Good quality music is timeless. I guess that goes without
\nsaying. After all, if it weren’t true, why do we still listen to
\nsome of classical music’s greats like Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin
\neven today?<\/p>\n
But it still amazes me, even after all this time, when I pick up
\nan album that is 10, 20, or even 30 years old, and it sounds as
\nfresh now as it did back then. Case in point –
\nNew Jazz Conceptions<\/i>, the debut of Bill Evans as a
\nbandleader – and a disc which is, as of this writing, 46 years old.
\nOne of the great misunderstood geniuses of jazz, Evans creates a
\ncollection of tunes here which is an excellent primer to his vast
\ndiscography. (Full disclosure: I am reviewing this via MP3 – albeit<\/p>\n
legal<\/i> MP3 files from EMusic.)<\/p>\n
Maybe the reason that this particular disc enthralls me is it
\nreminds me of the work Vince Guaraldi did with his trio. But this
\nsession even pre-dates Guaraldi – and though I admittedly don’t
\nknow enough about jazz to call Evans a pioneer in this particular
\nstyle of be-bop, he is one of the trailblazers who helped to shape
\nthe genre at a unique time in its history. (One noticeable
\ndifference – with all due respect to Guaraldi – is that Evans’s
\nplaying is much cleaner.)<\/p>\n
Working with bassist Teddy Kotick and drummer Paul Motian, Evans
\ngives each musician room to shine and to take their instruments
\ninto their own circles of achievement, but there is no doubt who is
\nthe star of
\nNew Jazz Conceptions<\/i>. Throughout the 12 songs that make up
\nthis disc (including two versions of “No Cover, No Minimum”), Evans
\nputs together some piano runs that, on their own, would sound
\ndischordant, but when blended together create some of the most
\nbeautiful noise I’ve heard in a long time.<\/p>\n
Evans (who died in 1980) and the remainder of the trio are able
\nto tackle full-force breakout jazz (“Five,” “I Love You,”
\n“Conception”) and ballad (“No Cover, No Minimum”, “Easy Living”)
\nand make all the stylistic shifts sound as effortless as walking
\ndown a hill. (I will admit to liking the first take of “No Cover,
\nNo Minimum” a little more – including what I perceived as Evans
\nthrowing in a quick lick from “Mexican Hat Dance”.) The energy this
\ntrio had, combined with their sheer musicianship, made it seem like
\nthey would be a tough act to follow – though Evans (like a mentor
\nof his, Miles Davis) would make a career of putting together some
\nincredible groups. No surprise, then, that Davis would pick Evans
\nto join his Sextet a little more than a year later.<\/p>\n
The only time that the energy seems to sag a bit is on the rare
\noccasion when Evans performs a piece solo. It’s not that Evans
\nisn’t capable of handling things on his own, but tracks like “I Got
\nIt Bad (And That Ain’t Good)” and “Waltz For Debby” almost scream
\nfor fleshing out with the full band. Thankfully, Evans keeps these
\nmoments (some would call them “interludes” nowadays) under two
\nminutes, but it is enough to break up the energy the trio was
\noutputting.<\/p>\n
Still, this is a minor quibble, and
\nNew Jazz Conceptions<\/i> remains a disc I would steer people to
\nwho want to learn about Evans as both a musician and a bandleader.
\nThe journey through Evans’s discography is a long one, but this is
\na great first step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6751],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-37410","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-bill-evans","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37410"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37410"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}