Sunday at the Village Vanguard

Really good.

I liked each of these songs up until the bass solos. They weren’t poorly played, I just feel like the upright bass sounds bad on its own.

Jazz brunch

Like most jazz albums set to fancy restaurants but this time with a live audience.

Det føles ikke som det er noen plan med dette albumet. Hva om vi bare jammer med lydopptakern i rommet? Mye godt kan komme ut av jamming, men her føles det litt uferdig. Klart de er flinke musikere, men det holder ikke.

Kanskje det bare er jeg som ikke liker jazz uten blås? Droppet bonussporene av ren kjedsomhet.

Også veldig plagsomt med folk som prater i bakgrunnen, men jeg skjønner dem jo godt når musikken er som den er.

A pretty nice album to listen to in the morning with a cup of coffee but jazz instrumental albums will never be actively sought by me.

This is not for me. Non-brass jazz is not for me. It's clearly an amazing performance, but it's also long and winding. I liked the idea and back story of this more than I liked the actual recording.

Probably okay background music. The kind that is played so quietly you don't even notice when it stops but it's pleasant nonetheless.

Listened on headphones. Bass in the left ear, piano in the right. Very unnatural. I couldn't focus properly.

This is a fun album - insane chemistry between the band, the bassist is the standout and sad to hear that he passed so young, so soon after this show.

It's a Jazz Album...

This was some nice enough background music, but it didn't really satisfy what I was after today. Maybe my IQ just isn't high enough to appreciate the genius on offer here.

Smooth, relaxing jazz. This album is poorly timed though - I am SWAMPED with work and can't RELAX.

The atmosphere on this album is incredible and all three of them are next level musicians!

While Bill Evans is obviously masterful on the piano, his smooth jazz style of piano playing doesn't really excite me all that much. It's very pleasant and there's nothing I truly dislike about it, it just doesn't really stand out to me, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as it leaves a lot of space for me to appreciate the other musicians in the trio.

The drumming by Paul Motian on the other hand stands out by being perfectly present and in sync with the music, but never quite taking over. He's always there keeping time, but seems to fade in and out of the tracks with ease to suit the direction of the music; he gets louder when he's needed to be louder and quieter when he's needed to be quieter. Not to mention, he's just a great drummer and I absolutely love jazz drumming.

The real stand out on the album is the bass playing by Scott LaFaro. Some of the best bass playing I've heard on a jazz album and I was surprised how much focus the album had on him. That is until I read the Wikipedia afterwards and learned about his tragic death 11 days after these sessions. The tracks were reportedly selected to best feature LaFaro's playing and it absolutely shows.

I thought it was OK. It my favorite jazz we’ve heard.

Piano Jazz isn't exactly my wheelhouse but if I'm going to listen to it, I think this will be the record. This is the non-Christmas background music you want for your winter dinner party, or a cozy night at home with a fire going.

This was the final performance with bassist Scott LaFaro, who died in a car accident 11 days later. His bass work is intentionally showcased here as tribute, and even without the backstory it's hard not to notice his performance. Bill Evans has called this the best version of 'the Trio', and I'm not bold enough to question that.

Secretly, I wish it wasn't a live album because the occasional applause breaks pull me out of my cozy solitude. However, I don't think you'd get the same magic in a studio recording. I'll cope.

I will not include the bonus takes in this review.

Bill Evans was a legendary jazz pianist who influenced the harmonic language of his instrument. He studied classical music before moving to New York City to work with the likes of bandleader George Russell and Miles Davis. In fact, Evans was part of Davis's sextet when the latter recorded Kind of Blue, an album I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of months ago on my album journey. Shortly after those sessions, Evans left Davis's group to begin his career as a leader, forming a jazz trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. The three of them would work across both traditional jazz standards and original compositions, with an added emphasis on interplay among themselves. This musical kinship spanned over two studio albums and two live albums recorded at the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City, only to be cut short by LaFaro's tragic death in a car accident.

For as much as Sunday at the Village Vanguard is billed as a performance of Bill Evans and his trio, the track selections for this record were deliberately made by Evans as a tribute to LaFaro. Not only is this record bookended with two of Lafaro's striking original compositions, "Gloria's Step" (Take 2) and "Jade Visions" (Take 2), but the rest of the chosen covers were the best showcase of the young prodigy's eclectic soloing and countermelodic basslines. That's not to say Evans took a backseat; rather, the three of them played well off each other in such synchronicity. Evans made the most out of his block chords and modal inflections, and Paul Motian effectively utilized drum brushes on the quieter moments while modulating towards thunderous bombast on cuts like Miles Davis's "Solar" and the sprawling take on Sammy Fain's theme for the Alice in Wonderland film.

Would it have been nice to have had the entire Village Vanguard performance packaged in one album? Sure, it would have. But as a curated experience of what was considered the brightest and best of Bill Evans's short-lived trio, I'd say this record hits it out of the park.

Jazz

Background jazz...really unremarkable. 2/5

The piano does what you'd expect in a jazz trio, but the drums and especially the bass go way beyond expectations, going nuts, frankly. Group improvisation premised on deep listening, counter melodic interactions and constant manipulation of rhythm and harmony - goes way beyond a rhythm section supporting a soloist. 40 minutes of virtuoso bass playing isn't for everyone, but if it's your jam this is fucking marmalade!