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Thread: New Bill Evans due June 12th

  1. #1
    Moderator hjames's Avatar
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    New Bill Evans due June 12th

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    I know there are bunch of Bill Evans fans on the site and I just heard about a new release this morning ... I do not have this yet, but there is a digipack 2 CD version on Amazon for $18, which I've ordered. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER
    There is also a rather more high end vinyl release for more ...
    The first notice I heard about spoke of a 3 disc version on 45rpm vinyl for $69
    http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/82...M_Vinyl_Record (apparently 45rpm is a new/old/ audiophile thing)

    I did find this review to give more info on the release ... from - http://somethingelsereviews.com/2012...the-gate-2012/

    Bill Evans – Live At Art D’Lugoff’s Top Of The Gate (2012)
    - Posted by S. Victor Aaron

    Having taken place on October 23, 1968 at Art D’Luggoff’s Top Of The Gate club in Ney York’s Greenwich Village, Live At Art D’Lugoff’s Top Of The Gate was previously heard by the public just once, when then-22 year old George Klabin played the tape on his radio show on the Columbia University’s radio station. Klabin was no mere radio host, though, he’s an recording engineer, and he taped the two set gig that night. Obviously, his crucial role made this record possible.


    Aside from this being a “new” Bill Evans record, there’s the added bonus of this being a well-recorded Bill Evans record. Klabin put a mic on each of the three musicians and mixed it live. The separation is excellent; it’s easy to isolate and break down individual performances. You can clearly hear drummer Marty Morrell on the left, Evans in the middle and bassist Eddie Gomez on the right, and there’s scarcely any crowd noise aside from applauses following solos and the end of songs. If I were to quibble, I might say there are some songs where I wish Morrell was a little higher up in the mix and Gomez dialed down a bit, but, hey, it’s still one of the best recording jobs on a live Evans performance, so I’m not going to quibble.


    1968 was at the beginning of some long-term stability in Evans’ lineup; Eddie Gomez, the longest tenured of all Evans bassists, began his eleven-year tour of duty two years prior, and Marty Morell had just joined the Evans trio to end a period of high churn in the drum chair since Paul Motian’s departure in 1962. Morell would remain in the group for the next six years.


    These changes had little impact on the playing of Evans himself. His expressive, colorful chord voicings, his innate ability to articulate the melody with harmony that decorates, not deviates, and just a great feel for the song that pulls in listeners to bond with it are qualities he’s acquired over a decade earlier. He still had those things going in spades at the time of the Top Of The Gate event.


    In Eddie Gomez, Evans found a highly elastic partner who can play on equal footing with the leader. On this night, Gomez plays like a high octane Scott LaFaro (although I prefer the current state of Eddie Gomez). Just as Gomez’s playing resembles LaFaro, so does Morell’s approach find some common ground with Motian. He’s precise, can swing like the dickens (two absolute requirements to play with Evans) and carefully modulates his cadence and timing around Evans and Gomez.


    It’s hard to pick out specific tracks for special citations, owing to the consistency of the performances. Here instead are some random thoughts:

    • The second go around of “Yesterdays” was both tighter and intense than the first one.

    • “Round Midnight” is said to be a difficult to nail down, not in technical sense, but in capturing the right feel. Evans makes that seem so easy.

    • It’s great to hear “Witchcraft,” a lightly swinging tune featuring great piano/bass interplay. This is the first Evans recording of that song to surface aside from the 1959 Portrait In Jazz studio recording.

    • I agree with Gary Burton in his liner notes for this album: I wish there were more Evans originals. “Turn Out The Stars” is the lone one.



    There’s other liner notes besides Burton’s, by Gomez, Morell, producer Zev Feldman, illustrious jazz critic Nat Hentoff, and George Klabin. Full of photos of the musicians and the famed club from the period of the recordings, and rendered in attractive package, Live At Art D’Lugoff’s Top Of The Gate will become available as a 2 CD Deluxe Digi-pack, Deluxe 3 LP Box Set 180 gram vinyl and a bundle of both CD and LP forms.


    Having built a significant career as both an engineer and producer for jazz records, Klabin is presently president of Resonance Records. On June 12, Resonance will release Live At Art D’Lugoff’s Top Of The Gate, completing a task Klabin begun 43 years ago of creating an accomplished Bill Evans live document and bringing it to market.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member BMWCCA's Avatar
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    Nice!

    Thanks for the tip.
    ". . . as you have no doubt noticed, no one told the 4345 that it can't work correctly so it does anyway."—Greg Timbers

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    Senior Member BMWCCA's Avatar
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    Listening to it now. The first couple of cuts were a bit disappointing mostly due to the recording quality; weak bass, etc. It's gotten much better and I'm only just finishing the first of the two CDs.

    Now that I've opened the 28-page booklet with liner notes I see the engineer was just 22-years-old when he got this opportunity to record Evans' trio. He recorded it direct to Crown 2-track RTR with an assortment of fine mics (Neuman, Beyer, Sennheiser, and EV) and admitted he had no opportunity for a sound check and that the first two tracks had an imbalance he corrected as he went along. I concur, so don't judge the quality of the entire work by the first two tracks. It's really very well done.

    I'm on Track 9 of 17 and time to put in the second disc . . .

    . . . the good news is Track 2 (Emily) has a second version in much finer fettle on the second-set CD!
    ". . . as you have no doubt noticed, no one told the 4345 that it can't work correctly so it does anyway."—Greg Timbers

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