Doc's Jazz Music Reviews

This is a great introduction to Bill Evans who is regarded as one of the most influential Jazz pianist of the 1960’s. I love this recording as well as the one he did with Tony Bennett.

Listen for his improvisation on traditional jazz songs and the way he blends the harmony and plays around with the melody. I think you can safely say that Bill was a genius on the piano. Unfortunately his life was cut short through years of heroin and then later cocaine addiction.

There is a web site dedicated to Bill Evans maintained by some dedicated fans at:

http://www.billevanswebpages.com/

Amazon.com

Bill Evans, with virtuoso bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, reinvented the jazz piano trio, creating stunning contrapuntal dialogues that merged luminous lyricism with layers of complex, elusive harmonies, its moments of limpid beauty suddenly giving way to surging rhythms. The trio's finest recorded moments, these performances were captured just 10 days before LaFaro's death in a car accident. The original releases--Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby--are celebrated masterpieces. This three-CD set is a brilliant reissue--almost a revision--of that material, with superb sound from the newly remastered original tapes and all of the music presented in the sequence of the original five sets, adding a previously unissued take of "Gloria's Step," spoken introductions, and the band's incidental conversation. For those who know this music, it's a chance to hear it in a fresh way; for new listeners, it will come as a revelation at a bargain price. --Stuart Broomer