Like so few people, producer and musical gold miner Zev Feldman understands that one can never have enough previously unreleased material by the likes of Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins or Nat Cole. He keeps looking through nooks and crannies in order to find some mother lode. He’s struck it rich with Evans, as this is his something like 5th multi-album set, following Live at Ronnie Scott’s, Some Other Time, Another Time and Live at Art D’Lugoff’s Top of the Gate. Am I missing anything?
This time around, Feldman parachutes in from above a landmark session from Holland with his longest standing trio of bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell. To put this March and Novemnber 1969 sessions in perspective, they come right after his Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival and Alone from (mostly) the end of ’68, while future sessions such as Quiet Now (recorded in Holland) , What’s New, Montreux II and From Left To Right display a resurgence of inspiration and energy from the pianist and his team.
And this team… well, they were pretty simpatico at this point, almost reading each other’s minds as well as Miles’ Davis “classic” quintet of just a few years earlier. Besides the trio work, there are orchestrations arranged by Claus Ogerman for “Granados” and “Pavane”; everything else is from either a KRO or VARA Studio 8, with some of this material appearing on bootlegs, but never sounding this pristine.
So, what are the surprises? Well, a fantastic read of Ellington’s “I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart” and “Love Theme From Spartacus”, both rarely emitted from Evans’ ivories. The two takes of “Quiet Now” show how richly creative the trio can be, with a wink of an eye here, a nod there, and ‘boom’, you have some creative side paths. “Nardis” has a very different feel from his days with Motian and La Faro, a bit more assertive and swinging than impressionistic and pastel’d, while “Waltz For Debby” is classy and stately. Gomez’s bass work is like Spock on Star Trek, the perfect second in command never willing to be the captain, and Morell is flexible yet swinging throughout, knowing how to create and keep a mood.
The two disc set contains a nice little booklet with notes by Feldman as well as reflections by Dutch pianist Jan Huydt and the two sidemen. Jazz’s Chopin is at his finest here.