Bill Evans • Tales: Live in Copenhagen (1964) Elemental Music 5990445
The greatness of Bill Evans is the product of his complex and moving playing, his rich recording history, and his promotion and refinement of the piano trio. His string of renowned trio recordings began in 1959 with Everyone Digs Bill Evans, with drummer Philly Joe Jones and bassist Sam Jones, and spanned decades as well as multiple labels and lineups. Here he plays on his first European tour with bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker, with whom Evans played on some of his best trio recordings on the Verve label. Evans brought on Israels to replace Scott LaFaro after LaFaro's death in a 1961 car crash, and Bunker joined the trio permanently after Paul Motion's departure late in 1963. They play on ten of the eleven cuts, all from 1964, the lone holdout being the Thelonious Monk standard "Round Midnight," which was captured in 1969. Six cuts from Tales were in a studio setting at Radiohuset, and five were recorded before an audience at TV City, both in Copenhagen. "Waltz for Debby" leads off, with its familiar piano opening, and it is played with great delicacy and feeling. "My Foolish Heart" and "How My Heart Sings" follow and are nearly as consequential in the Evans canon, given that he opened his famous Riverside albums Waltz for Debby and How My Heart Sings with them. There are two versions of both here, one from each venue, along with two of "Sweet and Lovely" and "Five (Theme)." The similarities -- each version is roughly the same length as the other -- will be fascinating to completists. However, hearing Evans work through Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" is especially interesting. It's hard to imagine renown pianists who are more different than Monk and Evans, but hearing Evans play one of Monk's best-known and most-recorded compositions is worth the cost of the entire album. Here, along with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell, Evans brings together where Monk pulled apart, giving "Round Midnight" a reading that sounds at once faintly like Monk and then distinctly unlike him. One tune, "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," was recorded here for the first time and never appeared on an Evans album. Bernie Grundman did the mastering from the analog tapes, and the sound is quite good: vivid but not aggressive, though lacking in ultimate impact. The pressing was done at Memphis Record Pressing. The sleeve is in keeping with today's releases, with its attractive graphics; the booklet contains interviews, biographical information, tributes and photos. There were 3650 copies of the LP available for Record Store Day's Black Friday event, but CDs and digital files are coming this month. Most of Zev Feldman's previous finds of Bill Evans
material were multi-LP sets, which makes me wonder if this single LP signals that this
rich vein has finally given its last load of musical ore. If so, we have what we have: new
music from a jazz giant long deceased but definitely not forgotten, and a single LP of
vital music. |
trend in jazz
recordings released today has nothing to do with new approaches to the music. It is
instead the mining of previously unreleased performances from past masters, of which this
recording is a prime example. It is the eleventh such recording of Bill Evans material
produced by Zev Feldman, "the Jazz Detective," this time in partnership with
Elemental Music's Carlos Agustin Camembert and Jordi Soley. As with the previous albums,
often recorded outside the US, the Bill Evans Estate has authorized the release of this
"new" material. It is also 