Three configurations of sophisticated duos & trios from four remastered albums recorded between 1962 and 1966 by pianist Bill Evans: first in duos with guitarist Jim Hall (Undercurrent); then with his trio of bassist Gary Peacock & Paul Motian (Trio 64); then with bassist Chuck Israels & drummer Larry Bunker (Trio 65); and last full circle to 1966, again with Jim Hall (Intermodulation).
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Sample The Album:
Bill Evans-piano
Jim Hall-guitar
Bill Evans-piano
Gary Peacock-double bass
Paul Motian-drums
Chuck Israels-double bass
Larry Bunker-drums
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UPC: 752156116424
Label: ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd
Catalog ID: ezz-thetics 1164-2
Squidco Product Code: 34116
Format: 2 CDs
Condition: Sale (New)
Released: 2023
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
CD1, tracks 1-7 recorded in NYC, on April, 24, and May 14th, 1962.
CD2, tracks 8-14 recorded in NYC, on December 18th, 1963.
CD2, tracks 1-8 recorded at Van Gelder Studio, in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on February 3rd, 1965.
CD2, tracks 9-14 recorded at Van Gelder Studio, in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on April 7th, and May 10th, 1966.
Undercurrent originally released in 1962 as a vinyl LP on the United Artists Records label with catalog code UAJS 15003.
Trio 64 originally released in 1964 as a vinyl LP on the Verve Records label with catalog code V-8578.
Intermodulation originally released in 1966 as a vinyl LP on the Verve Records label with catalog code V6-8655.
Trio 65 originally released in 1983 as a vinyl LP on the Seven Seas label with catalog code K23P-6235; and on the Affinity label with catalog code AFF 73.
"Although the evidence is circumstantial, it is more than possible that Bill Evans' collaborations with Jim Hall came about through proximity to George Russell. Even Alan Douglas, the producer of the duo's first album, did not claim credit for the liaison; and Douglas, who the same year brought together Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach, was not shy about coming forward with similar (questionable) claims.
Evans was the first to meet Russell when, in late 1955, recently arrived in New York, he visited him with the singer Lucy Reed, a mutual friend. Russell's first impressions of Evans were not promising. "Plain looking guy, very quiet, very withdrawn," he said. "I thought, this is going to be like pulling teeth all day." After a sightseeing trip on the Staten Island ferry, the party returned to Russell's apartment, where Evans sat at the piano and began to play. "It was one of those magic moments in your life, when you expect a horror story and the doors of heaven open up," said Russell. In 1956, Evans was a featured soloist on the sessions for Russell's formidable declaration-of-intent, The Jazz Workshop, one of whose tracks was titled "Concerto For Billy The Kid."
Hall enters the story in 1959. That summer, Evans and Russell taught at the Music Inn School of Jazz at Lenox, Massachusetts. So did Hall. During three weeks together, the musicians bonded. When Hall moved from Los Angeles to New York in 1960, Russell invited him to join the musical salon which gathered at his apartment. Evans was already a participant. All this suggests that the idea for the duo may have originated there.
Whatever their provenance, Evans and Hall's Undercurrent, from 1962, and Intermodulation, from 1966, span the ugliest and most desperate years in Evans' life...
Rewind to 1960's Portrait In Jazz, Evans' debut with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. The closest Evans ever got to issuing a manifesto is in the final paragraph of the liner notes. "I'm hoping the trio will grow in the direction of simultaneous improvisation, rather than just one guy blowing followed by another guy blowing," he is quoted as saying.
The sky descended on Evans on July 6, 1961, when LaFaro was killed in an automobile accident. Just ten days earlier, Evans, LaFaro and Motian had made their historic recordings at the Village Vanguard, achieving Evans' goal of simultaneous improvisation and challenging the traditional top-down model of the piano trio. Evans was devastated by LaFaro's death. Already living with a heroin habit, he doubled down on it. He hit bottom in spring 1963, when he and his partner Ellaine Schultz were evicted from their apartment for failing to pay the rent and their possessions were dumped in the street by their landlord. Evans was, however, already foundering in April 1962, when he and Hall began recording Undercurrent. Yet, despite all the negativity surrounding him, the album is at least as beatific, and as intimately conversational, as anything Evans recorded with LaFaro and Motian. The same is true of Intermodulation.
