No. 210 Bill Evans II
Geoffrey Smith, presenter of Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz, on the legendary pianist’s revamped trio from 1968
Over his 25-year career, Bill Evans attracted a worshipful legion of global fans and made scores of records, but the collection that probably still defines his special eminence in the pantheon of jazz piano is his classic session Live at the Village Vanguard, from 1961. It was also his first Jazz Starter
No. 25 (May 2003), acknowledging his role as the godfather of a new poetic conception of the piano trio. Evans’s subtle, quicksilver interplay with bass genius Scott Lafaro, enhanced by Paul Motian’s sensitive drums, invested the trio format with a lyrical impressionism which was the ideal medium for the pianist’s unique gifts, the singing touch and iridescent, fluid harmonies that made him ‘the Chopin of jazz’.
Evans thought the Vanguard group was his best, so it was a personal and musical tragedy when bassist Lafaro died in a car crash after their last recording. But the pianist continued to refine and deepen his influential style with new trio partners. One of the most interesting, albeit short-lived trios was the group Evans led in the summer of 1968, comprising the young bassist Eddie Gomez, and drummer Jack Dejohnette. Gomez would be his right-hand man for 11 years, but Dejohnette soon departed, poached by Miles Davis.
The group only made one commercial album, a Grammy-winning live concert at the Montreux Festival, but a privately-recorded session was released in 2016, and a new recording, made in Holland, has just appeared. Another Time: The Hilversum Concert is a treat for Evans fans, showing him inspired by his young sidemen. Bassist Eddie Gomez matches Scott Lafaro in virtuosity, but with a stronger attack, adept not just at spontaneous dialogue, but hard-driving swing. Dejohnette is much more interactive than the self-effacing Paul Motian, but without intruding, the percussive equivalent of the ‘quiet fire’ which Miles Davis said was Evans’s distinctive quality. And the pianist conjures his special radiance on Evans standards such as ‘Nardis’. Next month Geoffrey Smith begins a new column, ‘From the Archives’
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