Bill Evans: You Must Believe In Spring (2LP, electric blue & doublemint vinyl) [KLIMT]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set spreads the trio album over four sides at 45 RPM on electric blue & doublemint vinyl, adding "Without A Song," "Freddie Freeloader" and "All Of You." It has been called one of Evans' most beloved recordings, with possibly the best sound of any album he made.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Electric blue & doublemint vinyl
• Cut at 45 RPM
• Bonus tracks

About the album

Some albums are a beginning and an ending at once. Recorded in August 1977 with bassist Eddie Gómez and drummer Eliot Zigmund, You Must Believe in Spring was Bill Evans' first album for Warner Bros. and his last with Gómez after 11 years together. It came out in February 1981, a few months after the pianist's death, and Evans had signed off on it himself.

The title song is Michel Legrand's, and Evans' recordings helped turn it into a standard that has since been recorded more than 350 times. Jimmy Rowles' "The Peacocks" became another, and the trio closes with a gentle reading of the "Theme From MASH." Evans singled out Gómez's solos here as absolutely classic, Helen Keane and Tommy LiPuma produced, and the cover borrows Charles Burchfield's painting Yearning. Gómez moved on to other projects soon after, while Zigmund stayed for one more album, Affinity.

It's an elegiac, quietly glowing record, the sound of three players who knew each other's every move. Considering the weather we usually get in this city, it's also the most reliable spring forecast we stock.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Klimt Records (cat# MJJ455DLPC), a reissue of the 1981 album.