From Bill Evans

Smile With Your Heart: The Best of Bill Evans on Resonance brings together standout tracks from the company’s four sets of hitherto unheard material by the lyrical keyboard master: Live at Art D’Lugoff’s Top of the Gate (2012); Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest (2016); Another Time: The Hilversum Concert (2017); and Evans in England (2019). Evans in England was issued for the first time as limited edition two-LP set on Record Store Day 2019, and 3 tracks from the album appear on Smile With Your Heart.

From Miles Davis' Doo-Bop to albums by Greg Osby and Steve Coleman, much of the "jazz/rap fusion" released has been more hip-hop than jazz – essentially, hip-hop with jazz overtones. Bill Evans, however, has featured rappers in much the way a hard bopper would feature a singer – on "Reality" and the poignant, reggae-influenced "La Di Da," rapper Ahmed Best successfully interacts with an actual, spontaneous, improvisatory band instead of merely pre-recorded tracks. Best's rapping style – a cerebral approach akin to De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest instead of more hardcore rappers like Tupac Shakur and Ice-T – is well-suited to this challenging and complex jazz-fusion setting.

Jazz pianist Bill Evans began a quiet revolution in the early 1960s. Before Evans, jazz piano trios spotlighted the pianist while the others essentially accompanied him or her. Evans envisioned a trio where all three musicians were on an equal footing, where they'd truly interact. "Sunday at the Village Vanguard", recorded live in 1961, captures the original Bill Evans Trio at its peak. Drummer Paul Motian plays with grace, subtlety, and restraint that are equal to Evans's, and bassist Scott LaFaro (who also played with Ornette Coleman) has a rapport with the others that seems telepathic. Evans absorbed the bebop approach to the keys but also took inspiration from the suave pianism of Nat "King" Cole and 20th-century classical Impressionism. "Sunday" is piano trio jazz that's executed so beautifully one might not notice how complex it really is.

Tony Bennett & Bill Evans - The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings (2009) {2CD Set, Fantasy FAN-31281 rec 1975-1976}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 656 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 363 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 72 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1975-76, 2009 Concord / Fantasy | FAN-31281 | 24-bit remastering
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / Piano / Vocal

A sublime 2-CD collection that spotlights the iconic song stylist dueting with the legendary jazz pianist from their two albums recorded in 1975 & 1976. Disc 1 combines the originally issued recordings, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album and Together Again with two bonus tracks. Disc 2 features alternate takes from both sessions.

Depending on the nature of the person involved, success either dictates more and more compulsive activity, or else it permits relaxation. With Cannonball Adderley, the latter certainly appears to be the case; and this album can, among other things, serve as a testimonial to the truth of this impression. Adderley is undeniably a successful, widely-acclaimed artist, and it may seem to some that his success came quickly. But it is more in the nature of what one night-club comic once referred to bitterly as "my overnight success after fifteen years."

Bill Evans Trio - Live in Ottawa 1974 (2007) {Gambit Records}
EAC rip (secure mode) | IMG, FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 373 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 161 Mb | No Artwork
© 2007 Gambit Records | 69271
Jazz / Post Bop / Piano

This Canadian concert was performed shortly before drummer Marty Morell’s departure, and therefore, boasted a well-rehearsed unit. Before Eliot Zigmund’s arrival, Evans would make a duo album with Eddie Gomez entitled Intuition. The concert issued here was one of two performances recorded during that engagement, although not a single tune was played twice. The other concert has been issued on CD under the title of Blue in Green. Our concert, taken from a radio broadcast, has been long unavailable and appears here on CD for the first time ever. As a bonus to this rare concert, we have added the soundtrack from a TV show featuring the same Bill Evans trio, recorded in New York on September 17, 1972.

Bill Evans - The Complete Bill Evans On Verve (1997) [Verve]
EACRip | FLAC (tracks)+No CUE+No LOG (only in folders)-> Total Size: 6.79 GB ; CD1: 373 MB ; CD2: 373 MB ; CD3: 388 MB ; CD4: 409 MB
CD5: 415 MB ; CD6: 459 MB ; CD7: 383 MB ; CD8: 416 MB ; CD9: 269 MB
CD10: 342 MB ; CD11: 407 MB ; CD12: 393 MB ; CD13: 423 MB ; CD14: 391 MB
CD15: 367 MB ; CD16: 430 MB ; CD17: 372 MB ; CD18: 186 MB | Full HQ Artwork Scans -> 148 MB
© 1997 Polygram | 527953
Jazz / Cool Jazz / Post-Bop

While its sheer bulk negates its interest to a general audience, The Complete Bill Evans on Verve is an essential library piece for any serious jazz fan or historian. Spanning 18 CDs, 269 tracks and 21 hours, the box set includes all of Evans' recordings for the label between 1962 and 1969, including 19 albums, two previously unreleased albums and 98 previously unreleased tracks. During these years, the pianist made some of his greatest music, including his legendary Village Vanguard sessions, and the set charts all of his changes, as he plays with his trio and as a solo artist, as well as a rare session with a rhythm quartet and strings. While the set itself could be a little more user-friendly – it's encased in a steel box, with a 160-page booklet and an 18-disc fanpack on separate shelves – the music itself is nearly flawless and nearly essential for most serious jazz fans.

When Bill Evans agreed to do a two piano date with Bob Brookmeyer, eyebrows surely must have raised. Pairing a rising superstar of modern jazz with a gentleman known for playing valve trombone and arranging charts might have been deemed by some as a daunting task. Fortunately for the keyboardists, this was a good idea and a marvelous concept, where the two could use the concept of counterpoint and improvisation to an enjoyable means, much like a great chess match. For the listener, you are easily able to hear the difference between ostensible leader Evans in the right channel of the stereo separation, and the accompanist Brookmeyer in the left.