Emergence

構成数 : 1枚
合計収録時間 : 01:05:46
Aside from about 48 minutes' worth of amateur home recordings from the 1940s issued in 2000 by the E3 label, Fivefour's Emergence contains what appear to be Bill Evans' earliest appearances on record as a promising young professional jazz pianist. Within this intriguing time capsule of recordings from 1955 and 1956, Evans is heard as part of a quartet backing vocalist Lucy Reed and in a relaxed foursome led by guitarist Dick Garcia. He navigates intricate modern charts as a member of the intensely driven George Russell Smalltet (with trumpeter Art Farmer and sax/flute man Hal McKusick front-lining), and makes marvelous music with clarinetist Tony Scott's Quartet and Tentette. This retrospective closes with two essays by a trio with bassist Teddy Kotick and drummer Paul Motian followed by a brief early realization of Evans' own "Waltz for Debby" for unaccompanied piano. While some of George Russell's frenetically progressive charts allowed Evans to demonstrate his facility as a high-velocity improviser, the Tony Scott Quartet's languid rendering of Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" reveals the cooler, mistier aspect of Bill Evans that would be immortalized in the company of Miles Davis on the album Kind of Blue. Both sides of Evans' nature are in evidence near the end of the compilation; while "Five" and "Displacement" come across as gnarly exercises in modernity worthy of Dodo Marmarosa or Lennie Tristano, the delicate "Waltz for Debby," less than 80 seconds in duration, paints a simpler picture in subtle tones and modest hues, very personal. ~ arwulf arwulf