Complete Village Vanguard Recordings 1961
Bill Evans, with virtuoso bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, reinvented the jazz piano trio, creating stunning contrapuntal dialogues that merged luminous lyricism with layers of complex, elusive harmonies, its moments of limpid beauty suddenly giving way to surging rhythms. The trio's finest recorded moments, these performances were captured just 10 days before LaFaro's death in a car accident. The original releases--Sunday at the Village VanguardandWaltz for Debby--are celebrated masterpieces. This three-CD set is a brilliant reissue--almost a revision--of that material, with superb sound from the newly remastered original tapes and all of the music presented in the sequence of the original five sets, adding a previously unissued take of "Gloria's Step," spoken introductions, and the band's incidental conversation. For those who know this music, it's a chance to hear it in a fresh way; for new listeners, it will come as a revelation at a bargain price.--Stuart Broomer