Jazz Landmark Album #4 - Bill Evans Trio: Sunday At The Village Vanguard (Riverside)

Evans (p), Scott LaFaro (b) and Paul Motian (d). Rec. 1961

None of the three men that made this music one fine June day in 1961 had any inkling of the impact it would have down the years: on listening to the playbacks LaFaro did mention to Evans that he thought they’d got pretty close to optimum performance, but that was about it.

Two weeks or so later LaFaro was dead and Evans left with the ashes of his first great group. This album became Evans’ own personal choice of what he thought best represented the trio through the spectrum of LaFaro’s prodigiously gifted bass playing.

The pianist obviously had great discernment because thousands of people have concurred with him since, naming this not only their favourite Evans album but the one that changed their lives (and in some cases, their careers). Why? Not only were the three trio members individually at their peaks on that particular Village Vanguard Sunday, but they interacted with quietly fierce invention as never before, certainly not on record.

Equal partners, they sustained a musical dialogue on selection after selection that has rarely been equalled within the earshot of a professional microphone, with the astonishingly inventive LaFaro perhaps meriting the sobriquet of senior partner at times, so dominant can he be. This is hardly to downgrade Evans’ own contributions, all of which retain their depth and freshness today.

Credits: (KS)