A fan's notes

Mike Harris's reel nights with Evans

For 18 years, Mike and Evelyn Harris attended nearly every one of Bill Evans's engagements at New York's Village Vanguard, sitting down front for both the Friday night and Sunday matinee shows, recording everything they heard on a Uher 4000 Report-L portable reel-to-reel tape recorder that was placed under their table. Mike, an amateur pianist with a strong interest in the classical repertoire, had heard Evans on the radio by chance in 1962 and immediately fell in love with his music. By 1966, he had decided to record Evans. As he says in the notes to The Secret Sessions (and as he recently repeated to me on the phone from his home in Connecticut), "If Beethoven or Mozart would suddenly be reincarnated and start playing concerts, someone would sure as hell record everything the guy did. Bill was being recorded once a year, if that, and this incredible music was just going up in the air."

Even now, 16 years after Evans's death, Mike Harris (now a retired optical physicist) doesn't maintain that everything the pianist did was magical, but "he was way ahead of everyone else, even on his bad nights. And I always thought, `If I don't go tonight, this will be the night that he's really into it.' "

At first Harris was interested in using the tapes only for his personal study and enjoyment. But years after Evans's death, Harris exchanged tapes with Win Hinkle, editor of a Bill Evans newsletter. "Over the years he said, `What a shame that we can't bring this stuff out,' " recalls Harris. A couple of overtures were made to different labels, but nothing ever materialized. "I was beginning to think, `I'd hate to have these tapes in my casket when I pass away,' and I even thought of donating them to the Smithsonian."

Then Fantasy Records expressed interest. Evans's original producer, Orrin Keepnews, would supervise the set, and it would be released with the approval of the Evans estate. Harris turned all his tapes over to Keepnews -- 22 five-inch reels, 75 hours of music. He settled for a fixed price, with no royalties. "I figured out my expenses, corrected for inflation," Harris says dryly. "Frankly, I would have given them away if that was the only way to get them out." (The Secret Sessions cover only the years through 1975, prior to Evans's Warner Bros. contract).

The Secret Sessions has the approval of Evans's widow, but does Harris ever wonder if the commercial release of sometimes rough-sounding home recordings is something Evans himself might have disapproved of?

"I understand that completely," says Harris, "and I don't have an answer to it. I just feel that the music is so great that in those instances where there are technical limitations . . . " He pauses. "When someone is that great, you don't want to throw it away because it's not ECM quality. I think it's worth bringing out. But maybe I'm not that objective."

-- 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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