32dp 1001

Bill Evans - Live In Tokyo (1973) {CBS Japan, 32DP-599, Early Press}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 349 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 142 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 163 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1973, 1986 CBS/Sony Japan | 32DP 599
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / Piano

A great live date from Bill Evans – one of his essential sides of the 70s, even if you've already got a bunch of other Evans live material! We know what you're thinking: "Do I have this one? Seems to be a lot of tunes here that I've got on other Evans recordings." But take it from us, this set's a real winner – beautifully recorded despite a larger venue performance in Tokyo – and captured with all the grace, poise, and gentle-flowing genius of Evans in his best better-known live dates – a real antidote to some of the other 70s live albums that might have been better left unissued. Everyone's at the top of their game here – Eddie Gomez on bass with those round warm tones, Marty Morrell on drums with his simple spare rhythms, and Evans himself with a sound that's bold then quiet then bold then soft – beautiful throughout, and really setting fire.

Richie Beirach - Ballads I (1986) {CBS/Sony Japan 32DP-300}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 198 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 135 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 42 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1986 CBS/Sony Japan | 32DP 300
Jazz / Post Bop / Contemporary Jazz / Solo Piano

This is the first of the two Ballads albums recorded in Japan in 1986-1987 by the inimitable Richie Beirach. I've been trying to get them for many years, but they have been nearly impossible to track down. Now finally, they are being reissued on the Japanese Sony label.The music is great- it's Richie Beirach playing a mix of his marvelous originals and a few standards. It's great to hear these solo versions of Elm, Nightlake, Leaving and Sunday Song. As usual, Richie's playing is impeccable-the mood goes from eligaic to dark and brooding. There's also a wonderful letter perfect hommage to Bill Evans on his version of My Foolish Heart.

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The Final Cut extends the autobiography of The Wall, concentrating on Roger Waters' pain when his father died in World War II. Waters spins this off into a treatise on the futility of war, concentrating on the Falkland Islands, setting his blistering condemnations and scathing anger to impossibly subdued music that demands full attention…

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This album has had over three decades to make an impact, and it says something for its staying power that, in the face of more recent, more generously programmed, and better mastered compilations of the duo's work, it remains one of the most popular parts of the Simon & Garfunkel catalog – which doesn't mean it isn't fraught with frustrations for anyone buying it…

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