There is significant symmetry between Evans' "manifesto" and Albert Ayler's creative process on Spiritual Unity, recorded with Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray in 1964. "We weren't playing," Ayler said. "We were listening to each other." The emerging credo of western society's post-Beat counterculture was egalitarian and anti-hierarchical, be the hierarchy social, political or on the bandstand. Evans and Ayler shared the belief; only their lexicons were different. If hearing Ayler's perfect masterpiece was akin, as Ted Joans wrote, to someone shouting "Fuck!" in St. Patrick's Cathedral, listening to Evans still feels like being bathed in holy water.
[It is notable that Undercurrent was recorded in late April and mid May 1962, on days adjacent to those on which Hall was recording Sonny Rollins' What's New? As a leader, Rollins was the polar opposite of Evans. Semi-detached, he required his musicians only to keep time and stay out of his way. Hall, later a fulltime session musician, operated in Rollins' ambit as effectively as he did in Evans'. He even coaxed Rollins into engaging with him, occasionally.]
Russell's proximity can be detected in the trio recordings here, too, made while Evans was searching for LaFaro's successor. Before joining Evans, Chuck Israels had recorded two albums with Russell and Peacock was a member of his rehearsal band.
Israels' lyrical approach made him a relatively seamless continuation of LaFaro's legacy. He was affronted by Evans' use of heroin, however, and his offstage relationship with Evans was fraught. After Israels left, Evans told his friend Gene Lees that he would never have a Leo, Israels' star sign, in the trio again; nor did he.
Peacock was a more empathetic colleague. Like Evans, he was bookish, and he shared an interest in Eastern esotericism. He also brought a new spin to the trio's music. But Peacock was restless, "in the middle of a personal crisis," as Evans put it in a 1965 interview. Within a few months he had headed off towards Ayler and Spiritual Unity. Nevertheless, with Trio '64, their sole album together, Evans, Peacock and Motian left a treasure. Peacock switches fitfully between agitation and serenity, and Evans responds in kind. At its most exhilarating, Evans' work with Peacock recalls his headlong, tumbling solo on "Concerto For Billy The Kid," where we began."-Chris May, August 2023
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Bill Evans "William John Evans (August 16, 1929 - September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block chords, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines continues to influence jazz pianists today. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, United States, he was classically trained at Southeastern Louisiana University and the Mannes School of Music, in New York City, where he majored in composition and received the Artist Diploma. In 1955, he moved to New York City, where he worked with bandleader and theorist George Russell. In 1958, Evans joined Miles Davis's sextet, which in 1959, then immersed in modal jazz, recorded Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album ever. In late 1959, Evans left the Miles Davis band and began his career as a leader, with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, a group now regarded as a seminal modern jazz trio. In 1961, two albums were recorded at an engagement at New York's Village Vanguard jazz club, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby; a complete set of the Vanguard recordings on three CDs was issued decades later. However, ten days after this booking ended, LaFaro died in a car accident. After months of seclusion, Evans reemerged with a new trio, featuring bassist Chuck Israels. In 1963, Evans recorded Conversations with Myself, a solo album produced with overdubbing technology. In 1966, he met bassist Eddie Gómez, with whom he worked for the next 11 years. During the mid-1970s Bill Evans collaborated with the singer Tony Bennett on two critically acclaimed albums: The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975) and Together Again (1977). Many of Evans's compositions, such as "Waltz for Debby" and "Time Remembered", have become standards, played and recorded by many artists. Evans received 31 Grammy nominations and seven awards, and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame." ^ Hide Bio for Bill Evans • Show Bio for Jim Hall "Jim Hall (December 4, 1930 Ð December 10, 2013), born in Buffalo, and educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music, moved to Los Angeles where he began to attract national, and then international, attention in the late 1950s. By 1960 Jim had arrived in New York to work with Sonny Rollins and Art Farmer, among others. His live and recorded collaborations with Bill Evans, Paul