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Bill Evans

I have the rusty box Verve set. Some great music (the trio) and some less good (a fair bit of the rest.) The packaging must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but by the time you have opened the box, extricated the correct CD, realized you have left brown fingerprints on the cover, washed your hands, wiped the marks off, taken the booklet out (having touched the metal box again), washed your hands, wiped the booklet, realized you have the wrong CD, can’t get the first one back in the sleeve without using the box as leverage, have got new brown fingermarks on the sleeve, washed your hands...
 
For Bill Evans, the four albums he did with laFaro and Motian are absolutely essential. Other than the VV ones, they are Intuition and Portrait in Jazz. Many of the other Riverside sides are also very good. The Verve and Fantasy recordings are IMO inferior to the Riverside ones. For me, an exception is the Verve Live in Montreux album with Eddie Gomez and deJohnette. The Resonance albums are recent 'discoveries', and while they are decent, I think they are a bit overhyped when compared with the many other recordings that Evans made.

For the Riverside and Fantasy albums, I'd look for the OJC versions on either LP or CD. Very decent sound and not expensive. These albums have been reissued many times and are not rare by any means.
 
I'd add "Live at Montreux" to the list too.

Stunning performance and superb recording.

The vinyl version is one of my reference albums.
 
It is quite amazing that the apart from his own truly excellent solo career the piano on Kind of Blue probably the best and most famous Jazz LP of all time and No12 on Rolling Stones greatest albums of all time is a virtual unknown to most people.
 
hockman said:
For Bill Evans, the four albums he did with laFaro and Motian are absolutely essential. Other than the VV ones, they are Intuition and Portrait in Jazz.
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In order to help anyone else like me who has been inspired by your post to buy them, I think you mean ‘Explorations’ rather than ‘Intuition’. There’s also ‘Waltz for Debby.’
 
Correct! This is what happens when one posts from memory with serious lack of sleep.

BTW Waltz for Debby is also from the VV live recordings.

Marchbanks said:
In order to help anyone else like me who has been inspired by your post to buy them, I think you mean ‘Explorations’ rather than ‘Intuition’. There’s also ‘Waltz for Debby.’
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A few more less obvious recommendations:

The two albums he did with Jim Hall, a very sympathetic partnership -- Intermodulation and Undercurrent.

Know What I Mean?, accompanying Cannonball Adderley in a quartet. Something a bit different from your normal Evans, very swinging. Evans very seldom accompanied other musicians in a larger context, usually he played in a solo, duo or trio setting.
 
He plays on Oliver Nelson’s fabulous The Blues and the Abstract Truth ( which might be the best ever name for a jazz record) - music that’s quite different to anything else he played on - at least anything I know of. More like Mingus than Miles although “Stolen Moments” closer to KoB.

Thanks all for the many suggestions. I now have a wish list waiting for when any festive amazon tokens that come my way.

Kevin
 
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hockman said:
Correct! This is what happens when one posts from memory with serious lack of sleep.

BTW Waltz for Debby is also from the VV live recordings.
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So ‘The Complete VV’ plus ‘Portrait’ and ‘Explorations’ does the job. Got it.
 
It’s certainly legit and probably not bad, but personally I’d spring for the Riverside & Milestones box I link to a page back, I know its £40 rather than £6, but it gets the job done and they are all the really nice early OJC masters which are basically just flat transfers of the master tape with no futzing about to make them sound more ‘modern’ or whatever. I’m very happy with mine anyhow!
 
Tony L said:
It’s certainly legit and probably not bad, but personally I’d spring for the Riverside & Milestones box I link to a page back, I know its £40 rather than £6, but it gets the job done and they are all the really nice early OJC masters which are basically just flat transfers of the master tape with no futzing about to make them sound more ‘modern’ or whatever. I’m very happy with mine anyhow!
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I must admit I considered buying the £43 box today but was put off by the sequencing, packaging and not-really-complete concerns mentioned in the only review. In the end I bought the ‘Complete Village Vanguard’ for £20 and would have bought this edition of ‘Explorations’ too if I had seen it. Oh well, next time...
 
I’ve gone through ‘Complete Village Vanguard’ and ‘Explorations’ a few times now, and feel I ought to say - Scott LaFaro, bloody hell...!
 
I'm having a Bill Evans day today and it's inspired me to look into vinyl pressings - I have a load of stuff on digital already. Which labels are legit and where's best to buy from?
 
Currently listening to the Keepnews Collection issue of Portrait In Jazz. Sounds bloody marvellous. Just ordered same issue of Everybody Digs...lovely sleevenotes too.
 
I bought the box set Tony recommended for about £30 a couple of weeks ago. It is fantastic. Sound quality is excellent, I have a few of them on vinyl also so will probably give them a spin.
 
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