The set was reissued in 1997, and now again in 2015. 98 tracks from eleven sessions made up the box set, originally issued in an LP-sized box (that’s how they did things in the relatively early days of compact discs). The content of those twelve albums’ worth of music was compiled into a 1989 box set titled The Complete Fantasy Recordings. But while at Fantasy, he recorded nine albums (three additional records of Fantasy-era Evans material would be released posthumously). He remained with the label until accepting (according to his manager/producer Helen Keane) a better offer from Warner Brothers in the late 1970s. Evans’ piano on Miles Davis‘ seminal Kind of Blue (1959) launched him into stardom (or at least the jazz version of stardom).Īfter stints as a bandleader/soloist recording for Riverside, Milestone and Verve (and scattered releases for other labels), Evans signed with Fantasy in 1973. His recording career began in the mid 1950s, and he was a key player in some of the most important sessions in jazz history. And though he worked with what musicologists call note clusters, he was rarely as dissonant as Thelonious Monk (and when he was, Evans somehow managed not to sound like it). Evans’ approach was quiet: he wasn’t really an exuberant, uptempo, pop-leaning player like Vince Guaraldi though Evans’ music was extremely sophisticated, it never had the somewhat scholarly, erudite air of Dave Brubeck‘s work. And that something was often melancholy, always contemplative. Yet his songs always felt as though they were about something. Listening to Evans, a listener might even experience a feeling of unease, as in, “I’m uncomfortable being allowed to hear such intimate, private feelings being expressed.” And of course Evans did so instrumentally, always (except when working with Tony Bennett) eschewing vocals or lyrics. His music could never quite be described as inviting most all of his piano compositions and recordings have an insular quality. Bill Evans was a singular figure in the world of music, and even more so within the context of the jazz idiom.
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