Desmond, and Ron Carter, are legendary. Not only is Jim Hall one of the jazz world's favorite guitarists, but he has also earned critical acclaim for his skills as a composer and arranger. The first formal recognition came in 1997, when Jim won the New York Jazz Critics Circle Award for Best Jazz Composer/Arranger. His pieces for string, brass, and vocal ensembles can be heard on his "Textures" and "By Arrangement" recordings. His original composition, "Quartet Plus Four," a piece for jazz quartet augmented by the Zapolski string quartet, was debuted in Denmark during the concert and ceremony where he was awarded the coveted Jazzpar Prize, and later released on CD. His most recent large-scale composition was a concerto for guitar and orchestra, commissioned by Towson University in Maryland for The First World Guitar Congress®, which was debuted in June 2004 with the Baltimore Symphony. The title of the work, "Peace Movement," is indicative of Jim's desire to contribute to world peace through his music. He views music as a way of bonding people together and crossing barriers, be they barriers of geography, ideology, religion, or other discriminations. In accepting the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship award in January 2004, he said, "The women and men who have received this award in the past have spread peace and love throughout the world, something that governments might emulate. I am pleased to be one of the peacemakers." In addition to the recent focus on orchestral and choral composition, Jim remains active as a player, working and recording with a variety of ensembles all around the world. In addition to working with his trio, Jim likes to spice up the mix with various guests. From time to time you might hear Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, the New York Voices, Kenny Barron, Pat Metheny, Slide Hampton, and others, working for a night or two with Jim's groups. In fact, several of these guests can be heard on a live recording titled "Panorama." On occasion, these alliances lead to more intensive collaborative projects such as the "Jim Hall & Basses" recording featuring Scott Colley, Charlie Haden, Dave Holland, George Mraz, and Christian McBride, and the "duets" project with Pat Metheny. Jim's latest project, "Magic Meeting," a CD featuring the Jim Hall Trio with Scott Colley and Lewis Nash, was recorded live at the Village Vanguard in New York City at the end of April 2004. Jim's new website (www.jimhallmusic.com) enables him to share with his audience a personal view of his creative process, in addition to the finished product. Via the web, audiences can participate, not just by purchasing the new CD, but by 'being there,' behind the scenes, so to speak, witnessing Jim prepare for a project, meeting the players, hearing the outtakes, and more. Some years ago, Guitar Player magazine quoted Jim as saying "I do feel good about my playing. The instrument keeps me humble. Sometimes I pick it up and it seems to say `No, you can't play today.' I keep at it anyway though." Jim and his wife, Jane, who is both a psychoanalyst and a songwriter, live in New York City's Greenwich Village with their dog, Django. This bio was excerpted from "Sketches from PROS Folios: Jim Hall" by Devra Hall, and permission is granted for its use in program books and promotional materials. Whenever possible, please include an author's credit." ^ Hide Bio for Jim Hall • Show Bio for Bill Evans "William John Evans (August 16, 1929 - September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block chords, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines continues to influence jazz pianists today. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, United States, he was classically trained at Southeastern Louisiana University and the Mannes School of Music, in New York City, where he majored in composition and received the Artist Diploma. In 1955, he moved to New York City, where he worked with bandleader and theorist George Russell. In 1958, Evans joined Miles Davis's sextet, which in 1959, then immersed in modal jazz, recorded Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album ever. In late 1959, Evans left the Miles Davis band and began his career as a leader, with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, a group now regarded as a seminal modern jazz trio. In 1961, two albums were recorded at an engagement at New York's Village Vanguard jazz club, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby; a complete set of the Vanguard recordings on three CDs was issued decades later. However, ten days after this booking ended, LaFaro died in a car accident. After months of seclusion, Evans reemerged with a new trio, featuring bassist Chuck Israels. In 1963, Evans recorded Conversations with Myself, a solo album produced with overdubbing