Bill Evans Gets His Due With New Box
It was 1959 when piano genius Bill Evans—from Plainfield in Union County—put together bassist Scott LaFaro [1936-1961] and drummer Paul Motian [1931-2011] to complete what became the standard-bearer for all piano-bass-drums trios in jazz history. They didn’t even last two years but left a legacy still unparalleled. Evans was formulating the concept of “simultaneous improvisation,” as he called it, with all three musicians striving to ascend. Had it not been for the death of the 25-year old bassist in a car crash just as the jazz world was realizing the extent of his powers, who knows how far they could’ve gone?
Craft Recordings, on November 21, will release Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings, a three-CD or five-LP boxed set which contains such trailblazing studio albums as Portrait In Jazz (1960) and Explorations (1961) as well as 26 alternate takes, 17 of which have never been heard. Drummer John Densmore of The Doors shares liner-note duties with Eugene Holley, Jr., who writes that this was “a sound that would change modern music forever.”
Evans [1929-1980] pioneered the concept of conversational chemistry between his bandmates. He formed the trio after the success of his having recorded Kind Of Blue with Miles Davis. The three had intuitive telepathic mind-melds when they played together. Pianistic jazz legends like Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett always pointed to this one trio.