Track Listing

1. California, Here I Come
2. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
3. Turn Out the Stars
4. Stella by Starlight
5. You're Gonna Hear from Me
6. In a Sentimental Mood
7. G Waltz
8. On Green Dolphin Street
9. Gone With the Wind
10. If You Could See Me Now
11. Alfie
12. Very Early
13. 'Round Midnight
14. Emily
15. Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams (And Dream Your Troubles Away)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3454 in Music
• Brand: Verve
• Released on: 2004-09-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .16 pounds

Customer Reviews

excellent '67 evans set with philly joe jones
Evans, Gomez, and Philly Joe play with particular finess on this set at the Village Vanguard, August 1967. Philly Joe Jones adds a particular sparkle to the set. Orginally a double LP set, it all now fits on one CD. Excellent remastering of the recording. This is a great value and a must have for Bill Evans fans.

This is what a trio is supposed to sound like
Bill Evans' career is usually broken up into two trios, the first with bassist Scott Lafaro and drummer Paul Motian, and the second with Eddie Gomez and various drummers. Present here is the second trio in one of its earliest incarnations, with Philly Joe Jones on drums. The recording was done live at the Village Vanguard in New York City.

It has been written that Philly Joe Jones and Bill Evans shared a special relationship. The musical rapport is evident (incidentally the two were also heroin buddies...makes you wonder), and Jones was really the only drummer to get Evans to play as extrovertedly as he does here. That aggressiveness lends itself to an excellent performance; not only is the playing more energetic, it is group interplay of the highest level. The Evans-LaFaro-Motian trio, as touched upon in the liner notes of this album, was really more of a piano and bass duet, as LaFaro was often as busy or busier than Evans, while Motian was largely in the background keeping time albeit in interesting ways. In this trio, however, Jones interacts with Evans rhythmically just as much as Gomez does, if not more, and of course Gomez and Jones are clearly listening to each other. The result is a many-layered web of counterpoint playing, the most remarkable of which is on the title cut. There are so many moments when Evans and Jones line up rhythmically on beat displacements and Gomez fills in the space, or Evans fills up the space between Gomez and Jones, or the three line up hits in succession. Of course, none of this is worked out; it is the complexity and intricacy of three master musicians really listening to each other. All of this coming from three guys who had barely started playing together. Given time they would have become even tighter but apparently Jones had some issues that forced him from the group.

I didn't really like Philly Joe Jones before this record. I appreciated him as part of Miles' first great quintet but something about the way he uses his snare drum used to bother me. But he fits in brilliantly here and it's easy to hear what Miles heard in him. I think the Miles quote was something like "I'd rather have Philly Joe out there with one arm and in his underwear than anyone else."

Bill Evans albums of all shapes and sizes are accessible to anyone. He is one of the precious few artists who creates completely interesting, sophisticated music which is also listenable to the most timid listener. There is nothing to fear here for even the novice listener, so buy this and hear three masters at the top of their game.

At His Best
Although recorded in August 1967, this was not released until 1982, some two years after his passing. Bill thought these live sessions were not up to his standards and so the masters were shelved. His initial response was that he was regressing or copping out. At times Bill was ever so over critical of his art.

I knew about these sessions in 1967 and kept waiting, and kept waiting, and kept waiting for the new Evans album I knew was coming, but never did.
I always liked Bill Evans live recordings as he put forth so much artistry in the live setting as opposed to some of his studio work.

I had pretty much given up quest for this album and shoved it in my mind to the pending file. Verve was of no help at all, and said the session was never recorded. Only because a friend of mine was at the Village Vanguard at the time, did I know for certain it was indeed recorded.

A few years later, 1982 to be precise, I was visiting a high end audio salon, auditioning speakers, that were suppose to be the holy grail of speakers at the time. In the adjacent room I heard definitely a Bill Evans Trio recording. So I wandered to that room and listen with the other customer. We both just chilled out listening. Finally I ask what LP was that. He showed me the album. It was Bill Evans at The Village Vanguard 1967. Holy crap!! where did you get this? He had just bought it a couple of weeks back and was using it as a demo record. Piano music is always the most difficult for a speaker to reproduce, due to that instruments wide ranging harmonics and octaves.

So at long last these sessions finally surfaced some 15 years later and some two years after Bills passing. Yes I chased right down to my local record store, only to find out they did not have a copy. So I had to special order the Album and wait a week to get it. This two LP set has that special forever place in my library.

Why Bill considered these sessions not up to his usual standards, remains a total mystery to me. This trio with "Philly" Joe Jones and Eddie Gomez in my opinion put on a tour de force session that I never tire of listening to. I am quite happy that this Evans is on CD and have to put it on my want list. I only hope the transfer to digital has not lost any of the magic of the 2 LP original I have.

Without question this is a must have in the Bill Evans canon. I can only thank Helen Keane that she finally decided to have this released. I understand her devotion to Bill Evans at the time though.