technology. In 1966, he met bassist Eddie Gómez, with whom he worked for the next 11 years. During the mid-1970s Bill Evans collaborated with the singer Tony Bennett on two critically acclaimed albums: The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975) and Together Again (1977). Many of Evans's compositions, such as "Waltz for Debby" and "Time Remembered", have become standards, played and recorded by many artists. Evans received 31 Grammy nominations and seven awards, and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame." ^ Hide Bio for Bill Evans • Show Bio for Gary Peacock "Gary Peacock (born May 12, 1935, in Burley, Idaho, United States) is an American jazz double-bassist. After military service in Germany, in the early sixties he worked on the west coast with Barney Kessel, Bud Shank, Paul Bley and Art Pepper, then moved to New York. He worked there with Bley, the Bill Evans Trio (with Paul Motian), and Albert Ayler's trio with Sunny Murray. There were also some live dates with Miles Davis, as a temporary substitute for Ron Carter. Peacock spent time in Japan in the late 1960s, abandoning music temporarily and studying Zen philosophy. After returning to the United States in 1972, he studied Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle, and taught music theory at Cornish College of the Arts from 1976 to 1983. In 1983 he joined Keith Jarrett's "Standards Trio" with Jack DeJohnette (the three musicians had previously recorded Tales of Another in 1977 for ECM Records, under Peacock's leadership). Among the trio's albums are Standards, Vol. 1 and Standards, Vol. 2 and Standards Live. With the breakup of the "Standards Trio" in 2014, Peacock decided to continue his career as the leader of his own piano trio, with Marc Copland on piano and Joey Baron on drums. His 80th birthday year (2015) saw him touring worldwide with this trio to support their ECM release." ^ Hide Bio for Gary Peacock • Show Bio for Paul Motian "Stephen Paul Motian (March 25, 1931 - November 22, 2011) was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer. Motian played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties. He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later was a regular in pianist Keith Jarrett's band for about a decade (c. 1967-1976). Motian began his career as a bandleader in the early 1970s. Perhaps his two most notable groups were a longstanding trio of guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano, and the Electric Bebop Band which featured the drummer working mostly with younger musicians doing interpretations of bebop standards. Motian was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. He is of Armenian descent. After playing guitar in his childhood, Motian began playing the drums at age 12, eventually touring New England in a swing band. During the Korean War he joined the Navy. Motian became a professional musician in 1954, and briefly played with pianist Thelonious Monk. He became well known as the drummer in pianist Bill Evans's trio (1959-64), initially alongside bassist Scott LaFaro and later with Chuck Israels. Subsequently, he played with pianists Paul Bley (1963-64) and Keith Jarrett (1967-76). Other musicians with whom Motian performed and/or recorded in the early period of his career included Lennie Tristano, Warne Marsh, Lee Konitz, Joe Castro, Arlo Guthrie (Motian performed briefly with Guthrie in 1968-69, and performed with the singer at Woodstock), Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, and Don Cherry. Motian subsequently worked with musicians such as Marilyn Crispell, Bill Frisell, Leni Stern, Joe Lovano, Alan Pasqua, Bill McHenry, Stéphan Oliva, Frank Kimbrough, Eric Watson and many more. Later in his career, Motian became an important composer and group leader, recording initially for ECM Records in the 1970s and early 1980s and then for Soul Note, JMT, and Winter & Winter before returning to ECM in 2005. From the early 1980s he led a trio featuring guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano, occasionally joined by bassists Ed Schuller, Charlie Haden, or Marc Johnson, and other musicians, including Jim Pepper, Lee Konitz, Dewey Redman and Geri Allen. In addition to playing Motian's compositions, the group recorded tributes to Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans, and a series of Paul Motian on Broadway albums, featuring original interpretations of jazz standards. Despite his important associations with pianists, Motian's work as a leader since the 1970s rarely included a pianist in his ensembles and relied heavily on guitarists. Motian's first instrument was the guitar, and he apparently retained an affinity for the instrument: in addition to his groups with Frisell, his first two solo albums on ECM featured Sam Brown, and his Electric Bebop Band featured