But all’s well that ends well, at least for today’s Bill Evans fans. Or at least that’s the way the story went until 2016, when Resonance Records released Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest, a two-disc set derived from impromptu recordings made by the trio in a German studio just five days after that celebrated Montreux concert.įor reasons not quite clear, the recordings had never been issued before Resonance’s sleuthing. (DeJohnette would end up playing on Davis’s Bitches Brew, an album almost as epochal for the late sixties as Kind of Blue was for the late fifties.)īut it seemed like a missed opportunity, as the Evans trio with DeJohnette and Gomez, having been together for just six months, was only able to make that one live recording, nothing in the studio. After all, the pianist had made his own name as the trumpeter’s kindred-spirit collaborator on Kind of Blue, the LP that would turn on more people to jazz than any in music history. Evans could scarcely blame the drummer for leaving him to join the era’s most iconic jazz bandleader. That is, Davis lured DeJohnette away to his own group. He had collaborated fruitfully with such peers as Jim Hall, gained a devoted new manager, signed with the high-profile Verve label, and won his first Grammy Award.īill Evans had also developed rapport with a virtuoso young bassist, Eddie Gomez, and they eventually added an up-and-coming force of a drummer, Jack DeJohnette, for a new trio - one that seemed to hold a dynamic promise that the pianist’s groups hadn’t quite shown since his famously inspired trio with drummer Paul Motian and short-lived bassist Scott LaFaro in 1959–61.Ī European tour by Evans, Gomez, and DeJohnette in the summer of ’68 would yield an ebullient live album, At the Montreux Jazz Festival, that garnered the pianist his second Grammy. There had been tragedy and depression and demons to bear, but the jazz pianist had made his way forward over the previous few years. 01 Sugar Plum 07:27Įpalinges, Switzerland, 6th February 1975īill Evans was on an upswing in 1968. This 1990 release may be somewhat difficult to find, but it is one of the better bootlegs issued under Bill Evans’ name. The only real problem with this CD is the sloppy composer credits on two numbers. Perhaps the greatest surprise was Evans’ inventive treatment of pop singer Bobbie Gentry’s “Morning Glory.” The leader’s treatment of his ballad “Turn Out the Stars” is rather upbeat, while his somewhat avant-garde composition “T.T.T.T.” (also known as “Twelve Tone Tune Two”) is a modern masterpiece. The set is wide-ranging, including both recent and older compositions by Evans, “Gloria’s Step” (the best known work by former Evans sideman Scott LaFaro, who died far too young), along with standards like a buoyant “My Romance.” The sound is excellent, without the annoying announcers or distortion, so this release could have very well been produced from the master tape itself. The pianist is in superb form, joined by longtime bassist Eddie Gomez and newcomer Eliot Zigmund on drums. This CD comes from a live 1975 concert by the Bill Evans Trio, which was broadcast by Radio Suisse in Switzerland. Perhaps the greatest surprise was Evans‘ inventive treatment of pop singer Bobbie Gentry‘s “Morning Glory.” ” The leader’s treatment of his ballad “Turn Out the Stars” is rather upbeat, while his somewhat avant-garde composition “T.T.T.T.” (also known as “Twelve Tone Tune Two”) is a modern masterpiece. The set is wide-ranging, including both recent and older compositions by Evans, “Gloria’s Step” (the best-known work by former Evans sideman Scott LaFaro, who died far too young), along with standards like a buoyant “My Romance. This LP comes from a live 1975 concert by the Bill Evans Trio, which was broadcast by Radio Suisse in Switzerland. And subscribe to our social channels for news and music updates:
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