Concord Music Group is proud to announce the forthcoming
vinyl reissue of Bill Evans’ The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961,
one of the greatest live jazz recording sessions of all time. Pressed on
180-gram vinyl, the four LPs are packaged with a 12-page booklet, complete with
new liner notes by reissue producer Bill Belmont, as well as the original liner
notes by the producer of the initial recordings, Orrin Keepnews. Reproductions
of Keepnews’ session annotations and photographer Steve Schapiro’s proof sheets
from the performances add vintage context to the packaging. As a bonus, a
stunning metallic and black poster of the famous cover — Evans, in profile,
deep in concentration at his piano — completes the box set.
Ranked
time after time as one of the best live jazz recording sessions in history, and
yielding two of Evans’ most classic albums (Waltz for Debby, Sunday at the
Village Vanguard), The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 represents
the pinnacle of spontaneous musical communication: three men breathing as one
on a tiny bandstand. The performances on
these LPs demonstrate a new and more interactive approach to playing as a trio,
one in which all instruments carry melodic responsibilities and function as
equal voices. Keepnews recalls in his
liner notes that “from the very first moments of the recording, it was
impossible to ignore the importance of these performances.”
Everything
Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro, and Paul Motian had been working on for the previous
18 months led to this moment on June 25, 1961. The little-known pianist and his
trio performed afternoon and evening sets that Sunday to a small audience that
unknowingly sat through what would become a very famous — and final — set by
the trio (the 25-year old LeFaro died tragically in a car accident just days
later). These recordings provide
something of a sonic time capsule: sequenced in the original order of the five
sets, the audience’s murmurings and applause are peppered throughout; even an
interrupted take is left intact. Belmont recalls the process of piecing the
performance back together during the remastering process: “As was the practice
with early live recording, the songs [on the original album] were faded just
after the last note, and much, if not all, of the audience and banter from the
stage was removed. So the first stage of the process was to find the reels—if
they existed—and try and make a reconstruction of everything that was
recorded…The task was to try to make the show flow as closely as possible to
what had been recorded.”
Fans of
Bill Evans will be thrilled to note that The Complete Village Vanguard
Recordings, 1961 is just one of several box sets hitting stores over the coming
months, joining an array of vinyl titles currently available on the Original
Jazz Classics imprint, including the magnificent Waltz for Debby, Explorations,
New Jazz Conceptions and Interplay. A 12-disc reissue of The Complete Riverside
Recordings, set for release in early 2015, presents all 20 recording sessions
from the pivotal eight-year period (1956-63) that launched Evans’ career and
defined his position as one of the most significant jazz pianists of all time.
These 151 performances are presented in a sleek brick box, along with a 32-page
illustrated booklet. Due in January, 2015 is four-LP set The Complete Tony
Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings, which encompasses the sublime duets of top song
stylist Tony Bennett with Evans, recorded in 1975 and 1976. New liner notes by
acclaimed music critic and co-author of Bennett’s autobiography, Will
Friedwald, complete the package.
Track
Listing for The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961
Disc 1
Side A:
1.
Spoken Introduction 00:43
2.
Gloria's Step (Take 1, Interrupted) 5:41
3. Alice
In Wonderland (Take 1)6:57
Side B:
1. My
Foolish Heart 4:55
2. All
Of You (Take 1) 8:14
3.
Announcement And Intermission 1:44
Disc 2
Side A:
1. My
Romance (Take 1) 7:11
2. Some
Other Time 5:02
3. Solar
8:57
Side B:
1.
Gloria's Step (Take 2) 6:10
2. My
Man's Gone Now 6:21
3. All
Of You (Take 2) 8:29
Disc 3
Side A:
1.
Detour Ahead (Take 1) 7:17
2.
Discussing Repertoire 00:31
3. Waltz
For Debby (Take 1) 6:46
4. Alice
In Wonderland (Take 2) 8:31
Side B:
1. Porgy
(I Loves You, Porgy) 6:09
2. My
Romance (Take 2) 7:26
3.
Milestones 6:31
Disc 4
Side A:
1.
Detour Ahead (Take 2) 7:41
2.
Gloria's Step (Take 3) 6:48
3. Waltz
For Debby (Take 2) 7:00
Side B:
1. All Of
You (Take 3) 8:18
2. Jade
Visions (Take 1) 4:12
3. Jade
Visions (Take 2) 3:57
4. ...A
Few Final Bars 1:15
No comments:
Post a Comment