two and occasionally three electric guitars. The group was founded in the early 1990s, and featured a variety of young guitar and saxophone players, in addition to electric bass and Motian's drums, including saxophonists Joshua Redman, Chris Potter, Chris Cheek, and Tony Malaby, and guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel, Brad Shepik, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder, and Jakob Bro. In 2011 Motian featured on a number of new recordings, including Live at Birdland (with Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau and Charlie Haden), Samuel Blaser's Consort in Motion, No Comment by Augusto Pirodda, and Further Explorations with Chick Corea and Eddie Gómez. Bill McHenry's Ghosts of the Sun was released - by coincidence - on the day of Motian's death. Motian's final album as bandleader was The Windmills of Your Mind, featuring Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan and Petra Haden. Motian died on November 22, 2011 at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital of complications from myelodysplastic syndrome." ^ Hide Bio for Paul Motian • Show Bio for Chuck Israels "Chuck Israels is a composer/arranger/bassist who has worked with Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, J.J. Johnson, John Coltrane, and many others. He is best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio from 1961 through 1966 and for his pioneering accomplishments in Jazz Repertory as Director of the National Jazz Ensemble from 1973 to 1981. Among Chuck's many recordings as a bassist, some outstanding ones include: Coltrane Time, with John Coltrane; My Point of View, with Herbie Hancock; Getz au Go-Go, with Stan Getz; and many recordings with the Bill Evans Trio, including The Town Hall Concert; The Second Trio; Trio '65; Live at the Trident; Time Remembered; and Live at Shelley's Manne Hole. Recently retired from directing the jazz studies program at Western Washington University, Chuck has moved to Portland, OR to work in its vibrant jazz community and participate in his favorite Northwest city's cultural life." ^ Hide Bio for Chuck Israels • Show Bio for Larry Bunker "Lawrence Benjamin Bunker (November 4, 1928 - March 8, 2005) was an American jazz drummer, vibraphonist, and percussionist. A member of the Bill Evans Trio in the mid-1960s, he also played timpani with the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. Born in Long Beach, California, Bunker was a central figure on the West Coast jazz scene, one of the relatively few who actually were from the region. In the 1950s and 1960s he appeared at Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, and performed with Shorty Rogers and His Giants and others. At first he played primarily drums, but increasingly he focused on vibraphone and was later highly regarded for his playing of timpani and various percussion instruments. A dependable and in-demand studio drummer and vibist, Bunker achieved particular distinction by recording with Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Diana Krall, and many other jazz greats. In 1952, he was the drummer in one of Art Pepper's first groups. In 1953 and 1954, Bunker played drums in some of the earliest of Gerry Mulligan's groups. From 1963 to 1965, he was, intermittently, the drummer in the Bill Evans trio. His work in movie soundtracks spanned over fifty years, from Stalag 17 (1953) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) to The Incredibles (2004), and included soundtracks by John Williams, Henry Mancini, Quincy Jones, Miklós Rózsa, Jerry Goldsmith, Johnny Mandel, Lalo Schifrin and many other composers. Bunker died of complications of a stroke in Los Angeles at age 76." ^ Hide Bio for Larry Bunker
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Track Listing:
CD1
1. My Funny Valentine 5:22
2. I Hear A Rhapsody 4:37
3. Dream Gypsy 4:33
4. Romain 5:21
5. Skating In Central Park 5:20
6. Darn That Dream 5:08
7. Little Lulu 3:52
8. A Sleeping Bee 5:30
9. Always 4:04
10. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 4:25
11. I'll See You Again 3:56
12. For Heavens Sake 4:26
13. Dancing In The Dark 4:36
14. Everything Happens To Me 4:40
CD2
1. Isreal 4:47
2. Elsa 4:21
3. Round Midnight 6:40
4. Our Love Is Here To Stay 4:01
5. How Many Heart Strings 2:47
6. Who Can I Turn To? 4:52
7.Come Rain Or Shine 5:25
8. If You Could See Me Now 4:47
9. Ive Got You Under My Skin 3:23
10. My Mama's Gone Now 6:45
11. Turn Out The Stars 7:36
12. Angel Face 6:35
13. Jazz Samba 3:09
14. All Across The City 4:53
Hat Art
Improvised Music
Jazz
Melodic and Lyrical Jazz
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Piano & Keyboards
Piano Trio (Piano Bass Drums)
Duo Recordings
Trio Recordings
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ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd.