Here’s what is frustrating about a 5 disc anthology like this of pianist Bill Evans: you’re eventually going to want to get everything he did, so why bother with this tempting morsel? Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but someday. Here’s looking at you kid.
This retrospective box set take the listener from Bill Evans’ early days when he still didn’t have his one personal style as on “Woody’ N You” and in a Monkish “Five” to his first major composition, the ethereal “Blue In Green” (eventually copped by Miles Davis) to his halcyon trio with Paul Motian/dr and the tectonic shifting Scott LaFaro on world changing pieces such as “Gloria’s Step” and “My Foolish Heart”.
After La Faro’s untimely death, Evans worked on trying to find the right combo to recapture that ethereal sound, with much of the collection here a mix of trios with the likes of Chuck Israels, Larry Bunker, Eddie Gomez, Marty Morell, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, Joe LaBarbera and Mark Johnson mixing and matching. There is a section of him in small group settings, all of which you’ll want as complete albums, such as his duets with Jim Hall (“My Funny Valentine”) and Tony Bennett (“The Touch Of Your Lips”) , a small band with Chet Baker and Kenny Burrell (“You And The Night And The Music”), Cannonball Adderley (“Who Cares”) Stan Getz (“Funkallero”). There are other meetings with all stars including Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims, Freddie Hubbard and Toots Thielmans, and they are rewarding in their own way, with Evans sometimes digging in and swinging harder than expected, and other times sounding cheerful and insouciant but always a bit out of character than his comfort food of the trio.
Also included is a recently discovered “live” concert from 1975 at Oil Can Harry’s with his working team of the loyal and indefatigable Eddie Gomez and drummer Eliot Zigmund. The trio setting was Evans’ milieu, and he sounds comfortable and inspired throughout. If you are thinking of buying the entire set for this gig, think twice as it will eventually be a separate release entitled On A Friday Evening. If you incorrectly think you’ll get your “fill” of Evans in one boxed set, then by all means, get this. Otherwise, get it and use it as a checklist when you start collecting all of the albums from which these timeless tunes have been culled.