RINGER OF THE WEEK:
This tiny label has been putting out some extremely impressive and important archival material lately. Freddie Hubbard and Wes Montgomery were recently featured, and now this one with Bill Evans’ 1968 trio with Eddie Gomez/b and Marty Morell/dr really puts them on the map. Not only have all of these discs been obscure, but they’ve been sessions from important points in each artist’s career. In this case, it was the very beginning of Evans’ trio that had Morell join into the team. Evans and Gomez had played with a rotation of drummers ranging from Philly Joe Jones to Jack DeJohnette, and this gig in New York might be the first session with the regular working team, right at about the time of their What’s New album. Probably due to the fact that he was the new kid on the block, Morell mostly stays in the background as a supporter, while Gomez and Evans take the lion’s share of the solos. This fact also results in most of the songs clocking in between 4-6 minutes, so concision is a major factor here. So is the song selection; LOTS of standards, with only “Turn Out The Stars” being an original during the two sets of this double cd set. Evans was in an assertive stage in his career at the close of the 60s, so takes of “Emily” and “Yesterdays” are a bit bolder than you might expect from Evans’ fingers, but it works well here, with some nice sparks flying during “California Here I Come” and a swinging “Witchcraft.” There is a little repetition of material between sets, but , hey, it’s BILL EVANS for Pete’s sake, so you’re going to be fine. A real nice addition to your piano trio collection.
Resonance Records
www.resonancerecords.org