Waltz for Debby

Bill Evans | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 17, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1961
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ojc
• ASIN: B000000YBQ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,440 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. My Foolish Heart

2. Waltz for Debby (Take 2)

3. Waltz for Debby (Take 1)

4. Detour Ahead (Take 2)

5. Detour Ahead (Take 1)

6. My Romance (Take 1)

7. My Romance (Take 2)

8. Some Other Time

9. Milestones

10. Porgy (I Loves You, Porgy)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Recorded live at the Village Vanguard, this set rounded out what became known as an early "full" portrait of Bill Evans by following Sunday at the Village Vanguard with most of the rest of the music he played on June 25, 1961. Very little in the annals of piano-trio jazz ever reached the clarity of execution that Evans made his own with the recordings from this single date. With bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, Evans reached a rapport that sounded whisper-intimate, rolling into gentle cascades and then rhythmically pouncing juts. On the keys, Evans sounds at once completely walled-off and nakedly open as he takes on "My Foolish Heart" and the title melody. The chords are voiced ever so oddly, as are the bass and drums. Coming as it did several months in the wake of the successful first episode in Evans's Vanguard, Waltz for Debby just made it all the more obvious what a wonder the world had in this trio and its leader. --Andrew Bartlett

Product Description

Audio CD.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The One and Only: Bill Evans and Trio February 2, 2001

By M. Allen Greenbaum HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

A beautifully felt and executed album, by one of the best trios in jazz history. Is it too much to say that Evans "owns" My Foolish Heart?" I think not, just as he has applied his touch to produce other definitive version. His beautiful touch--soft, lyrical, sure but seeking, produce a floating, atmospheric sound that sets him apart from all other pianists.

Evans can do no wrong, and his performances here are famous, even definitive, especially on "Porgy and Bess," "My Foolish Heart," and the absolutely wonderful "Waltz for Debbie." (Fans of the latter might want to check out the vocal of this song on "The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album", with lyrics by jazz critic and writer, Gene Lees. Bennett and Evans perform also the lovely ballad "Some Other Time," played beautifully on this album.)

"Waltz for Debbie" also show how he can either float or swing you. I used to think of him as atmospheric and ruminative, but it's clear that Evans and the trio also produce energetic sounds that move you physically as well as emotionally. Evans soothes and surprises you at the same time. The trio (Scott Lafaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums) are perfectly sympatico-the sum is greater than the parts, which is saying quite a lot considering the individual talents here.. The trio is marvelously empathic, the drums and bass kicking it up when Evans does, following his lead, yet launching into their own discursions as well (hear what LaFaro does on "Waltz for Debbie," either take of "My Romance," and throughout). This is definitely not "free jazz," it is exquisite ensemble playing that coheres because of the individual contributions of each musician. Motian's delicate brushwork and shimmering cymbals add texture and color to every performance....

One of the top jazz CDs, although it's difficult to select any single one from the Evans oeuvre (e.g., "Everybody Digs Bill Evans," "Sunday at the Village Vanguard," the many live performances). If you think there's no such thing as a natural high, listen to this album. Every CD is wonderful: If you have the bucks, by all means get the Evans box set! Read more ›

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Legendary and Utterly Timeless April 8, 2004

By MikeG

Format:Audio CD

'Waltz for Debby' was one of only four (official) albums made by what Evans fans know as "the first trio" - the one with Scott La Faro and Paul Motian. With 'Sunday at the Village Vanguard' it presents the legendary sessions recorded by the trio at the New York club in June 1961 shortly before La Faro's death in a car accident. Devoted Evans fans would regard both albums as essential.

There's a 'complete' Village Vanguard 3-CD set available on the Japanese JVC Victor label. There are also two different CDs which offer selected tracks from the two original albums. In my opinion, the Italian 'Giants of Jazz' version titled 'Waltz for Debby/Village Vanguard' is a better selection than the Milestone label's `Live at the Village Vanguard', but it's difficult to get hold of and I don't know whether the re-mastering will be as good as on the originals. If you don't know either of the original albums and are cautious about investing in the "complete" edition, I would suggest that 'Waltz for Debby' is the one to buy first. (I should add that I know of three other Bill Evans CDs - two of them, confusingly, on the 'Giants of Jazz' label - which use 'Waltz for Debby' in the title. Don't mistake them for this one.)

