Customer Reviews

The Bill Evans Trio - Volume 1 (1959-1961): Featuring Transcriptions of Bill Evans (Piano), Scott LaFaro (Bass) and Paul Motian (Drums)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great Transcriptions. There is some important product information missing in the first 3 volumes - including the transcribers: Liam Noble (the piano and bass), Chris Baron (the drums) and Artemis Music Ltd.
And the Albums from which each track comes (A big setback I'm sure for anyone who has bought the books but does not own a lot of actual Bill Evans Recorded material)

These are the albums used in this volume:
Alice In Wonderland - Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Autumn Leaves - Portrait in Jazz (is the Bonus Track)
How Deep Is The Ocean (How High Is The Sky) - Explorations
Nardis - Explorations
Peri's Scope - Portrait in Jazz
Solar - Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Waltz for Debby - Waltz for Debby
When I Fall In Love - Portrait in Jazz

I was really looking forward for these transcriptions. Some of them I transcribed myself over the years, but only the piano part. Here was a chance to learn what the bass was doing, as well as the drums.
Also to be able to try these with friends.

This is really a worthy effort, but the results are not accurate enough. There are many mistakes in the piano part (and I guess that also in the other parts). Even if one agrees with the transcribers' ear then at some points the splitting between the right and left hands are not optimal which makes the reading difficult. Other things that are missing are bass part, and drums part. One cannot really expect them to read their part from the score....

Although there are some glaring errors in the piano part, they are often easy to correct with common sense or by listening to a recording of these pieces. There aren't any simplifications, however, which immediately makes this a 4-star book of sheet music. All in all, it's worth adding to any jazz sheet music collection.

There is nothing better than getting what you pay for, especially when you don't pay much. This book delivers - the transcribers spare no effort to deliver the most accurate transcriptions possible, even to the extent of noting flat bass notes and eighth notes that are played "straight". The rhythmic notation is almost unnecessarily precise at times, with quintuplets and tied triplets that could be read more easily if they were less perfect. I was quite happy with the song selections as well - Autumn Leaves, Peri's Scope, Waltz for Debbie, and Alice in Wonderland are all personal favorites, plus you get others like When I Fall in Love and Nardis. Talk about value. . .If you've ever wished you could look over Bill Evans' shoulder and ask him how to play certain passages or chords, this is as close as you can get.

Great book, but lacking the key (discography). The previous review has saved me years of work. Can't believe they publish these books without a discography.

I'm a new jazz pianist, although I've been playing keyboards for over thirty years. My problem is, my exposure to jazz has been limited until just the last six months or so, and it is so new to me, sometimes, I just don't get it. And knowing that I love listening to Bill Evans, of course I dug all his tunes out of The Real Book: Sixth Edition and tried to play them. Yeah, right. It was no surprise my versions of Bill's tunes sounded nothing like what he plays on his CD's. (The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 and Portrait in Jazz) I tried playing along with the CD's, but this was just too taxing. This book came to the rescue. Now I can pick or choose what voicings I want to use, where I want to use a Bill-ism or my own take on the music, and figure out where he uses substitutes for the written chords. Thus, my understanding of the music deepens, my playing gets better, my sound gets better (of course), and next time around, even the non-Bill Evans tunes come easier. Eventually, I'm sure I'll pick up some of the other transcriptions available, but this has the songs I really wanted to learn and play well, and I think this book is a must for any serious jazz pianist.