Customer Reviews

Time Remembered

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4 star:		(1)
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When I bought this CD it was a special pleasure to discover a first-rate Bill Evans album I'd never heard before. It usefully brings together material mainly from two recording sessions.

Tracks 1 to 4 are solo performances which Evans made on his first return to the recording studio after a long absence following the death of bassist Scott la Faro and the consequent break up of the famous "first trio". These were the only pieces he played at the session and they lay unreleased and apparently forgotten until a few years before Evans's death. They catch Evans in a reflective, exploratory mood similar to that on the two `The Solo Sessions' albums, although Brubeck's tune "In Your Own Sweet Way", played at a slowish walking pace, is a perky, well characterised reading. "Danny Boy" sounds the least "finished" of the pieces: for the first two choruses Evans does little more than embellish the well-known tune and the variations which follow reflect an interest more in the tune itself than in its possibilities for improvisation. Then there's a curious moment when, just as the variations are becoming interesting, he appears to round off the piece with a coda but immediately resumes his improvisation. The version of this piece on the `Empathy' album is, although briefer, a more complete, polished one, but this one in its spontaneous way makes for fascinating listening, as if one were eavesdropping on a practice session.

Track 5 - another piano solo - is the version of "Some Other Time" which Evans recorded at the session which produced the 1958 album, `Everybody Digs Bill Evans'. It's of particular interest because Evans's "Peace Piece" was inspired by the introductory chords he devised for this tune, and his improvisation seems to hover ambiguously between the chord sequence of the tune and the modal "Peace Piece" harmony. Probably for that reason this track was left off the original LP issue of `Everybody Digs...' although it is included as a bonus track on the CD version.

The rest of the album, tracks 6 to 13, comes from the session which produced Live at Shelly's Manne-Hole with Chuck Israels and Larry Bunker. If you know that fine album you shouldn't need much encouragement to add this one to your collection. Evans is at his most thoughtful and inventive, both in the subtle, sometimes oblique chord voicings he gives to the themes and in his improvisations. For this reason, pieces which he recorded at other sessions, such as "What is this Thing Called Love?" and "How About You" are different enough in character to be more than mere "repeats". Beautifully as Evans plays, there's also a lot of pleasure to be had from Bunker's discreet but alert accompaniment and especially from listening closely to the way the excellent Chuck Israels duets with the pianist and shapes his own imaginative solos.

The CD includes informative liner notes by Peter Keepnews as well as an interesting reminiscence of the trio session by Chuck Israels; but you need good eyesight - or maybe a magnifying glass - to read them.

I have owned this CD for years. Along with Waltz for Debbie, these CDs stand out in my mind as two of the finest ever recorded. You can read the previous review from a listener from England, and I agree with all he has said. I own many CDs. This one I continually return to for pleasure and relaxation. The chemistry is right, the setting is personal, you can hear the glasses clink right next to you. This CD will put you right there with Bill and his Trio. Don't heistate, you won't regret it.

Es una recopilación muy cuidada. Los primeros 5 temas son con piano solo y el resto con el trio. Es muy agradable.