The Bill Evans

Originally released in 1971, Trio Live is a concert album featuring pianist Bill Evans and his trio performing at the Trident Club in Sausalito, California in 1964. Backing Evans at this time were bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker. This is laid-back date that finds Evans delving into a handful of jazz standards including such songs as "Someday My Prince Will Come," "How My Heart Sings," "What Kind of Fool Am I?", and others. Although by no means an essential release, ardent Evans fans will definitely want to check this out.

Quiet Now is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans, recorded in 1969. It was released in 1981 on the Affinity label.
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…

It's a surprise this session is so obscure, since it features Herbie Mann with the Bill Evans Trio - making its first recordings following the sudden death of bassist Scott LaFaro just a short time after the trio's landmark gig at the Village Vanguard. Mann, who has changed his style numerous times throughout his long career, is heard exclusively in a straight-ahead and bop context on this pair of studio dates. Evans, who studied flute through his college years, rarely recorded with a flutist (Jeremy Steig joined him on a later record for Verve), though he was fond of the instrument; the capable Chuck Israels on bass and drummer Paul Motian round out the trio. The low-key "Willow Weep for Me" and impressionist composer Erik Satie's Gymnopedie bring out the lyricism of Mann's playing, though the trio's backing is very understated…

Thirteen years after his legendary Village Vanguard recordings, Bill Evans recorded Since We Met at the famous New York establishment again. Using his trio of the era (which includes bassist Eddie Gómez and drummer Marty Morell), Evans explores both familiar ("Time Remembered," "Turn Out the Stars" and "But Beautiful") and new (Joe Zawinul's "Midnight Mood," "See-Saw" and "Sareen Jurer") material. This CD reissue gives listeners a good example of Bill Evans' early-'70s trio as it typically sounded in clubs.

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…