The Bill Evans Trio
On A Monday Evening
FANTASY/CONCORD. CD/DL/LP Influential jazz pianist captured live in 1976.
It could be convincingly argued that without Bill Evans, there would be no Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau, noted innovators in their own right, who all fell heavily under the spell of the bespectacled, unassuming keyboard genius from New Jersey. Best known, perhaps, for contributing to Miles Davis’s iconic Kind Of Blue LP, Evans also carved out a noteworthy solo career where his preferred setting was the jazz trio. This previously unissued concert was recorded at the Union Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, where the pianist is accompanied by his long-time bassist, Eddie Gomez, and a newbie drummer, Eliot Zigmund. With their set ranging from sweet, easy-swinging grooves (Up With The Lark) to pensive, melancholic ballads (Time Remembered), Evans and his compadres exhibit a sense of oneness and a telepathic musical understanding that is frequently breathtaking.