Stan Getz/Bill Evans: Stan Getz & Bill Evans (Verve Acoustic Sounds series) [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

This Verve Acoustic Sounds series pressing was mastered by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound from the original analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, in a tip-on gatefold jacket. It pairs two of Verve's biggest names with Coltrane's drummer.

This edition

• Verve Acoustic Sounds series
• 180g vinyl
• Mastered from the original analog tapes by Ryan K. Smith
• Pressed at Quality Record Pressings
• Tip-on gatefold jacket

About the album

On paper, Stan Getz and Bill Evans are two of the most lyrical players in jazz, so putting Elvin Jones behind them is a bit like hiring a thunderstorm to accompany a string quartet. It works beautifully. They met in the studio in 1964, and Verve sat on the tapes for ten years before putting them out in 1974. Jones was then the engine of John Coltrane's quartet, and he brings that energy along.

Side one has Ron Carter on bass: a brisk "Night and Day," a tender "But Beautiful" and Evans's own "Funkallero." Side two switches to Richard Davis: "My Heart Stood Still" stretches out past eight minutes, "Melinda" glows, and "Grandfather's Waltz" lets Evans's voicings and Getz's warm tone circle each other. The two bassists split the album by side, so you can hear Carter's springy lines against Davis's darker, more probing sound. Jones keeps the pulse loose and alive under both lineups, pushing two famously gentle players somewhere a little more adventurous.

Ten years in the vault did the music no harm at all. It's a chance to hear Getz and Evans together in a small group, pushed along by one of the great drummers of the era.

Also at Kops: more Stan Getz on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Verve, a reissue of the 1974 album.