could See Me Now," "It Might as Well Be Spring, and "In Love in Vain" round out the album.  The bonus tracks are alternate takes of "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," "I Fall in Love Too Easily," and "Very Early."

Nat Hentoff quotes Bill Evans as saying: "It bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem.  It's not.  It's feeling."  There have certainly been those who have made it their business to analyze just what it is that he does that makes him such a great pianist.  He is after all the very model of what you might call a pianist's pianist.  Certainly he is technically adroit, but a lot of people are technically adroit.  As he says, what makes a great pianist, what makes him a great pianist is the feeling.  Evans in his trademark position leaning over the keyboard seemed to audiences to become almost at one with his instrument.  He feels the instrument.  He feels  the music.