Introductory Evans CDs

If you're just starting to explore the music of Bill Evans, there's no better place to begin than Everybody Digs Bill Evans (Riverside, 1959), which includes the epochal "Peace Piece," a couple of other introspective solo piano ballads, and several hard swingers with bassist Sam Jones and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Four individual Riverside albums are available from Evans's "first" trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, all of them equally fine: Portrait In Jazz (1960), Explorations (1961), Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961), and Waltz for Debby (1962). Explorations was one of Evans's personal favorites.

Of the new releases, The Artist's Choice: Highlights from Turn Out the Stars is a good single-CD answer to the six-disc Warners set. This is reportedly the live-album configuration of the 1980 Vanguard sessions that Evans was working on with his manager, Helen Keane, when he died. You can hear what all the excitement was about regarding Evans's last trio with Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera. Also from the last months of Evans's life come Letter to Evan and Turn Out the Stars (both Dreyfus Jazz), recorded at Ronnie Scott's in London. The trio is again in good form, though the recording quality is slightly less pristine than on the Warners.

Finally, deserving of special mention is Evans's sublime 1962 duo collaboration with guitarist Jim Hall, Undercurrent (Blue Note).

-- JG

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New sets pinpoint Bill Evans's great spirit
Introductory Evans CDs
Mike Harris's reel nights with Evans

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