Bill Evans - The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 (The Vinyl Box Set)

By Concord Music Group 

Concord Music Group is proud to announce the forthcoming vinyl reissue of Bill Evans’ The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961, one of the greatest live jazz recording sessions of all time. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl, the four-LPs box set is packaged with a 12-page booklet, complete with new liner notes by reissue producer Bill Belmont, as well as the original liner notes by the producer of the initial recordings, Orrin Keepnews. Reproductions of Keepnews’ session annotations and photographer Steve Schapiro’s proof sheets from the performances add vintage context to the packaging. As a bonus, a stunning metallic and black poster of the famous cover—Evans, in profile, deep in concentration at his piano—completes the box set.

Ranked time after time as one of the best live jazz recording sessions in history, and yielding two of Evans’ most classic albums (Waltz for Debby, Sunday at the Village Vanguard),The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 represents the pinnacle of spontaneous musical communication: three men breathing as one on a tiny bandstand. The performances on these LPs demonstrate a new and more interactive approach to playing as a trio, one in which all instruments carry melodic responsibilities and function as equal voices. Keepnews recalls in his liner notes that “from the very first moments of the recording, it was impossible to ignore the importance of these performances.”

Everything Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro, and Paul Motian had been working on for the previous 18 months led to this moment on June 25, 1961. The little-known pianist and his trio performed afternoon and evening sets that Sunday to a small audience that unknowingly sat through what would become a very famous—and final—set by the trio (the 25-year old LeFaro died tragically in a car accident just days later). These recordings provide something of a sonic time capsule: sequenced in the original order of the five sets, the audience’s murmurings and applause are peppered throughout; even an interrupted take is left intact. Belmont recalls the process of piecing the performance back together during the remastering process: “As was the practice with early live recording, the songs [on the original album] were faded just after the last note, and much, if not all, of the audience and banter from the stage was removed. So the first stage of the process was to find the reels—if they existed—and try and make a reconstruction of everything that was recorded…The task was to try to make the show flow as closely as possible to what had been recorded.”

By Jeff Tamarkin at JazzTimes 

Concord Music Group is reissuing Bill Evans’ The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961, as a vinyl box set. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl, the four LPs are packaged with a 12-page booklet, complete with new liner notes by reissue producer Bill Belmont, as well as the original liner notes by the producer of the initial recordings, Orrin Keepnews. The set also includes reproductions of Keepnews’ session annotations and photographer Steve Schapiro’s proof sheets from the performances. As a bonus, according to a press release, a metallic and black poster of the album cover—Evans, in profile, deep in concentration at his piano—completes the box set.

The original recording was made June 25, 1961, at the New York venue and features pianist Evans with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian.

Concord also plans a 12-disc reissue of The Complete Riverside Recordings for early 2015. That set presents all 20 recording sessions from the eight-year period (1956-63) that launched Evans’ career. These 151 performances are presented in what’s described as “a sleek brick box,” along with a 32-page illustrated booklet. Due in January is the four-LP set The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings, which encompasses the duets Bennett and Evans recorded in 1975 and 1976. New liner notes by music critic and co-author of Bennett’s autobiography, Will Friedwald, complete the package.

Track Listing for The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961:

Disc 1

Side A: 

1. Spoken Introduction 00:43 

2. Gloria's Step (Take 1, Interrupted) 5:41 

3. Alice In Wonderland (Take 1) 6:57

Side B: 

1. My Foolish Heart 4:55 

2. All Of You (Take 1) 8:14 

3. Announcement And Intermission 1:44

Disc 2

Side A: 

1. My Romance (Take 1) 7:11 

2. Some Other Time 5:02 

3. Solar 8:57

Side B: 

1. Gloria's Step (Take 2) 6:10 

2. My Man's Gone Now 6:21 

3. All Of You (Take 2) 8:29 

Disc 3

Side A: 

1. Detour Ahead (Take 1) 7:17 

2. Discussing Repertoire 00:31 

3. Waltz For Debby (Take 1) 6:46 

4. Alice In Wonderland (Take 2) 8:31

Side B: 

1. Porgy (I Loves You, Porgy) 6:09 

2. My Romance (Take 2) 7:26 

3. Milestones 6:31 

Disc 4

Side A: 

1. Detour Ahead (Take 2) 7:41

2. Gloria's Step (Take 3) 6:48 

3. Waltz For Debby (Take 2) 7:00 

Side B: 

