The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 | 
 enlarge | Artist: Bill Evans
Label: Riverside
Category: Music
List Price: $29.98
Buy New: $16.89
You Save: $13.09 (44%)
New (35) Used (11) from $14.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 1294
Format: Live, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5.1 x 1.5
MPN: 4443
UPC: 025218444323
EAN: 0025218444323
ASIN: B000AMJEKA
Release Date: September 13, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new, factory sealed. Fast shipping!
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Spoken Introduction | | • | Gloria's Step (Take 1, Interupted)(First U.S. Release) | | • | Alice In Wonderland | | • | My Foolish Heart | | • | All Of You (Take 1) | | • | Announcement And Intermission | | • | My Romance (Take 1) | | • | Some Other Time | | • | Solar |
Disc 2
| • | Gloria's Step (Take 2) | | • | My Man's Gone Now | | • | All Of You (Take 2) | | • | Detour Ahead (Take 1) | | • | Discussion Repertoire | | • | Waltz For Debby (Take 1) | | • | Alice In Wonderland (Take 2) | | • | Porgy (I Loves You, Porgy) | | • | My Romance (Take 2) | | • | Milestones |
Disc 3
| • | Detour Ahead (Take 2) | | • | Gloria's Step (Take3) | | • | Waltz For Debby (Take 2) | | • | All Of You (Take 3) | | • | Jade Visions (Take 1) | | • | Jade Visions (Take 2) | | • | ...A Few Final Bars |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Bill Evans, with virtuoso bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, reinvented the jazz piano trio, creating stunning contrapuntal dialogues that merged luminous lyricism with layers of complex, elusive harmonies, its moments of limpid beauty suddenly giving way to surging rhythms. The trio's finest recorded moments, these performances were captured just 10 days before LaFaro's death in a car accident. The original releases--Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby--are celebrated masterpieces. This three-CD set is a brilliant reissue--almost a revision--of that material, with superb sound from the newly remastered original tapes and all of the music presented in the sequence of the original five sets, adding a previously unissued take of "Gloria's Step," spoken introductions, and the band's incidental conversation. For those who know this music, it's a chance to hear it in a fresh way; for new listeners, it will come as a revelation at a bargain price. --Stuart Broomer
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
Don't assume you've heard it until now May 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Even though I had the two original Riverside LP's and two later CD's purporting to contain remastered essentials from the session, Amazon's price for the latest three-disc collection was too attractive to pass up. After listening to the three discs in sequence, I now question if I even heard what was on the previous recordings. This is at once stunning and immeasurably satisfying music, LaFaro and Evans "in the moment" as never before, their empathy, individual genius, and shared quest of discovery brought to vivid realization for the listener. Not until his final trio with bassist Marc Johnson would the pianist again approach such a level of artistry, but there would be no possibility of a return to the moment of incipient splendor. This may be the greatest value on Amazon, but there's no way to put a price on the music herein. Even if you've limited or stopped purchasing the endangered CD (now apparently going the way of the LP), this one had better be the exception. Forget the download. Both you and Bill deserve better.
WARNING (read the directions): Shortly into the first track, "Gloria's Step," there's an audio drop-out that sounds like some flawed CDs that I've purchased. I requested a replacement from Amazon before reading the enclosed booklet. The one-second gap of silence is a technical glitch or power failure with the Ampex tape recorder, captured just as it transpired (or momentarily expired) on that Sunday afternoon, June 25, 1961.
Warning #2: Listen to "All of You," Take 1 (which moreover was rejected!). Comparing it to Jarrett's version will only convince you that jazz piano has regressed over the past 30 years. Same with Mehldau, or just about any new pianist, however "original." Bill was sui generis. He can become old, at times stale, during the vast "middle period." But on these sets (and anything pre-1961) as well as his last 18 months (1979-80), his music can be more inexhaustibly satisfying than 2000 of my best CDs. In fact, no other artist's music is required (though I guess I would miss Diz, Stitt, and Hank Mobley).
No Bill like this Bill May 3, 2008
I can give you a book full of reasons why, if you are into jazz, or into piano, or into music in general, you need to buy this set of recordings. Suffice to say, Bill Evans was the peak, the bee's knees, the top of the pole in his time, and this captures some of his brightest and best moments, all in one collection. Delightful tunes, both standards and not so, and alternate takes that shed light on the music making process and the insight that Bill brought to his music. You will read or hear about other jazz pianists who are billed as "the next Bill Evans", or who are "as good as Bill Evans", but whatever, number one: don't believe it, and number two: buy and listen to this set to see what "they" are talking about. This is a wonderful piece of jazz history, and you can have it in your home as fast as the UPS truck can get there. If you prefer studio versions to live, you can get Waltz for Debby or Portrait in Jazz, but be warned that they'll probably make you want to buy this set anyway.
Yep, it's THAT good... November 2, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Occasionally I read a review on Amazon and then order the item - and wonder what planet the people who gave it high marks are living on. Not so for this gem. This is the REAL DEAL. Others have been far more eloquent than I could ever hope to be in explaining WHY it's so good. Let me simply say this: I've got a half a gazillion jazz recordings and this rates right up there with the very best of them. It's just really good music, really well recorded. And, at this price, it's a truly great deal as well. You won't be disappointed.
The quintessential trio at their peak September 14, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Jazz piano heaven.
This is the long-awaited full day of music from all the various Village Vanguard releases over the years. Every note is here, as well as some between songs chatter. The various takes of various songs add up to a master class in piano and bass improvising; LaFaro died shortly after this day and Evans was never the same. Thankfully, we have this sublime music from their unique interplay at its apex.
This is a great buy; over two and a half hours of transcendent jazz in perfectly remastered sound for twenty bucks (and you can then burn all the music onto two cds, it just fits; you'll never get angry during rush hour again with this music playing). It truly sounds fabulous, much finer than the earlier cds of this material, warm and immediate. It's so real that the chatter of folks in the quiet moments often makes me think there's someone else in the room with me (and how can they talk while this music is being played? Some folks just don't know good music even when they're sitting beside the piano).
My only qualm is the endless bass soloing. Yes, LaFaro was a very musical and sensitive player, but I just can't take the minutes-long excursions on almost every tune. It's a monophonic instrument, and frankly even LaFaro gets boring to my ears, especially when one of the all-time piano geniuses is sitting unused three feet away. Scott's genius was how he pushed Bill to play at his outer limits while creating superb counterpoint to Evans' ideas; the bass soloing sounds nice once every three tunes or so, but I just find it boring after a while; the bass is not a solo instrument that excites me. But, each to his own!
Some Evans fans consider this date his ultimate moment. It's certainly one of them, but there are so many gems it's hard to pick just one. Suffice to say that alongside Portrait In Jazz, Know What I Mean, Moonbeams, Everybody Digs, Undercurrent, the Keystone dates in 1980, the Paris Concert, the solo albums, and oh, a handful of others, it's glorious proof that Evans was one of the finest pianists, jazz, classical or otherwise, to grace this planet.
A must in any jazz library.
This is incredible! August 7, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This has become one of my favorite jazz recordings. I never heard the original vinyl, but, even if there was extensive processing and restoration, here, you won't believe the quality of this recording. Kudos to the original engineers. With that out of the way, Bill Evans is impeccable, and I'd never heard of Scott LaFaro (on bass), but he really rocks here. I could (and do) listen to this set over and over again.
Six stars!
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