Riverside RLP 1129: Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Bill Evans, piano
Sam Jones, bass
Philly Joe Jones, drums
Condition: VG+
Stampers: N/A
Date first published: 1958
Performance: 10/10
Sound: 7/10
Price range: $33-320 (mean $93 on popsike.com)
Comments: When I originally started this blog in 2012, I had intended to discuss not just classical but also jazz recordings (hence the title, MILES [Davis] to Mozart). As it turned out, I started off with classical, had a couple diversions covering jazz, but for the most part focused heavily on classical. This year one of my goals is to change that and to begin to review some of the jazz albums in my collection. There are a good number of jazz collecting resources on the web (check out London Jazz Collector, for example) that cover topics such as pressings, labels, etc., and I would encourage you to check some of these out. Many of them were not available when I first started collecting jazz and would have made a big difference in my ability to distinguish original pressings and cheap reissues. The Blue Note label, for instance, has so many intricacies to its pressings hierarchy that new collectors must really be aware of differences in pressings so as to not get tricked by sellers on E-bay. Don't be fooled by prices ... I've been tricked into paying more money for what was touted as an original pressing but ended up being a Liberty era reissue.
This album from jazz pianist Bill Evans is one of my all time favorite jazz records. I have been listening to it on CD since 1998 when I was a senior in college and only in the last month acquired my first vinyl copies. This is my "original" pressing. I also have the Analogue Productions two LP, 45 rpm audiophile pressing. Both are fabulous, though I'll be commenting on the original pressing. This recording was made before Bill Evans was to form his legendary trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian but we can already hear elements of Bill Evans unique style ... beautiful melodic lines, rich chord voicings, use of space, lyricism ... and he can swing. The tunes on this album vary the gamut in terms of tempo and mood. The opening track, Minority, starts things off up-tempo, but we quickly slow things down and enter into a more introspective zone with Young and Foolish and Lucky to Be Me, both of which receive hauntingly beautiful interpretations. Night and Day and Tenderly ramp things up a bit and swing. The tune that gave me a chill the first time I heard it and continues to mesmerize me to this day was Peace Piece, a 6:37 solo piano improvisation that is built on a minimal chord progression but may be one of the most powerful jazz piano solos ever put on record.
I've had mixed impressions about Riverside recordings. They never had the quietest surfaces, and some of them have more hiss than others. The general recommendation is to avoid early Riverside stereo LPs and to stick with mono. Bill Evans' mono recordings seem to fetch a lot more than the stereo, particularly the ones on which the trio included Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, but I actually prefer to listen to them in stereo. This is a prime example. Yes, there is hard separation of the instruments, but that is how I'd like to hear them spaced. Bill Evans' piano was never given a phenomenal recorded sound by Riverside, but it's pretty decent on this album. Bass and drums are also quite well reproduced and contribute to the very pleasing sonics of the original stereo recording. The Analogue Productions reissue does improve on the sound floor and gives the piano a bit more of an organic sound and the bass more body. In either case, the vinyl copies hands down beat the standard digital. I haven't heard the Analogue Productions SACDs, though, which are probably a lot better than the Fantasy/OJC CDs.
One last observation: has anybody else noticed that the photo on the bottom of the back cover is incorrectly labeled? The guy on the left is most definitely not Bill Evans.
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