Bill Evans Trio - Sunday at the Village Vanguard - Analogue Productions CAPJ 9376 SA (2002) SACD rip via PS3 to iso (2.81GB) | 24bit/88.2kHz 2ch flac tracks (1.36GB) | Post bop Jazz | DR14 Allmusic Review by Thom Jurek: Sunday at the Village Vanguard is the initial volume of a mammoth recording session by the Bill Evans Trio, from June 25, 1961 at New York's Village Vanguard documenting Evans' first trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. Its companion volume is Waltz for Debby. This trio is still widely regarded as his finest, largely because of the symbiotic interplay between its members. Tragically, LaFaro was killed in an automobile accident ten days after this session was recorded, and Evans assembled the two packages a few months afterward. While "Waltz for Debby" -- in retrospect -- is seemingly a showcase for Evans' brilliant, subtle, and wide-ranging pianism, this volume becomes an homage, largely, to the genius and contribution of LaFaro. That said, however, this were never the point. According to Motian, when Evans built this trio based on live gigs at the Basin Street East, the intention was always to develop a complete interactive trio experience. At the time, this was an unheard of notion, since piano trios were largely designed to showcase the prowess of the front line soloist with rhythmic accompaniment. Here, one need listen no further than the elegant and haunting, graceful modal reading of "My Man's Gone Now" from Porgy & Bess to know that there is something completely balanced and indescribably beautiful in their approach. Motian's brushes whisper along the ride cymbals and both Evans and LaFaro enter into a dialogue that emerges from a darkly hued minor mode, into the melody and somehow beyond it, into a form of seamless dialogic improvisation to know that in the act of one musician slipping over and under another -- as happens with all three in an aural basket weave -- is something utterly new and different, often imitated but never replicated. But in a sense it happens before this, on LaFaro's "Gloria's Step," which opens the recording. His thematic statement includes the briefest intro, hesitant and spacious before he and pianist enter into a harmonic and contrapuntal conversation underscored by the hushed dynamics of Motian's snare, and the lightning-fast interlocutions of single string and chorded playing of LaFaro. The shapshifting reading of Miles Davis' "Solar," is a place where angularity, counterpoint, and early modalism all come together in a knotty and insistent, yet utterly seamless blend of post-bop aesthetics and expanded harmonic intercourse with Motian, whose work, while indispensable in the balance of the trio, comes more into play here, and is more assertive with his half-time accents to frame the counterpoint playing of Evans and LaFaro. This is a great place to begin with Evans. http://www.sa-cd.net/showtitle/394 http://www.amazon.com/Sunday-Village-Vanguard-Bill-Evans/dp/B00006L3O4 Tracks: 1. Gloria's Step 2. My Man's Gone Now * 3. Solar * 4. Alice in Wonderland 5. All Of You 6. Jade Visions (4) Bonus tracks: alternate takes of all above tracks except* Time: Credits: Rikka Arnold Editorial Tamaki Beck Mastering Engineer Chris Clough Project Assistant Larissa Collins Art Direction Ken Deardoff Cover Design, Design Bill Evans Piano Sam Gay Creative Design, Director George Gershwin Composer Ira Gershwin Composer Ira Gitler Liner Notes Peter Grant Design, Series Design DuBose Heyward Composer Dave Jones Engineer Orrin Keepnews Annotation, Liner Notes, Producer, Reissue Producer Scott LaFaro Bass, Composer, Performer Paul Motian Drums Nick Phillips Project Supervisor Albert Roman Project Assistant Steve Schapiro Photography Donald Silverstein Cover Photo, Photography Akira Taguchi Producer Alan Yoshida Mastering Checksum for iso: ae3ec2632ae56fccd69d0375bd7c226e *The Bill Evans Trio - Sunday At The Village Vanguard.iso Checksums for flac tracks: d80ea98b0bef4dbb483d515e0b529ef3 *01 Gloria's Step (Take 2).flac 50ce2d38e4e7b119fea69c6548327a14 *02 My Man's Gone Now.flac 9da6408f1d00da2daf4fc4a7b46481b9 *03 Solar.flac 75b4cb87786e0e24bf33b9dcdfb0705d *04 Alice In Wonderland (Take 2).flac 72b7c0483e79bba46c7957b779a872d1 *05 All Of You (Take 2).flac c24a6ca7d5009ddfb64bc1a72aebfe0f *06 Jade Visions (Take 2).flac 8c55e9d681a7d05d33e4df1ac1b5bc0c *07 Gloria's Step (Take 3).flac 45a1e8cdd817800a01207b094ac78032 *08 Alice In Wonderland (Take 1).flac 7c2b1b9747ffbaf14e8c7a80eb460322 *09 All Of You (Take 3).flac bcfd861f8d01ffb96990bf89f23018d8 *10 Jade Visions (Take 1).fl