Customer Reviews

Practice Tape No.1

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

 

 

Frankly, I think Evans the perfectionist would be mortified if he knew this was put out as a record, no matter how well intentioned. The sound quality is pretty awful, and the performances were clearly never meant to be heard outside the pianist's apartment.

Could be of value to other players attempting to get inside Evans' head and fingers; not for the casual listener, or even for the appreciator of what Evans might have been trying to preserve by not putting out performances this ragged.

Although the incomplete takes in this CD are all marvelous, this is what Bill Evans did not want to happen. Whenever his record was released, Bill carefully chose the best take of the songs which is appropriate for publication. Bill did not even put out many of the absolutely fine complete takes which he thought was not appropriate for publication according to his high standard. Bill was also notorious for his rejection to the recommendations of playing money making pop songs in 70s. Bill tried hard to preserve his high quality music throughout his career.

What his son did for money making here gravely put off Bill Evans. I am sobbing for poor Bill.

The fact that ends all debate about this CD is that it is from a tape of Bill Evans practicing. It has enormous value for a pianist who is studying jazz, piano, or Bill Evans' style, but not so much for anyone else. The best example of this is the 9th track on the CD "Orbit" where he plays a standard jazz harmonic cadence for about 8 minutes with several variations. It seems like he is trying to find the best ways to harmonize a particular tune and then how the voice the chords (I have heard that Thelonius Monk practiced in this same way for hours). I find this and many other tracks very intriguing because you can see that Evens spent so much time on harmony. This is about as valuable as a tape of J. S. Bach studying of Chopins'practice habits, but only to someone that plays music or has a deeper interest in an artists development. By the way, if any of Art Tatum, Charlie Parker or John Coletranes' children have tapes of them practicing I would love to have a copy!!!!

This album was a concept that I came up with in an attempt to preserve my father's archival material. I expect there to be really two ends of the spectrum with it critically and I already am seeing that here. You either despise it as a Bill Evans purist and wish that it never happened (even though it did in BE's own apartment none-the-less), or you praise it for every ounce of value that it has (and there is a lot there as other's will attest too one day.)

I didn't expect accolades for the album even though I put a lot of creativity into it. On May 5th, 2001 I accepted an award from the AFIM (Indie Grammies) for Best Cover Design of the Year 2000 releases. Wow. I was deeply honored, and mentioned my mentaur Lalo Schifrin in my speech who was in the audience in the Best Big Band album category. Lalo came over and congratulated us (me and my wife) after comin gback to the table.

So, on top of the album being of interest musically and archivally, you should also look at the design of the cover as a milestone in the Millenial year of CD releases. Unfortunately we missed the Grammy deadline for this category by 3 days last year and so we can never know how NARAS would have though of it, but we dream it would have been good. :-)

I can't thank Evan Evans enough for releasing this. As a Jazz pianist and educator myself I own much of Bill's back catalogue, but this is like sitting in on one of the great man's practice session's and peering over his shoulder to see how he does it. I'd have bought it for "Voicings" alone. Hearing Bill search for the sound he can hear in his head is absolutly absorbing.
I didn't ever meet Bill, but I feel that he had little enough ego not to worry about practice material being heard by the public, especially as he is no longer here to share his knowledge with us in person. Although Bill felt that the teaching off Jazz was a difficult subject, due to the problem of seperating improvisational materials from style, Bill's style has so much to offer the student in terms of motif development and chord voicings. These can eventually be absorbed into their own styles.

The quality of these recordings doesn't detract from the amazing content.

A friendly, informal reminder of Bill Evan's thorough mastery of the piano. Liner notes state that he practised an average of 8 hours daily, and this is a recording of that. Most interesting listening: the Bach pieces -- performed very well. If you're a big Bill Evans fan, go ahead and purchase. I would recommend his other albums (most all of them) over this one, due to the high number of incomplete takes, and the consummate beauty of his studio & concert albums. So - 4 stars!

Music for an audience requires the performer to attempt perfection as far as "no typos" go!. I always enjoyed listening to my father fooling around with his guitar around the house. When performing he was at his best but also lacked a certain ease and relaxation that is not easy to identify. The same with jam sessions. Probably why I like jazz. These may not be the greatest Bill Evans "takes" but they have a special place in my heart. Forget the sound quality and the less than perfect pianos and enjoy it for what it is. Perfection is not everything.