1 All Of You (Take 3) 8:18 

2. Jade Visions (Take 1) 4:12 

3. Jade Visions (Take 2) 3:57 

4. ...A Few Final Bars 1:15

Martin Wind's Homage to Bill Evans

Martin Wind Quartet & Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana
Turn Out The Stars: Music Written or Inspired by Bill Evans



By Mark Corroto
Has an artist ever been characterized as a hopeful romantic? If not, then let us nominate Martin Wind, not as hopeless, but a bullish and inspiring romantic. His quartet and the 36- piece Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana tribute to pianist Bill Evans Turn Out The Stars marries his talents, both as a jazz bassist/bandleader and orchestral arranger.
Besides leading his own quartet, and working in trio with Bill Mays and Matt Wilson, and in the guitar/bass duos with Philip Catherine or Ulf Meyer, Wind is an in-demand sideman featured in multiple projects, including Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts and bands led by, Ted Nash, Gary Smulyan, and Pete Mills, to name just a few. He released two stellar recordings in 2013, the CD Ulf Meyer and Martin Wind At Orpheus Theater (Laika) and an audiophile LP Remember October 13th (Edition Longplay).
Recorded live at the Theatro Rossini in Pesaro, Italy, Wind's quartet includes his regular partners, saxophonist Scott Robinson and pianist Bill Cunliffe, plus drummer Joe LaBarbera, who was Bill Evans' drummer in the pianist's final trio (1978-1980). This homage to Evans is enhanced by the gorgeous and passionate arrangements Wind wrote for conductor Massimo Morganti's orchestra. The disc opens with the title track, an overture in full bloom that gives way to the quartet's recitation of melody with Robinson's saxophone laying down velvety notes. Each piece— such as the spry rendition of "The Days Of Wine And Roses," performed by the quartet or full orchestra—is dexterously accomplished. Wind has the knack for extracting the sweetest juice for each piece written by Evans or written in tribute to the great one. La Barbera's composition "Kind Of Bill" opens with a piano and bowed bass duo, then lingers in that romantic atmosphere Evans loved to reach for.
Even in full orchestra, the quartet is never overwhelmed. The luscious arrangement of "Blue In Green" plays off of the contrasts of lightness and dark, the orchestra a pastoral landscape for the quartet to rollick. The tricky "Twelve Tone Tune Two" pushes the orchestra into a challenging interchange with La Barbera's drums and the coughing horn of Robinson. At the center of this gorgeous evening is the stalwart bass of Wind, the infrastructure upon which both a quartet and a very large orchestra is held by his passionate zeal.
Track Listing:
Turn Out The Stars; My Foolish Heart; The Days Of Wine And Roses; Jeremy; Memory Of Scotty; Kind Of Bill; Blue In Green; Twelve Tone Tune Two; Goodbye Mr. Evans.
Personnel:
Martin Wind: bass; Scott Robinson: tenor saxophone, C melody saxophone; Bill Cunliffe: piano; Joe La Barbera: drums; Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana - Massimo Morganti: conductor.

Bill Evans Trio - LeJazz/Charly From the 90's

Bill Evans

Serenity



Bill Evans envisioned a piano trio in which the bassist and drummer wouldn’t be accompanists but equal participants. Further, without any attempts at obvious fusion, he melded elements of late 19th- and early 20th-century classical music into his approach, along with a quiet but powerful lyrical quality still based in jazz. SERENITY captures a live Evans radio broadcast with his regular bandmates from the early and mid-‘70s--Eddie Gomez (bass) and Marty Morell (drums)--performing Evans's best-loved favorites such as "Re: Person I Knew" and "Waltz For Debby."


The Bill Evans Trio

Quiet Now



By Stewart Mason
An aptly titled album from the Bill Evans Trio, Quiet Now is the jazz pianist at his most ambient and cerebral. Accompanied only by the minimalist rhythm section of bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell, Evans effortlessly deconstructs two pop standards, Harold Arlen's "Sleeping Bee" and his beloved "Autumn Leaves," a Johnny Mercer tune that he played seemingly hundreds of times, along with three of his own compositions and Miles Davis' "Nardis," a song Evans made his own through endless reintepretation over the course of many years. Morrel is a steady, unobtrusive drummer with a light touch and, happily, not much of a tendency to show off and even less to solo. Gomez, the bassist Evans worked with the longest in his career, knows how to anticipate his boss' every move, no matter how seemingly random, and his solo spots are those rarities, economical and well-constructed bass solos that are actually fun to listen to. Quiet Now is a bit too workmanlike to be one of the greatest Bill Evans Trio releases -- it's more solidly competent than divinely inspired, but Evans' playing, as always, is marvelous.