The Second Great Bill Evans Trio Captured Live In ‘65
Pianist-Composer Bill Evans [1929-1980] left Miles Davis after recording Kind Of Blue—the best-selling and most influential jazz album of all-time—in ‘59. He specifically wanted to work in a piano trio format. His 1960 trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian is still seen as the Gold Standard of piano trios. But LaFaro died at 25 in a car crash in 1961. Motian left to join pianist Paul Bley in ’63. Evans—from Plainfield in Union County—soldiered on with bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker. In ’65, they were touring England and one of the stops was at the British Broadcasting Company to perform two half-hour sets on TV.
Zev “The Jazz Detective” Feldman has resurrected both sets for Bill Evans Live At The BBC (Elemental Music). It’s his 15th collaboration of long-lost jazz with the Evans estate, thus keeping the flame burning bright for the man who many consider one of the greatest piano players ever. Due to his impressionist harmonics, innovative block chords, classical leanings and “singing” melody lines, he continues to influence pianists worldwide to this day.
The material is a delight. From Gershwin to Miles, from Broadway to Disney, Evans imbues the program with stylistic flair, complexity and elegance. In his liner notes, Jamie Cullum writes, “that trio was fantastic, and shouldn’t be judged in the shadow of the one with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. It got to swing hard despite the sheer quietness onstage. It has a fire of its own,” to which bassist Israels adds, “Yes, we were damn near perfect at the BBC.”