Elemental Music will shine a new light on a singular moment in jazz history with Bill Evans at the BBC, presenting a rare 1965 British television performance by the legendary pianist for the first time on vinyl. Slated for release exclusively for Record Store Day on April 18, 2026, the deluxe 180-gram two-LP set captures Evans in peak form with his remarkable second working trio, bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker. The album will also be released on CD and digital platforms on April 24.
The recording brings together two episodes of the BBC program Jazz 625, hosted by British trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton, and documents Bill Evans’ only known performance at the BBC television studios. Produced for release by award-winning archivist Zev Feldman—widely known as the “Jazz Detective”—in cooperation with the Bill Evans Estate, the project represents Feldman’s 15th collaboration with the estate, further enriching one of the most carefully curated legacies in modern jazz. Audio was transferred from the original BBC tapes, with mixing and restoration by Marc Doutrepont at EQuuS and vinyl mastering by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab.
The broadcasts originally aired on May 12 and December 29, 1965, though they were filmed back-to-back on March 19 of that year during the trio’s four-week residency at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. By that point, Evans, Israels, and Bunker had been working together for two years, forging a deeply intuitive rapport following the dissolution of Evans’ first trio after Scott LaFaro’s tragic death in 1961 and Paul Motian’s departure in 1963.
Chuck Israels recalls that by the time the Jazz 625 episodes were taped, the trio had become a finely tuned unit, comfortable enough with one another and the material to take genuine interpretive risks. That ease and freedom permeate Bill Evans at the BBC, which reveals a group playing with unhurried confidence, subtle swing, and an almost conversational intimacy.
The repertoire will be instantly familiar to Evans listeners. Five selections later appeared on Trio ’65, which the group recorded in February 1965 but which had not yet been released at the time of these broadcasts. These include John Carisi’s “Israel,” Earl Zindars’ “Elsa” and “How My Heart Sings,” along with the standards “Who Can I Turn To?” and “Come Rain or Come Shine.” The program is rounded out with enduring Evans touchstones such as “Waltz for Debby” and “Re: Person I Knew,” as well as frequently revisited pieces like “Summertime,” “Someday My Prince Will Come,” and Miles Davis’ “Nardis.”
Originally airing from April 1964 through August 1966, Jazz 625 was a landmark BBC series whose title referenced the 625-line UHF broadcast system used by BBC Two. The program emerged after the resolution of a long-standing dispute between the UK Musicians Union and the American Federation of Musicians, which had prevented U.S. musicians from performing in Britain for decades. Over its brief run, the series featured appearances by giants including Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, situating Evans’ performance within a rare and historic context.
While devoted fans may have encountered these Evans episodes over the years—on laserdisc in the 1990s, DVD releases in the early 2000s, or scattered online clips—this release marks the first time the music has been officially presented on its own, detached from the visuals and newly remastered to emphasize its sonic depth. The result, according to Evans scholar Marc Myers in his liner notes, is a more immersive listening experience that demands deeper attention and reveals the trio at its expressive peak, playing with a caressing touch and extraordinary focus.
The deluxe package expands the historical context even further, featuring a new interview with Chuck Israels reflecting on Evans and the BBC sessions, reflections on Evans’ influence from singer-pianist Jamie Cullum and pianist James Pearson, artistic director of Ronnie Scott’s, and extensive liner notes by Myers. Cullum, in particular, praises the Israels-Bunker trio for its swinging intensity and understated fire, noting the propulsion of Bunker’s brushwork and Evans’ remarkable economy of motion and sound. He emphasizes that this trio deserves to be appreciated on its own terms, not simply measured against the shadow of Evans’ earlier ensemble.
For Feldman, the release is a personal milestone. Having first encountered the material decades ago, he describes Bill Evans at the BBC as a vital chapter in Evans’ recorded story—one long deserving of an official LP and CD release. More than sixty years after the trio performed before a reserved but attentive British television audience, the music remains strikingly alive. As Israels later reflected, with characteristic understatement, the group was “damn near perfect at the BBC”—a sentiment vividly borne out by these luminous recordings.
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