Exploration

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Exploration
Studio album by Bill Evans

Publication
(s)

1961

Label (s) Riverside Records

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

8/10

running time

40:55 (LP), 51:09 (CD)

occupation

production

Orrin Keepnews

Studio (s)

New York City

chronology
Portrait in Jazz
(1960) 		Exploration Waltz for Debby
(1961)

Explorations is a jazz album by Bill Evans that was recorded on February 2, 1961 in New York City and released by Riverside Records .

The album

The album Explorations was the pianist's fourth album under his own name and the second with his trio of bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian after Portrait in Jazz , which he had recorded for Riverside over a year earlier . Producer Orrin Keepnews , who is also the original liner notes written, said in the introduction, that the appearance of a Bill Evans album a rare event ( a rare event ) performing; he delivered the ambiguity of his expression immediately afterwards; Explorations is not only a work that is unusual and rarely found, but also remarkably good and excellent. At that time, the pianist had earned a high degree of recognition not only with his trio, but also through his membership in the Miles Davis Sextet and his participation in its 1959 album Kind of Blue . Despite this reputation, no further official recordings for Riverside were made in 1960; The musicians tried to keep themselves afloat financially by completing two tours through the club scene on the east and west coast of the USA in the spring of 1960. After suffering from hepatitis , Evans was back in the studio as a sideman in the fall and worked on recordings by Gunther Schuller , George Russell , Jay Jay Johnson / Kai Winding and Cannonball Adderley ( Know What I Mean? ). Finally, Keepnews decided to re-record the Bill Evans Trio and scheduled a session for February 1961. The Evans biographer Hanns E. Petrik sees it as "an excellent preparation for those recordings that would be the climax for the trio four and a half months later," namely their appearance at New York jazz club Village Vanguard , published on the albums Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard .

For his album Evans chose a repertoire that contained on the one hand common jazz standards such as Arthur Schwartz “Haunted Heart”, Irving Berlin's number “How Deep is the Ocean” or Gus Arnheim's title “Sweet and Lovely”, but also newer compositions such as John Carisis "Israel" (which the Miles Davis nonet first recorded at the Birth of the Cool sessions). In addition, the title “Elsa” by the composer Earl Zindars , who was a friend of Bill Evans and who was to become part of the pianist's permanent repertoire, was added. For the first time Evans played the composition " Nardis ", which Miles Davis had written for him, on his own album .

Rating of the album

Thom Jurek wrote in the All Music Guide , which gave Explorations the highest rating, that Evans "explored the melodic and rhythmic constructions of known material on this album in a way that no other pianist had done before him." Evans has rediscovered titles in this way that were considered hopelessly exhausted and are reinvented here, such as "How Deep Is the Ocean" and "Sweet and Lovely". With harmonic richness he expands the melodic palette of these numbers, which he brings out of oblivion and brings back into the jazz canon. In this way he also introduced the title “Haunted Heart” into the jazz repertoire, in which he creates wonderful impressionistic melodic structures, creates space and depth; this is achieved through the reluctance of Paul Motian and the expression of LaFaro's use of intervals. Jurek also highlights the interpretation of Miles Davis' composition "Nardis"; the rhythmic accompaniment of Motian and LaFaro puts Evans' game in a new context, in which LaFaro plays an important solo. Explorations is an exceptional example of the Bill Evans trio at its peak. Even Richard Cook and Brian Morton gave the album in the Penguin Guide to Jazz the highest mark and highlight the enormous sensitivity of Scott Lafaro, however, express reservations about slight inaccuracies, for which they make arguments between Evans and his bass player responsible.

The titles

  • Bill Evans: Explorations (Riverside RLP 351)
  1. Israel ( John Carisi ) - 6:10
  2. Haunted Heart (Carl Dietz, Howard Dietz , Arthur Schwartz ) - 3:25
  3. Beautiful Love take 2 ( Haven Gillespie , Wayne King , Egbert Van Alstyne , Victor Young ) - 5:04
  4. Elsa ( Earl Zindars ) - 5:09
  5. Nardis ( Miles Davis ) - 5:49
  6. How Deep Is the Ocean? ( Irving Berlin ) - 3:31
  7. I Wish I Knew ( Harry Warren , Mack Gordon ) - 4:39
  8. Sweet and Lovely ( Gus Arnheim , Jules LeMare , Harry Tobias ) - 5:52

"Beautiful Love" take 1 and "The Boy Next Door" were added as bonus tracks to some CD releases . The tracks were recorded in the same session.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Keep news, liner notes.
  2. ↑ See, Petrik, p. 29.
  3. ↑ Quoted from Petrik, p. 29.
  4. ↑ Evans recorded the first version on the Cannonball Adderley album Portrait of Cannonball on July 1, 1958.