Customer Reviews

You Must Believe in Spring

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't know how to review this CD, because when reviewing a Bill Evans album, my intellect gets in the way of the music. Every time I listen to this CD, it makes me soar, it inspires me, and sometimes, raises the hairs on the back of my neck as I am astounded by the beauty of it. Recorded 3 years before his death, this session is one of the most melodic the great pianist ever recorded. I don't think there is a pianist who ever lived who could create with the music as well as Evans. This recording is creative without being dense. Every note is distinctive, almost as if the pianist is holding each one for the listener's pleasure. This is an album of beautiful melodies, with really great production values. The music is inspirational and passionate. I rank this Evans recording as maybe my very favorite. The pianist on this date is authoritative, passionate, and above all, melodic. I'm making a hash of this review I know, but as I write this I am listening to the beautiful 'B Minor Waltz' and I am overwhelmed by a feeling of joy. That's what Bill Evans can do for you. Just buy this recording, I absolutely guarantee you will be happy with it. If there is such a thing as essential Bill Evans, this CD must be included.

Bill Evans is the John Keats of the piano, a lyric poet whose tone, voicings and inventions are at once exquisitely sad and beautiful. The best periods in Evans' relatively short career were the early trios with LaFaro on bass, and his final trio with Marc Johnson. He was an artist who experienced a sudden resurgence of creative energy and spirit in his final days (listen to the performance recorded live in Paris, especially "I Loves You Porgy, for perhaps his most passionate outpouring of soul on record). The point is that for various reasons related to his habits and health as well as to the excessive amount of solo space given to Eddie Gomez, a virtuosic but frequently boring bassist, this album and much of his other work in the early and mid-seventies is not his very best. It's not the Evans' album to own if you plan to make it your only one.

I have enjoyed jazz since the 1930's. Bill Evans "You Must Believe in Spring" is still the best. I am writing my first review at 85 to tell you this music is understated - emotional and shows the value of dedicated talent - quality always endures - buy this CD - you will be playing it the rest of your life. Play this CD in the late night - pour a glass of wine - ponder life - you CAN cope.

I am a realtively new listener to Bill Evans. I don't know much about the technical aspects of jazz piano, but I know what I like when I hear it.

I bought my first Bill Evans CD (Village Vangaurd Recordings) after reading an article about him in the New Yorker about a year ago. I was "hooked" from the first time I heard him. His gentle piano playing and the intropsective quality of his music struck a deep chord in me. Listening to that live recording brought back the times I had been to New York and stumbled into in a small basement nightclub like the Village Vangaurd listening to trio jazz ensembles and conversing with friends.

Since then, I have bought a few other Bill Evnas CDs. Each CD I buy has me listening to it over and over again. With "You Must Believe in Spring," I find that I want to play it almost with a kind of obsession, never tiring of it, and hearing something a little bit different to appreciate each time I listen to it.

This is one of my favorite Bill Evans CD (Moon Beams is another.), and I know it will be a constant on the CD player. I particularly like "Gary's Theme" and "Sometime Ago," both beautifully executed. If you like "Moon Beams," you'll love this one.

You Must Believe in Spring was my first, accidental introduction to Bill Evans. What a wonderful accident! I have since become a ridiculously huge fan of his, but, as much as I love all his recordings, there really seems to be something special in this collection, and I'm not sure it gets the kind of attention it deserves, when placed alongside better known classics like "Sunday at the Village Vanguard" or "Waltz for Debby". There is an exceptional tenderness and musicality to these performances which must be heard to be understood. There are wonderful feelings being imparted on this record. I cannot recommend this album too highly. If I had another hand, I'd give it three thumbs up. Enough said. :)

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST RECORDS HE EVER MADE, AND ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE IN COOL-JAZZ-TRIO.EVANS ALWAYS HAS THE WAY OF PLAYING SOMETHING IN A PASSIONABLE & SENTIMENTAL WAY ...THE SAME DOES HERE..I HAVE ABOUT 43 OF BILL'S RECORDS AND THIS ONE STANDS ON THE TOP.

Bill Evans' album You Must Believe in Spring is one of the greatest jazz albums ever, regardless of type of instrument. Evans reached perfection on this album with the most beautiful melodic, rhythmical, and harmonic lines.

When I first listened to this album over fifteen years ago, I thought that I had entered musical nirvana. The songs are so lushly melodic that one instantly becomes totally absorbed and one feels like being in a drugged state or trance.

The song "Peacocks" is tour-de-force by itself and Evans' treatment of it tremendously enhances its effect, showing that Evans was a great genius.Also,Evans brings out the odd melodic line which reminds one of an Asian or Arabic melodic line. I've listened to this song hundreds of times, always amazed at the beauty of it as played by Evans.

The other songs are gorgeous too. Evans didn't add anything superfluous to any of the songs, and his bass and drum players perform harmoniously with him.

I'm always amazed at the fact that not many people know about Evans. It's usually the jazz piano players that know about him, not the average aficionado. One reason is that his work sounds so simple because he usually plays close to the melody, but if you listen closely to his work, you will find that it is very complex.

Evans said that jazz should be approached as feeling translated into music rather than an intellectual activity. I think that this is a major reason that his music is so gorgeous: he translates the song through feeling into an improvisation that enhances the melody. Many jazz fans tout John Coltrane's music, but I think that Coltrane's music doesn't have great feeling, one reason being that he goes too far from the melody. Artistically speaking, I think this is form without function or form without meaning. Another musician that does this is Keith Jarrett. Listen to his musical meanderings and you feel confused. Listen to Evans' music and you feel enlightened. Think of melody as meaning or feeling,and then improvise on it and see how the meaning is enhanced.Many musicians play like Jarrett, and many can't play a melodic line. The fact that many musicians can't play melody astounds me. Improvisation is worthless unless there is a beautiful melody on which one can elaborate on.

By the point in his career that this album came out, Evans was able to crystallize melodic invention and beauty to such an extent that it seemed effortless and deceptively simple. The interplay and telepathy between the three musicians is startling. Highly recommended listening.

I bought "you must believe in spring" on vynil when I was 20. Some 18 years later, I still consider it as one of my best buys, in a collection of roughly 150 jazz CD's and 75 vynils. Buy it ... and fall in love with jazz.

Bill Evans has always excelled at using the widest range of dynamics. The jazz piano had typically been a quiet instrument to be played as loudly as possible until Evans came around. In the late 50's, he revolutionalized jazz with his "Peace Piece." 20 years later, he was still able to come up with a new sound which was copied by wannabees throughout the 80's. On "Spring," he is whispering, then screaming.