Bill Evans Trio: Sunday At The Village Vanguard (riverside)

Sunday at the Village Vanguard is the initial volume of a mammoth recording session by the Bill Evans Trio, from June 25, 1961 at New York's Village Vanguard documenting Evans' first trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. Its companion volume is Waltz for Debby. This trio is still widely regarded as his finest, largely because of the symbiotic interplay between its members. Tragically, LaFaro was killed in an automobile accident ten days after this session was recorded, and Evans assembled the two packages a few months afterward. While "Waltz for Debby" - in retrospect - is seemingly a showcase for Evans' brilliant, subtle, and wide-ranging pianism, this volume becomes an homage, largely, to the genius and contribution of LaFaro…

Bill Evans Trio - Sunday At The Village Vanguard (1961) {2008 Riverside} [Keepnews Collection Complete Series] (Item #23of27)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 459 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 161 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 311 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remastering
© 1961, 2008 Concord / Riverside | 0888072305090
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / Piano

Conventional wisdom, which in this case may be right, holds that Bill Evans' storied career peaked on June 25, 1961, a date that yielded two live records, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby, the final two documents of Evans' first, and best, trio, with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. In the two years he'd been playing with Evans, LaFaro had opened up new possibilities for the jazz bass, playing with a harmonically oblique, melodically flexible style that was, at the time, unprecedented. Ten days after this record was made he died, just 25 years old.

Bill Evans - Sunday At The Village Vanguard (1961) {Riverside Japan, VDJ-1519, Early Press}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 268 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 101 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 144 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1961, 1985 Riverside / Victor Japan | VDJ-1519
Jazz / Modal Music / Post Bop / Piano

This release presents music from the legendary 1961 Village Vanguard sets by the Bill Evans Trio. It would mark the last recording by the formation of the group with Scott LaFaro on bass, and Paul Motian on drums, as LaFaro died ten days later on July 6, 1961, at the age of 25. Evans, who loved LaFaro’s playing, would take a long hiatus before forming a new trio.

Portrait In Jazz (1960). The first of two studio albums by the Bill Evans-Scott LaFaro-Paul Motian trio (both of which preceded their famous engagement at the Village Vanguard), this Portrait in Jazz reissue contains some wondrous interplay, particularly between pianist Evans and bassist LaFaro, on the two versions of "Autumn Leaves." Other than introducing Evans' "Peri's Scope," the music is comprised of standards, but the influential interpretations were far from routine or predictable at the time. LaFaro and Motian were nearly equal partners with the pianist in the ensembles and their versions of such tunes as "Come Rain or Come Shine," "When I Fall in Love," and "Someday My Prince Will Come" (which preceded Miles Davis' famous recording by a couple years) are full of subtle and surprising creativity. A gem…

Recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1961, shortly before Scott LaFaro's death, Waltz for Debby is the second album issued from that historic session, and the final one from that legendary trio that also contained drummer Paul Motian. While the Sunday at the Village Vanguard album focused on material where LaFaro soloed prominently, this is far more a portrait of the trio on those dates. Evans chose the material here, and, possibly, in some unconscious way, revealed on these sessions - and the two following LaFaro's death (Moonbeams and How My Heart Sings!) - a different side of his musical personality that had never been displayed on his earlier solo recordings or during his tenures with Miles Davis and George Russell: Evans was an intensely romantic player, flagrantly emotional, and that is revealed here in spades on tunes such as "My Foolish Heart" and "Detour Ahead"…

2021 finds Zev Feldman teaming with the Elemental Music label, to release yet another long lost live recording by an Evans trio, Behind the Dikes - The 1969 Netherlands Recordings.
This is music that has long been available, in an underground sort of way, on bootleg recordings of sub-standard sound quality - something that is problematic in most music, unforgivable in regards to Bill Evans. That has changed with this official release. The sound is crisp and clean, showcasing the pristine and distinctive Evans touch, and the always remarkable interplay with this particular trio, with Evans joined by bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell.
Evans' best trio, with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian - that produced the groundbreaking Sunday At the Village Vanguard (1961) and Waltz For Debby (1962)…

Bill Evans Trio - Waltz For Debby (1961) {Riverside Japan, VDJ-1536, Early Press}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 234 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 92 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 161 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1961, 1986 Riverside / Victor Japan | VDJ-1536
Jazz / Modal Music / Post Bop / Piano

Recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1961, shortly before Scott LaFaro's death, Waltz for Debby is the second album issued from that historic session, and the final one from that legendary trio that also contained drummer Paul Motian. While the Sunday at the Village Vanguard album focused on material where LaFaro soloed prominently, this is far more a portrait of the trio on those dates. Evans chose the material here, and, possibly, in some unconscious way, revealed on these sessions – and the two following LaFaro's death (Moonbeams and How My Heart Sings!) – a different side of his musical personality that had never been displayed on his earlier solo recordings or during his tenures with Miles Davis and George Russell: Evans was an intensely romantic player, flagrantly emotional, and that is revealed here in spades on tunes such as "My Foolish Heart" and "Detour Ahead."