Living time
| Living time | ||||
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| Studio album by Bill Evans and George Russell | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Columbia Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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Title (number) |
8th |
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running time |
44:56 |
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Studio (s) |
Columbia 30th Street Studio |
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Living Time is a jazz album by pianist Bill Evans with a studio orchestra under the direction of George Russell , who also contributed the compositions and arrangements . The recordings were made in New York City in May 1971 and released in 1972 on Columbia Records . The CD version of the album was first released in Japan in 1988.
background
After his contract with Verve Records ended in 1971, Bill Evans got the opportunity to record an album for the major Columbia label , The Bill Evans Album , which featured him on both electric and acoustic piano in a standard trio setting (with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell ). After this LP had received two Grammy Awards , the Columbia label provided him with a generous budget for a follow-up project; Bill Evans then commissioned the arranger and composer George Russell with a work for big band. Russell, with whom the pianist had already worked in the late 1950s ( Jazz in the Space Age ), wrote an eight-part suite that he described as "a reflection of the entire music scene of the sixties" - with elements of pop and rock , Avant-garde jazz and neoclassicism .
Columbia Records advertised Living Time as "Surprise Album of the Year" in an ad on Down Beat ; for the label it was rather "an unpleasant surprise" because the LP turned out to be a financial fiasco. Evans' contract was never renewed - the same day Ornette Coleman (after Skies of America ), Keith Jarrett ( Expectations ) and Charles Mingus ( Let My Children Hear Music ) ended their brief liaison with Columbia Records and producer Clive Davis relied more on fusion productions. Evans expressed bitterness over the decision, including how Clive Davis treated him after the Grammy Awards.
Track list
- Bill Evans, George Russell Orchestra: Living Time (Columbia - KC 31490)
A1 Event I 3:50
A2 Event II 8:22
A3 Event III 2:47
A4 Event IV 5:30
B1 Event V 11:52
B2 Event VI 4:13
B3 Event VII 2:07
B4 Event VIII 5:38
- All compositions are by George Russell.
reception
Jan Stevens stated that Living Time was generally considered to be "the strangest album" Bill Evans had ever recorded due to its "avant-garde character, strange instrument groupings and often dissonant parts." His drummer at the time Marty Morell later described the LP as "a disaster," and that this was the reason for the termination of the pianist's contract with Columbia. In his opinion, Russell would have simply taken something that he otherwise wrote for large ensembles and added a few parts for Bill Evans' trio:
- "Eddie and I - and Bill too - looked at each other with confused expressions during the recording session, as if to say, 'What's going on here?'"
- “ Eddie and I - and even Bill - kept looking at each other during the date with confused expressions as if to say 'what is going on?' ”
According to Hanns E. Petrik, Living Time contained neither “sweeping, swinging passages or even typically introverted Bill Evans play”; Instead, Russell changed the tempo, rhythm, mood and solo performances in rapid succession. On the A-side of the LP ( Event I-IV ) Evans would therefore only form a “framework role in the overall ensemble”. Only in the fifth event did the pianist have the opportunity to make an extensive contribution, partly in the midst of collective playing of several instruments. Petrik emphasizes the “progressive big band sound” in some passages, such as “the massive figures played in unison by e-bass and tuba in the second event .” Scott Yanow , who gave the album only two (out of five) stars in Allmusic awarded, said that after Russell's major albums in the late 1950s, the music on Living Time was unfortunately of little interest. In Russell's extensive and episodic work, despite the big names in the big band (including Jimmy Giuffre , Sam Rivers and Joe Henderson ), the focus is consistently on Evans' acoustic and electric piano. "The problem is that the music is a bit boring and surprisingly easy to forget." ( Rather dull and surprisingly forgettable )
Leonard Feather wrote in Contemporary Keyboard in 1980 : "Inevitably, efforts were made to convince Bill [Evans] to commercialize his style more, especially during his stint at Columbia Records where one of the directors described him as an old-fashioned pianist ." The author of the Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide gave more positive reviews ; Living Time is first and foremost "George Russell's album, an entertaining and radical use by a jazz orchestra."
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Discographic information at Discogs
- ↑ a b c David Brent Johnson: The Great Columbia Jazz Purge: Coleman, Evans, Jarrett, And Mingus (2015)
- ↑ a b Hanns E. Petrik: Bill Evans . Oreos, 1989
- ↑ Columbia published the live album Bill Evans Live in Tokyo in 1973, recorded on January 20, 1973 in trio with Eddie Gomez and Marty Morell.
- ^ Review of Scott Yanow's album on Allmusic . Retrieved July 5, 2015.
- ^ Leonard Feather: Contemporary Keyboard . December 1980
- ^ The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide . Random House, 1985