The music itself finds Evans in his more introspective, glowingly lyrical form on the slow pieces: "My Foolish Heart", "Detour Ahead", "Some Other Time" and "I Loves You Porgy". The first and last of these are especially moving.... Evans's delicacy of touch and tone and his willingness to leave space between his phrases (rather than filling the space with unnecessary decoration, as a fussier pianist would) help to give the music a kind of floating, other-worldly quality which Wordsworth's definition of poetry - `emotion recollected in tranquillity' - aptly describes. "My Romance" and Evans's "Waltz for Debby" are similarly romantic, tuneful themes, and although they are faster, more overtly swinging numbers, Evans's improvisations are still in a warmly melodic, 'singing' style. The final track is a fascinating re-working of Miles Davis's famous theme, "Milestones" and, although it's the fastest track on the album, Evans's gentle touch and unhurried phrasing at this tempo give the piece a striking blend of intensity and relaxation. But the album is very much a group performance. The close rapport and the sense of collective improvisation which the trio aimed for are very strong in these Vanguard sessions, and both La Faro and Motian play with remarkable subtlety and insight.

One of the immediately noticeable features of these Village Vanguard recordings, when you come upon them for the first time, is the constant 'club' background of chattering, laughing diners, tinkling glasses and cutlery, etc. At least once when you listen to the music you will probably wish that remastering technology could completely remove every extraneous noise and give us the music pure and unsullied. But for some fans (and for drummer Paul Motian, in a New Yorker article recalling the sessions forty years later) the background noise is part of the attraction of the music, locating it in a particular time and place - one Sunday afternoon and evening in 1961 in a New York jazz club - even if, in another sense, the music is utterly timeless.

(Adam Gopnik's New Yorker article can be found online at the Bill Evans Web Pages site.) Read more ›

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Warning this will spoil you for other trios or pianists. July 18, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a genuine classic. But, be forewarned it may spoil you because the level of individual musicianship and the group interplay of the three musicians is at a level rarely equalled by other jazz (or any style) musicians. Its companion volume, "Sunday at the Village Vanguard," which focuses more on bassist Scott LaFaro, is its equal. Evans' touch, sense of rhythm, intelligence and his long, flowing melodic lines have been better documented by others than I can. And LaFaro's inventiveness and technique have, too. But, I find few people talk about Paul Motian on drums. His is some of the best drumming ever committed to cd. He is so much more than a timekeeper, he is a melodist and an equal member of the trio. He is endlessly creative, in tune with the other musicians, mindful of the ebb and flow of the music and plays in the context of the other's contributions and the song at hand. (Compare to the drumming on Rubalcaba's "The Blessing" which is often brilliant, but often too busy or loud for the context he's playing in.) Nobody uses brushes as well as Motian. (Though the style of music and drumming is very different, I find Motian the equal of Art Blakey in Monk's trio recordings--"Work" and "Nutty"-- in that the drummer is not subserviant to the gifted pianist, but makes him even better by his level of musicianship and inventiveness. Both Motian and Blakey prove that drumming can be about much more than rhythm but about music.) Many people talk about the fact that this is an ensemble in which all three members solo, play lead and push the envelope. The best proof of that is that I find myself listening differently to the same cut at different times. Sometimes I focus on Evans, sometimes on LaFaro and sometimes on Motian.... In different listenings I find myself thinking that the real leader is a different member of the trio. This is one of those cd's I listnen to late at night and find myself using the back control to listen again to a phrase, or how one musician plays off another's ideas, or just to hear again a stunningly beautiful or inventive phrase. I find, even after 20 years of listening to this music (on vinyl and cd) that I still find new wonders and delights. Warning, the level of musicianship, interplay, creativity will spoil you. No one plays like Evans,(except imiatators) and few have found "sidemen" equal to the task of matching them. Read more ›