Track Listing

1. My Romance [Take 1][*]
2. Porgy (I Loves You, Porgy) [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #153936 in Music
• Released on: 2000-08-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Live, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com essential recording
Recorded live at the Village Vanguard, this set rounded out what became known as an early "full" portrait of Bill Evans by following Sunday at the Village Vanguard with most of the rest of the music he played on June 25, 1961. Very little in the annals of piano-trio jazz had ever reached the clarity of execution that Evans made his own with the recordings from this single date. With bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, Evans reached a rapport that sounded whisper-intimate, rolling into gentle cascades and then rhythmically pouncing juts. On the keys, Evans sounds at once completely walled-off and nakedly open as he takes on "My Foolish Heart" and the title melody. The chords are voiced ever so oddly, as are the bass and drums. Coming as it did several months in the wake of the successful first episode in Evans's Vanguard run, Waltz for Debby just made it all the more obvious what a wonder the world had in this trio and its leader. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Warning this will spoil you for other trios or pianists.
This is a genuine classic. But, be forewarned it may spoil you because the level of individual musicianship and the group interplay of the three musicians is at a level rarely equalled by other jazz (or any style) musicians. Its companion volume, "Sunday at the Village Vanguard," which focuses more on bassist Scott LaFaro, is its equal. Evans' touch, sense of rhythm, intelligence and his long, flowing melodic lines have been better documented by others than I can. And LaFaro's inventiveness and technique have, too. But, I find few people talk about Paul Motian on drums. His is some of the best drumming ever committed to cd. He is so much more than a timekeeper, he is a melodist and an equal member of the trio. He is endlessly creative, in tune with the other musicians, mindful of the ebb and flow of the music and plays in the context of the other's contributions and the song at hand. (Compare to the drumming on Rubalcaba's "The Blessing" which is often brilliant, but often too busy or loud for the context he's playing in.) Nobody uses brushes as well as Motian. (Though the style of music and drumming is very different, I find Motian the equal of Art Blakey in Monk's trio recordings--"Work" and "Nutty"-- in that the drummer is not subserviant to the gifted pianist, but makes him even better by his level of musicianship and inventiveness. Both Motian and Blakey prove that drumming can be about much more than rhythm but about music.) Many people talk about the fact that this is an ensemble in which all three members solo, play lead and push the envelope. The best proof of that is that I find myself listening differently to the same cut at different times. Sometimes I focus on Evans, sometimes on LaFaro and sometimes on Motian. In different listenings I find myself thinking that the real leader is a different member of the trio. This is one of those cd's I listnen to late at night and find myself using the back control to listen again to a phrase, or how one musician plays off another's ideas, or just to hear again a stunningly beautiful or inventive phrase. I find, even after 20 years of listening to this music (on vinyl and cd) that I still find new wonders and delights. Warning, the level of musicianship, interplay, creativity will spoil you. No one plays like Evans,(except imiatators) and few have found "sidemen" equal to the task of matching them.

Waltz for K2
This is the K2 Supercodeing re-issue of a timeless piece of musical history. JVC and Fantasy/OJC/Riverside teamed up to redux this one right and they almost succeeded. Other than the distortion on the first track, this would be a 5 star home run. This is the original Bill Evans Trio live at the Village Vanguard with the soon to be late Scott Lafaro on bass. This disc contains 6 original album cuts and I beleive 5 more alternate takes which rescue the mess of the first track plus a bonus track from the live date, PORGY. This disc also contains a reading of a now familiar and favorite Miles Davis tune, MILESTONES. The K2 execution of this session sounds better to this listener than the JVC XRCD version and at half the price. This is supposed to be a limited production run along with other OJC/Fantasy/Prestige/Riverside jazz favorites including Sonny Rollins Saxaphone Collosus, Wes Montgomery Incredible Jazz Guitar, Chet Baker Chet and Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section. All these discs sound great and at least a power of 10 better than the original polycarbonate efforts. Waltz for Debbie is a keeper.

Be Quiet, Please!
For trained ears, this 20 bit K2 remastered version sounds significantly better than the conventional less expensive version. But the price difference is more than justified, if you are a devoted Bill Evans fan who wants to get as close as possible to the real performance on stage that magical Sunday afternoon. Nonetheless, I cannot help but listen to this CD with genuine respect and apprecaition to the musicians but also with disdain to the audience at the club. They were so lucky beyond any stretch of imagination to be there but (at least, some of them) kept on chatting with occasional laughter during the performance. This may be an indication that Bill Evans was still taken lightly as a budding musician in those early days of Bill's career. If you want more, Bill's "The Complete Riverside Recordings" will give you a chance to expose to the entire show in the sequence of each tune as originally played.