Waltz For Debby

50年代から70年代にフランス音楽シーンの写真家として活躍したジャン・ピエール・ルロア(Jean Pierre Leloir)の写真を使用した「Jazz Images」の人気シリーズが登場!

オリジナルはビル・エヴァンスの1961年録音『ワルツ・フォー・デビー』(Riverside RLP9399)より。ボーナストラックはエヴァンスのトリオとしてのデビュー作『ニュー・ジャズ・コンセプションズ』(Riverside Records RLP12-223)より。カバー写真は1965年2月9日、ベルギー、ブリュッセルにて撮影されたもの。

Recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1961, shortly before Scott LaFaro's death, Waltz for Debby is the second album issued from that historic session, and the final one from that legendary trio that also contained drummer Paul Motian. While the Sunday at the Village Vanguard album focused on material where LaFaro soloed prominently, this is far more a portrait of the trio on those dates. Evans chose the material here, and, possibly, in some unconscious way, revealed on these sessions -- and the two following LaFaro's death (Moonbeams and How My Heart Sings!) -- a different side of his musical personality that had never been displayed on his earlier solo recordings or during his tenures with Miles Davis and George Russell: Evans was an intensely romantic player, flagrantly emotional, and that is revealed here in spades on tunes such as "My Foolish Heart" and "Detour Ahead." There is a kind of impressionistic construction to his harmonic architecture that plays off the middle registers and goes deeper into its sonances in order to set into motion numerous melodic fragments simultaneously. The rhythmic intensity that he displayed as a sideman is evident here in "Milestones," with its muscular shifting time signature and those large, flatted ninths with the right hand. The trio's most impressive interplay is in "My Romance," after Evans' opening moments introducing the changes. Here Motian's brushwork is delicate, flighty and elegant, and LaFaro controls the dynamic of the tune with his light as a feather pizzicato work and makes Evans' deeply emotional statements swing effortlessly. Of the many recordings Evans issued, the two Vanguard dates and Explorations are the ultimate expressions of his legendary trio. ~ Thom Jurek