Bill Evans: The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 (4LP) [CONCORD]

Why you'll love it

This Riverside box set lays out all five sets in order across four 180g LPs. The Library of Congress added these recordings to the National Recording Registry in 2009, and the Penguin Guide to Jazz lists them in its core collection.

This edition

• 4LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Box set
• All five sets in performance order

About the album

Two of the most loved records in jazz, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby, came from a single afternoon and evening. On June 25, 1961, Bill Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian played five sets at the Village Vanguard in New York while Riverside's Orrin Keepnews kept the tapes rolling. This box gives you the whole day, in order, with Evans chatting about repertoire between tunes.

Hearing it complete changes how you listen. "Gloria's Step" turns up three times, "Waltz for Debby," "My Romance" and "Detour Ahead" twice each, and you can follow the trio's three-way conversation as LaFaro's bass sings melodies alongside the piano and Motian's brushes barely touch the snare. Adam Gopnik wrote of the mother-of-pearl tone of Evans' solos on "Alice in Wonderland," "My Foolish Heart" and "Porgy."

They were the trio's final live recordings; LaFaro died just eleven days later, which gives the music a glow that's hard to put into words. The very first take of "Gloria's Step" stops short when the club's power failed, and it's kept here as it happened, so even the electricity made the box set.

Also at Kops: more Bill Evans on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Riverside / Concord (cat# RIV-36005-01), a reissue of the 1961 live album.