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Music CD - Bill Evans: The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961
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Music CD: The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961
Artist: Bill Evans
List Price: $29.98
Our Price: $18.58
Your Save: $ 11.40 ( 38% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Riverside
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Tracks:
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1. Spoken Introduction
2. Gloria's Step (Take 1, Interupted)(First U.S. Release)
3. Alice In Wonderland
4. My Foolish Heart
5. All Of You (Take 1)
6. Announcement And Intermission
7. My Romance (Take 1)
8. Some Other Time
9. Solar
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0025218444323
Format: Live
Label: Riverside
Manufacturer: Riverside
Number Of Discs: 3
Publisher: Riverside
Release Date: 2005-09-13
Studio: Riverside
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: No Bill like this Bill
Comment: I can give you a book full of reasons why, if you are into jazz, or into piano, or into music in general, you need to buy this set of recordings. Suffice to say, Bill Evans was the peak, the bee's knees, the top of the pole in his time, and this captures some of his brightest and best moments, all in one collection. Delightful tunes, both standards and not so, and alternate takes that shed light on the music making process and the insight that Bill brought to his music. You will read or hear about other jazz pianists who are billed as "the next Bill Evans", or who are "as good as Bill Evans", but whatever, number one: don't believe it, and number two: buy and listen to this set to see what "they" are talking about. This is a wonderful piece of jazz history, and you can have it in your home as fast as the UPS truck can get there. If you prefer studio versions to live, you can get Waltz for Debby or Portrait in Jazz, but be warned that they'll probably make you want to buy this set anyway.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yep, it's THAT good...
Comment: Occasionally I read a review on Amazon and then order the item - and wonder what planet the people who gave it high marks are living on. Not so for this gem. This is the REAL DEAL. Others have been far more eloquent than I could ever hope to be in explaining WHY it's so good. Let me simply say this: I've got a half a gazillion jazz recordings and this rates right up there with the very best of them. It's just really good music, really well recorded. And, at this price, it's a truly great deal as well. You won't be disappointed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The quintessential trio at their peak
Comment: Jazz piano heaven.
This is the long-awaited full day of music from all the various Village Vanguard releases over the years. Every note is here, as well as some between songs chatter. The various takes of various songs add up to a master class in piano and bass improvising; LaFaro died shortly after this day and Evans was never the same. Thankfully, we have this sublime music from their unique interplay at its apex.
This is a great buy; over two and a half hours of transcendent jazz in perfectly remastered sound for twenty bucks (and you can then burn all the music onto two cds, it just fits; you'll never get angry during rush hour again with this music playing). It truly sounds fabulous, much finer than the earlier cds of this material, warm and immediate. It's so real that the chatter of folks in the quiet moments often makes me think there's someone else in the room with me (and how can they talk while this music is being played? Some folks just don't know good music even when they're sitting beside the piano).
My only qualm is the endless bass soloing. Yes, LaFaro was a very musical and sensitive player, but I just can't take the minutes-long excursions on almost every tune. It's a monophonic instrument, and frankly even LaFaro gets boring to my ears, especially when one of the all-time piano geniuses is sitting unused three feet away. Scott's genius was how he pushed Bill to play at his outer limits while creating superb counterpoint to Evans' ideas; the bass soloing sounds nice once every three tunes or so, but I just find it boring after a while; the bass is not a solo instrument that excites me. But, each to his own!
Some Evans fans consider this date his ultimate moment. It's certainly one of them, but there are so many gems it's hard to pick just one. Suffice to say that alongside Portrait In Jazz, Know What I Mean, Moonbeams, Everybody Digs, Undercurrent, the Keystone dates in 1980, the Paris Concert, the solo albums, and oh, a handful of others, it's glorious proof that Evans was one of the finest pianists, jazz, classical or otherwise, to grace this planet.
A must in any jazz library.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This is incredible!
Comment: This has become one of my favorite jazz recordings. I never heard the original vinyl, but, even if there was extensive processing and restoration, here, you won't believe the quality of this recording. Kudos to the original engineers. With that out of the way, Bill Evans is impeccable, and I'd never heard of Scott LaFaro (on bass), but he really rocks here. I could (and do) listen to this set over and over again.
Six stars!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Jazz time travel
Comment: As the applause reveals (you can almost count the pairs of hands clapping by ear) and the sleeve notes confirm, there weren't many people at the Village Vanguard on that now famous afternoon and evening. Today, how many people must wish they were there. This superb box set is the next best thing.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Bill Evans, with virtuoso bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, reinvented the jazz piano trio, creating stunning contrapuntal dialogues that merged luminous lyricism with layers of complex, elusive harmonies, its moments of limpid beauty suddenly giving way to surging rhythms. The trio's finest recorded moments, these performances were captured just 10 days before LaFaro's death in a car accident. The original releases--Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby--are celebrated masterpieces. This three-CD set is a brilliant reissue--almost a revision--of that material, with superb sound from the newly remastered original tapes and all of the music presented in the sequence of the original five sets, adding a previously unissued take of "Gloria's Step," spoken introductions, and the band's incidental conversation. For those who know this music, it's a chance to hear it in a fresh way; for new listeners, it will come as a revelation at a bargain price. --Stuart Broomer
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