Customer Reviews

Best of Bill Evans Live on Verve

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I'm surprised no one else has turned in a review of such a great album. It's a perfect introduction to a great piano player. I was first turned on to Evans in Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue". If you love great jazz, this Verve selection is sure to please you. A kind of bebop mixed with beautiful, melancholic melodies.

Quite simply, this is one of the best "Best of" albums around. The fact that it's a live recording is a plus. The performance here of "Emily" -- lovely and deeply moving, with Evans and bassist Eddie Gomez in specially fine form -- is the best I've heard so far, and, alone, is worth the price of the entire album. It's a pity the album from which the tune comes, "California, Here I Come," is no longer available. Buy this "Best of." It's a gem.

I'm not a super big jazz fan but, it's good to have a few jazz albums in ones music collection. Sorting through the usuals as Coultrane and Davis, Hancock ect..... I spotted the Bill Evans section. I stared at it vaguely recognizing the name and on a whim picked this up as a curiosity. WOW!!! What a great find! This cd says it's the best of the verve live series box set which contains 18 cd's!! Whoever went to the trouble of narrowing it down to just one 61 min cd did a great job! Now I just need to save up some pennies to get that mammoth box set cause once you have a taste of this you just have to go back for another bite!!

I am a huge Bill Evans fan (he is my favorite piano player from a group of incredible piano players I admire)! This was my second Bill Evans "album" and you can't go wrong with it. It doesn't have all of the classics, but it certainly has enough and is a fantastic sampling of Bill's greatness, particularly as an introduction to him. This is the best collection of his live stuff on Verve that I have heard, but I haven't heard all of it. "Emily" and "I Love You , Porgy" are highlights that put you in that smoky club, leaning back, and listening as you sit a few feet from Bill's piano if you close your eyes.