Everybody Digs Bill Evans: Keepnews Collection [Original recording remastered]

Bill Evans | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 5, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 1959
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Riverside
• ASIN: B000PY30J4
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,124 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important album, February 1, 2008

By 

S. Gough (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everybody Digs Bill Evans: Keepnews Collection (Audio CD)

Everybody Digs comes right after Bill Evans's brief stint with the Miles Davis Sextet. According to Evans biographer Peter Pettinger (How My Heart Sings, 1998), "for most of November [1958], burned out after leaving Miles...Evans relaxed on his father's driving range in Florida. He reportedly took great satisfaction in shooting 41 for nine holes of golf. He also visited his brother Harry in Louisiana. "One of the reasons I left Miles was because my father was ill," [Evans] said. "I spent some time visiting my folks, and went through a rather reflective period. While I was staying with my brother in Baton Rouge...I remember finding that somehow I had reached a new inner level of expressiveness of my playing. It had come almost automatically, and I was very anxious about it - afraid I might lose it - I thought maybe I'd wake up tomorrow and it wouldn't be there" (Pettinger 66).

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Some of the '61 Vanguard fanatics might carp that the pianist hadn't yet perfected the elaborate system of inner voicings that became one of his trademarks. But as one who was first exposed to his later albums, I find the starker (and still extremely logical) harmonic and emotional content here both refreshing and invigorating. In an essay on Jean Sibelius, James Hepokoski says about the composer's Third Symphony, "A watershed in his career, the Third Symphony sets out...to restore the possibility of experiencing...the major triad...as a progressively deepening, revelatory event." Although Bill Evans certainly adds some 9ths, 13ths, and other extensions to his triads, he brings the same meaning to the most fundamental western harmony on this watershed album in his career and his art. After all, what is "Peace Piece" but a study of the I-V-I harmonic relationship foundational to all western music? The startlingly inventive improvisation (which dabbles in bitonality as much as the blues)'s startlingly simple two chord figure (CMaj7 - Dmin7/G), derived from an introduction to "Some Other Time," becomes the album's central meditation, showing up in the closing vamp of "Young and Foolish" and the final measures of "Lucky to Be Me," as well.

And there are no extraneous notes expended exploring this fundamental relationship or any other progression. Indeed, the open fifths left ringing at the end of "Peace Piece," or accompanying the devastating final chords of "Lucky to Be Me," are almost spiritual in their nakedness. Really more than ever, the pianist makes each added voice, each sustained pedal count. Pettinger writes, "With the two remaining ballads, Evans creates an illusion that overcomes the simple fact that tone dies on his instrument. Working this magic requires a certain mental attitude; it is necessary to "think through" a phrase to connect dying notes. On "What is There to Say?" and "Young and Foolish" he is the master at this, sustaining the lines with intensely yearning tone and melting harmony....But it is his ravishing use of tone that makes "Young and Foolish" his first truly lyrical trio track and one of those that goes deepest; played with muscular strength in the singing, it touches the heart" (Pettinger 69).

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Ultimately, Bill's quotation about finding "a new inner level of expressiveness" and fearing that he would lose it says it best. Everybody Digs is the result of an artist who is burning to say something and now - finally - knows how to say it. Compare it to the first flush of a great romance or the steady flow of a stream where there once was only a trickling brook. Either way, Bill Evans reinvented jazz piano on this album, with the big heart, probing mind, and hitherto unimaginable sensitivity of touch that made him the giant he is.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great starter, August 29, 2007

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everybody Digs Bill Evans: Keepnews Collection (Audio CD)

For someone new to Bill Evans, this 1958 studio session may be a better bet than the celebrated Village Vanguard sessions. Instead of near-equal interaction by all three trio members, Philly Joe Jones and Sam Jones provide a non-intrusive backdrop for the featured performer, who reveals his unique, inimitable voice throughout. Evans plays here like a complete and mature artist with nothing to prove, fearless about programming ballads back to back and taking minimalism to its poignant extreme by leaving spaces for the listener to supply the evoked thought or feeling. He's equally in control on the up-tempo tunes, avoiding straightahead "blowing" in favor of harmonic textures and melodic contouring that's consistent with his work on the ballads. The varied program holds the listener's interest while still having the hallmarks of a unified tonal tapestry. It's doubtful there's a more introspective, meditative trio set on record, yet the pianist shows he can dance as well.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very cool for someone new to jazz music, May 5, 2008

By 

J. Green (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everybody Digs Bill Evans: Keepnews Collection (Audio CD)

I don't play any musical instruments. I grew up listening to 80s new wave, and Jazz for me was a basketball team. So I can't comment on "harmonic textures" or "melodic contouring" or even tell you what that means, but I can say that I really like this album. I heard about this reissue on the radio and realized that I liked the sound of a "trio" - just a piano, a bass, and some drums. No blaring and overwhelming brass instruments, just the easy-going yet up-beat sound that reminds me of the music that always seemed to be playing in the background in the cool restaurants in old 50s and 60s movies.

To me, the very first song here, "Minority," exemplifies this perfectly. It's up-beat and bouncy, yet relaxing at the same time. Several songs are just Bill Evans solo on the piano, like "Young and Foolish," and while they're more subdued and even a bit melancholy, this is great stuff. I'm still trying to find more of this kind of jazz music, and I seem to be partial to the older stuff, but this is great to put on while I'm just hanging around the house. So for those like me who are new to jazz but like that piano/bass/drums stuff, this is a great place to start.