Although Top of the Gate was recorded with a mic on each instrument, I think it has a more boomy sound than Evans in England, which doesn't have that problem at all. George Klabin, who recorded Top of the Gate, says that he had a Crown two-track recorder with an Ampex mixer that he used to mix the recording on the fly, with four microphones that included a Neumann U67, a Beyer dynamic, a Sennheiser condenser, and an Electro-Voice dynamic mic wrapped with foam and placed "in the bridge area of the acoustic bass." And he made a good amateur recording, but maybe at age 22 he lacked the experience to set his recording levels better, or maybe one or two mics were weak links in his system. I'm glad that they put that out, because it introduced Bill's middle period to me, and it's enlightening to hear the trio just after Marty joined, but I like this new discovery a little more.
Yes. I watched the short 'Making Of' video that Resonance put together for the Top Of The Gate release. Thanks for the feedback. I hope to get around to listening to it this week.
Bill Evans – Empathy + A Simple Matter Of Conviction Label:Verve Records – 837 757-2 Format:CD, Compilation, Remastered Bass – Eddie Gomez (tracks: 7 to 15), Monty Budwig (tracks: 1 to 6) Drums – Shelly Manne Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder Piano – Bill Evans Producer – Creed Taylor Empathy is from August of '62 while ASMoC is from October '66. Evans & Manne appear on both with Budwig the first bassist followed by Gomez. Empathy has become my favorite Evans since first hearing it earlier this year. Something about that Manne/Evans interplay works very well. Sound on this 2-fer CD is good too.
I have both of these on vinyl. While great to hear newly discovered tapes, the sound on both Top of the Gate and In England are quite disappointing. Luckily I didn't have to spend a crazy amount to get these. They are interesting as a timepiece, but there are so many fantastic sounding Bill Evans recordings available, I would only recommend these to collectors who already own the better sounding LPs. For example, these 2 are far inferior to the other 2 Bill Evans releases by Resonance; Some Other Time and Another Time. Both are now OOP on vinyl but even the CDs sound really good. If you love Bill, and want to hear him at his best on LP, get the Riverside box set mastered by Hoffman and Gray. Or try a few of the Riverside OJC pressings currently available on LP.
Bill Evans With Eddie Gomez & "Philly" Joe Jones –California Here I Come Now playing on Verve CD. My first foray into hearing Evans play with Philly Joe and I'm digging it so far. Philly ain't scared to "speak" and get involved in the conversation that's for sure. He's certainly prodding the group and it's a good change of pace.
Bill Evans – Alone Label: Verve Records – 833 801-2 Format: CD, Album, Reissue Following up the Jones/Gomez trio with some solo Bill from '68. He lets the notes really resonate on this one and the piano is recorded very well. Lovely record.
@Bobby Boogaloo, Happy to see you're playing some Bill Evans lately and posting about it. But I forgot to tell that there's an admission fee to enter this thread: A top Bill Evans list is required. List any type of output, or you can go by subject: best album as sideman, live album, studio album, solo album... We're waiting
Ok then: My list of fave drummers playing with Evans in trio settings (out of the albums I've listened to): 1 - Shelly Manne 2 (tie)- JDJ & Philly Joe 3- Motian Really haven't listened to much of Bunker, LaBarbera or Zigmund (or any others) enough to form an educated opinion. I've just come to really enjoy the Manne/Evans pairing.
At a garage sale today, in the back of a small stack of terrible easy listening LPs, I found this, one of the earliest Bill Evans sessions. This cover is from the web, my copy was absolute mint cover and red vinyl. One dollar
I also love the Moonbeam cover. And the music inside that cover even more. But the "undercurrent" photo...
More Images Bill Evans – Trio 64 Label: Verve Records – 314 539 058-2 Series: Verve Master Edition – Format: CD, Album, Reissue With Gary Peacock & Paul Motian. Recorded at Webster Hall, NYC in December '63 (close enough to '64 I guess). Lots of Peacock solos on this one and Motian seems to keep those drums on the lower end of the sonic spectrum. Good album with some interesting interplay. Not easy to suss out the exact sequence in what came before/after this recording by using discogs given the multiple entries for Bill Evans/Bill Evans trio, and that not every album notes when it was recorded. Anyone know the sessions Bill was involved in directly before/after this date?
Trio 64 recorded in December 1963 (some mistakenly list it as Dec. 1962). Of course it was not released until 1964, thus the title In Summer 1963, Bill recorded his "pop" album (VIP Theme) In May 1963, he finished out any obligation to Riverside (the corrupt cheating company) with Live at Shelly's Man Hole. In February 1963, he did Conversations with Myself In May 1964, Bill did the (then unreleased) session with Getz In May 1964, Bill did the Live album with Chuck Israels In August 1964, Bill did the album with Monica Zetterlund
The Bill Evans discography at jazzdisco.org seems to be fairly thorough, at least at the time it was made. It is missing some dates that have come out in the last few years. Bill Evans Discography That May '64 session recorded at The Trident in Sausalito, given the generic title The Bill Evans Trio "Live," seems to be hard to find. I've never seen it in the wild, anyway. An Amazon seller offers a used copy of a CD for $22, but that's a bit much for me. Has anyone heard it & have thoughts to share?
Haven't seen it on vinyl or CD. According to Discogs, the CDs are all from Japan. The only Bill with Israels & Bunker I've heard so far is the 1964 portion of the Jazz Icons DVD.
One of my favorite parts of the Complete Verve box is the CDs from that live recording with Israels and Bunker. I think I've seen the LP, but as I have the CD don't have a strong interest in getting it.
Evidently there is more than a couple discs of the May '64 material, as well as the '67 Village Vanguard sessions (California, Here I Come), in the Complete Verve box. But I haven't bought it because I have most of the Verve recordings that I'd really want on CD, and I'd prefer to get the remainder on individual CD's, too. California, Here I Come isn't really one of my favorite albums, either. I like the '65 dates with Israels & Bunker from London and Paris, but... I'll have to keep thinking about it. That Jazz Icons DVD is great.
Bill Evans with Eddie Gomez and Alex Riel in Oslo, 1966 This commentary at Jazz Wax includes links to rehearsal footage with the trio as well as Monica Zetterlund in Copenhagen: Bill Evans: 'That Was Easy'
I recently acquired “Waltz for Debby Bill Evans Trio with Scott LaFaro, Paul Motian”. It is a stereo 9399 Riverside. It’s deep groove, blue label with RLP 12-9399 A/B deadwax. When I took the record out of the cover it was one of those where the record had been stored for a long time and the inner generic paper sleeve was folded over. It looks like a NM record but when you get close at an angle under a bright light you can see areas where the sleeve interacted with the vinyl. The same area is affected on both sides. It seems to cause ticks in the first track of each side. I am new to this recording. Does anyone have similar situations with vintage Riverside releases of the early to mid sixties era? I have not paid much attention to Bill Evans up this point. Except for the notoriety he receive for “Kind of Blue”. I actually find the bass work by Scott LaFaro to be most interesting. It’s really a sparse record.