As much as I enjoy piano trio jazz, such a trio playing the predictable fare of standards in their traditional arrangements does not get me very fired up. This here record is one of those affairs, a live engagement that contains unmistakable renditions of “Autumn Leaves,” “Gone With The Wind,” “Here’s That Rainy Day,” and “My Funny Valentine.” “Yesterdays” and “Emily” are also on here….twice. So why am I stoked about this new release? Simple:
1. It’s Bill Evans, dammit.
2. It’s previously unreleased, little heard Bill Evans.
Having taken place on October 23, 1968 at Art D’Luggoff’s Top Of The Gate club in New 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 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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