To paraphrase one of his album titles, why does everybody dig Bill Evans? Something special happened every time Bill Evans played the piano. Time stood still or seemed to suspend and disappear. When he flew […]
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I reviewed a couple of Christmas jazz releases last week, something to play right before the holidays to get into the right mood. Well, consider Bill Evans Live at Ronnie Scott‘s an actual present to yourself, especially if you’re a fan of Bill Evans. (I am. I put him up there with Ellington and Brubeck, three corners of an equilateral jazz piano triangle.) This collection of previously unreleased performances, captured in 1968 over a month-long gig at the titular Soho club, wound up in a German vault for 50 years. If you know your Bill Evans, you’ll know his trio during this period included bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette–the crew that was featured in Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Resonance Records, which is fast becoming a label known for finding lost treasures in the world of jazz–I reviewed their early Nat King Cole collection, Hittin’ the Ramp, a year ago and even purchased it for my parents at Christmas–and you get the same great packaging. I didn’t know this until now, but Brian Hunter interviewed Resonance’s Zev Feldman, aka The Jazz Detective, two years ago on The Occasional Podcast. Because these are “historical discoveries,” as opposed […]