Treasures - Solo, Trio & Orchestral Records from Denmark (1965-69)

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Description 'Treasures' is a 3LP set of never-before-released live recordings by jazz piano icon Bill Evans insolo, trio and orchestral performances from the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, television and radio broadcasts in Denmark in the mid-to-late 1960s, 180g vinyl - triple gatefold sleeve. The first eight tracks, from 1965 and in a trio setting with either Alan Dawson or Alex Riel in the drum seat, don't disappoint; they are simply a joy to listen to, with Evans’ touch as light as a feather, his mood upbeat, confident – almost playful – and his playing ingenious, bringing freshness to even the most familiar tunes. A few songs later, he ends his solo set with “Epilogue,” the haunting fragment threaded through his 1958 LP Everybody Digs Bill Evans. The second disc contains later trio recordings, this time featuring bassist Eddie Gomez, eventually the pianist’s longest-tenured collaborator, along with drummers Alex Riel (on the ’66 set) and Marty Morell (from a ’69 session). Danish bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen and drummer Alan Dawson pick up the vibe and run with it through enduring takes on "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "Beautiful Love.

In summary, it’s much more than a ‘completists only’ package – Evans fans will find plenty of interest, but so too will anyone with even just a passing interest in Evans and the possibilities of the piano trio. Punk 45: There Is No Such Thing As Society (2024 Edition) Get A Job, Get A Car, Get A Bed, Get Drunk!

The six unaccompanied piano pieces from November 1969 are a wonderful bonus and give an indication of where Evans’ head was at the time (in a good place, on this evidence) – and the version of ‘My Funny Valentine’ is just killer. In marked contrast is an unaccompanied solo set from Bill Evans (Copenhagen, November 1965), a fine blend of the introspective ballads one would expect of Evans with less expected moments of forceful swinging – even in the same tune, such as on a brisk version of My Funny Valentine (a standard on which a lesser musician might have been tempted to wallow in sentimentality). The beautifully designed triple gatefold LP set showcases previously unpublished photos by Jan Persson from Evans’ Danish tours, as well as insightful liner notes by acclaimed author, journalist and Evans scholar, Marc Myers, plus interviews and statements from Danish drummer Alex Riel, music journalist, Danish producer and Evans discographer Peter Larsen, Palle Mikkelborg, Evans’ longtime trio mates - bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell, and pianists Ran Blake and Matthew Shipp. On the standards ‘Stella by Starlight’ and ‘Autumn Leaves’, Evans, and his trio, including his long-time bassist Eddie Gomez crackle with sparks and life, the trio members taking their place as genuine contributors to the song as it unfolds.

But while the earlier trio work here is good and the latter is great, the more tantalizing Treasures sessions are those with the Royal Danish Symphony Orchestra and the Danish Radio Big Band, and those that feature Evans alone. There’s a lot of music too, with plenty of variety: two hours and 18 minutes comprising one solo set, four pure trio performances with varying bassists and drummers, and a trio augmented by a symphony orchestra and big band.His quest for harmonic intrigue even led him to record several albums of him accompanying himself, multi-tracking his improvisations so that two or three pianos were heard simultaneously.

The beautifully designed triple gatefold LP set showcases previously unpublished photos by Jan Persson from Evans' Danish tours, as well as insightful liner notes by acclaimed author, journalist and Evans scholar, Marc Myers, plus interviews and statements from Danish drummer Alex Riel, music journalist, Danish producer and Evans discographer Peter Larsen, Palle Mikkelborg, Evans' long- time trio-mates - bassist Eddie Gomezand drummer Marty Morell, and pianists Ran Blakeand Matthew Shipp. More recently though I have been really into Jazz music and I was just curious if anybody has listened to Bill Evans Treasures album. desc": true, "time": 1676926485964, "blocks": [{"id": "CyobqgXBna", "data": {"text": " Treasures is a 3LP set of never-before-released live recordings by jazz piano icon Bill Evans insolo, trio and orchestral performances from the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, television and radio broadcasts in Denmark in the mid-to-late 1960s, 180g vinyl - triple gatefold sleeve"}, "type": "paragraph"}, {"id": "Kvke-x8Dd6", "data": {"text": "An official Elemental Music release in collaboration with the Bill Evans Estate, Treasures is a 'holy grail' discovery culled from the private collection of Norwegian jazz musician Ole Matthiessen and released for the very first time as a limited-edition 180-gram 3LP deluxe set.Evans’ left hand takes a similar approach to ‘Re: Person I Knew’, doubling as a rhythmic and progressively harmonic device. The performances also sound more expansive, this trio’s take on Nardis (again, closing the set) a lengthy 8:06 versus the 3:35 of the previous set.

With Thelonious Monk’s ‘Round Midnight’ – Evans’s approach is drier and more introspective yet keeping the spirit of Monk’s original. And given that some jazz reissues are cobbled-together bootlegs with a scratchy, muffled sound quality to match, the big question is whether these recordings are (to use that most damning of clichés) ‘for completists only’. NHØP was only nineteen at the time of the recording, but precociously talented; and as bassist for the house band of Copenhagen’s Montmartre Jazzhus, he’d built his chops playing with several visiting US stars (even playing with Bud Powell when only sixteen).Highlights of the collection include trio performances from 1965 featuring legendary Danish jazz bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen; the only solo piano version of “My Funny Valentine” by Evans known to exist; a 1966 orchestral suite performed with the Evans trio accompanied by the Danish Radio Big Band conducted by trumpeter/arranger Palle Mikkelborg; and much more! Riel sounds a tad less driving than Dawson and this performance feels a little more dreamy and introspective than the first – but no less interesting for that, as attested by (for example) Riel’s subtle brushwork on the first of the versions of Time Remembered.