Customer Reviews

Jazz Icons: Bill Evans - Live in '64-'75

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Just finished watching this dvd and it is a great collection of material spanning 11 years. I'm just a casual jazz fan and not a musician so I cannot make any relevant remarks on the actualy playing but I have been a fan of Bill Evans for a couple years now and thoroughly enjoyed the performances. The first 3 performances are in black and white with the last two performances in color.

Overall, the sound and video are great. The France footage is grainy but doesn't detract from the performance at all. My only gripe would be the Sweden footage. This one is a bit grainy (which doesn't bother me in the slightest) but whoever directed this decided to include random footage clipped into the performance. You'll be watching the trio perform and then you're watching a woman walk down a city sidewalk, back to the trio, then there is a closeup of a aluminum can on a sidewalk, back to the trio, then you're watching out of focus car lights on a street at night, etc.

I would highly recommend this vdvd to any Bill Evans fan or anyone interested in him. Getting to watch five shows from an eleven year span with different trios makes this dvd worth purchasing without any second thought.

Sweden September 29, 1964
1. My Foolish Heart
2. Israel

Chuck Israels (bass) , Larry Bunker (drums)

France 1965
3. Detour Ahead
4. My Melancholy Baby (with Lee Konitz on alto sax)

Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (bass), Alan Dawson (drums)

Denmark 1970
5. Emily
6. Alfie
7. Someday My Prince Will Come

Eddie Gomez (bass) , Marty Morrell (drums)

Sweden February 20, 1970
8. If You Could See Me Now
9. 'Round Midnight
10. Someday My Prince Will Come
11. Sleepin' Bee
12. You're Gonna Hear From Me
13. Re: Person I Knew

Eddie Gomez (bass) , Marty Morrell (drums)

Denmark 1975
14. Sareen Jurer
15. Blue Serge
16. Up With The Lark
17. But Beautiful
18. Twelve Tone Tune Two

Eddie Gomez (bass) , Eliot Zigmund (drums)

I am on the outer edge of jazz fans and pianists, being now over 70 and with a 65 year experience of playing the piano. I have been playing and analysing Bill's music for over forty of those years. Recently my enthusiasm for practising has fallen off but this DVD has fired me up again. I have all his commercially published CDs, transcriptions and videos but this DVD brings me closer to his magical mastery than anything else. It is really the icing on the cake of my BE collection. In this DVD his sad personal life is mirrored in his playing and in his dress. This DVD gives us some idea of how he must have looked and played on the Vanguard sessions but also hints at the growing aggression of the cocaine-driven later years. As a pianist and a life-long jazz fan he is my hero and this DVD makes me realise that he deserves to be. Nothing can detract from his achievement.

If Oscar Peterson is the ultimate jazz keyboardist, then Bill Evans is the ultimate, consumate "audio painter." His choice of harmonies, his keyboard "voicings", his richness of texture set him apart in the world of jazz. This video shows clearly why he is indeed a "jazz icon."

Marc Waszkiewicz
Bremerton, Washington

Jazz Icons did a wonderful job of putting this Bill Evans retrospective together. These Bill Evans live performances are gems that highlight various periods of Bill's evolution and singular talent, ably accompanied by equally gifted musicians. The audio is remarkable as well. This is a welcome addition to my Bill Evans collection.
Buy it now; you won't regret it!

Thank goodness for European television. This is a great collection of Bill Evans over a span of years. The audio is fine, and the video OK - some black and white, some color. Great bass playing also, from Eddie Gomez and also Chuck Israels at his best.