Portrait in jazz

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Portrait in jazz
Studio album by Bill Evans

Publication
(s)

1960

Label (s) Riverside

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

9/11/13

running time

52:10 (CD)

occupation

production

Bill Grauer , Orrin Keepnews

Studio (s)

Reeves Sound Studios / New York

chronology
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
(1959) 		Portrait in jazz Explorations
(1961)

Portrait in Jazz is a jazz album by Bill Evans , recorded in New York City on December 28, 1959 , and released in 1960 by Riverside Records .

The album

The album Portrait in Jazz was the pianist's third album under his own name and his first with his legendary trio of bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian after the debut New Jazz Conceptions (1956), on which Motian had already participated, and Everybody Digs Bill Evans , which he recorded for Riverside Records the year before. It came about half a year after the recordings for Miles Davis ' album Kind of Blue , in which Bill Evans was a key figure. The Evans biographer wrote: “After this album it became more and more imperative for Evans that not a larger formation with wind instruments, but the piano trio had to be the ideal line-up for his musical future - creativity, as he understood it, was easier there realize. And so the search for the right bass and drum partner began in mid-1959. ”After trying things out with Jimmy Garrison and Kenny Davis in New York's Basin Street East jazz club, Evans discovered the young Scott LaFaro, who had previously worked with Chet Baker , in a neighboring club and had become known through recordings with Buddy DeFranco , Stan Getz and Marty Paich . After the engagement in Basin Street East Evans moved with LaFaro in a jazz club called Showplace; it was the ideal trio for Evans when the drummer Paul Motian finally joined them. Evans biographer Hanns E. Petrik quotes Evans' views on Scott LaFaro: “His virtuosity amazed me - there was so much music in him; he just had trouble getting her under control. I helped him keep his enthusiasm. It was a wonderful thing and worth all the effort we made to overcome our own ego and work for a common cause. "

In October 1959 the trio went into the studio together for the first time - they accompanied Tony Scott on his album Sung Heroes ; in December the recordings for Portrait in Jazz were made . This album "was at the beginning of a development which then - via the next studio album Explorations in February 1961 - led to the recordings that were to become the high point for the trio at the end of June 1961.", namely their appearance at the New York jazz club Village Vanguard , released on the albums Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard .

For his album, Evans chose a repertoire from common jazz standards such as Cole Porter's “ What Is This Thing Called Love? ”, Johnny Mercer's “ Come Rain or Come Shine ”and“ Autumn Leaves ”, the Disney hit“ Someday My Prince Will Come ”or the title“ When I Fall in Love ”. In addition, there was his composition " Blue in Green ", which Evans had recorded a few months earlier with Davis on the Kind of Blue album at Davis. For the first time Evans recorded the composition "Peri's Scope".

Rating of the album

At that time Don DeMichael wrote on Down Beat : “Evans has the ability to transform standard pieces that are often heard into musical treasures. The listener begins to wonder whether these are really the same pieces that he kept listening to over the years. You get the impression that this man is speaking through his instrument and wants to convey something very personal to the listener ”. Even Brian Priestley sets it in Jazz Rough Guide from the circumferential Evans Discography out and mentioned the brilliant ensemble playing "Autumn Leaves" and his version of "Blue in Green", which can withstand the comparison with the Miles Davis version.
In the All Music Guide , Thom Jurek called the portrait in Jazz “a jewel” and gave it the highest grade. The first of the two studio albums by Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian contain moments of fantastic interaction, especially between pianist Evans and bassist LaFaro, as on the two versions of "Autumn Leaves". Although the album - except for "Peri's Scope" and "Blue in Green" - only contains standards, it is far from being routine. LaFaro and Motian acted as equal partners in titles such as Come Rain or Come Shine, When I Fall in Love and Someday My Prince Will Come; their game is rich in subtle and surprising creativity.
Richard Cook and Brian Morton also gave the album the highest rating in the Penguin Guide to Jazz and emphasized the enormous sensitivity of Scott LaFaro.
The Evans biographer Hanns E. Petrik wrote: “Evans presented himself as a creative and powerful pianist (...) the amazing teamwork of the musicians surprised many listeners of the record; The trio served standard pieces in such a refined and concise form that even today experts are convinced that they could hardly be played better (at best differently) - such as the versions of 'Someday My Prince Will Come' or 'What Is This Thing Called Love 'or the ballads' Spring Is Here' and 'Blue in Green'. “. He quotes the American music critic Don Heckman : “I don't know any other musician who - in such close contact with his instrument - is able to express himself as perfectly as Evans. Above all, his great timing is impressive. With an unmistakable feeling he hits the moment when every note has to fall and places it so skilfully that it achieves the greatest possible rhythmic effect; his solo on 'Someday My Prince Will Come' is simply masterful ”.

The titles

  • Bill Evans: Portrait in Jazz (Riverside RLP 12-315)
  1. Come Rain or Come Shine take 5 ( Harold Arlen , Johnny Mercer ) - 3:19
  2. Autumn Leaves take 9 - ( Joseph Kosma , Jacques Prévert , Mercer) - 5:23
  3. Witchcraft ( Cy Coleman , Carolyn Leigh ) - 4:30
  4. When I Fall in Love ( Victor Young , Edward Heyman ) - 4:52
  5. Peri's Scope (Bill Evans) - 3:10
  6. What Is This Thing Called Love? ( Cole Porter ) - 4:32
  7. Spring is Here ( Richard Rodgers , Lorenz Hart ) - 5:02
  8. Someday My Prince Will Come ( Frank Churchill , Larry Morey ) - 4:50
  9. Blue in Green take 3 ( Miles Davis , Evans) - 5:20

“Autumn Leaves” take 1 was mixed instead of take 9 on the US stereo edition of Portrait in Jazz (Riverside RLP 1162, 1960).
Both versions of "Autumn Leaves" as well as another title "Blue In Green" take 2 appeared in the mid-1980s on the Fantasy / OJC CD (OJCCD 088-2). Two more alternate takes were added
to the Portrait in Jazz - Keepnews Collection (Riverside RCD 30678) , "Come Rain Or Come Shine" take 4 and "Blue In Green" take 1 .

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Petrik, p. 25.
  2. ↑ Quoted from Petrik, s. 27.
  3. ↑ Quoted from Petrik, p. 29.
  4. ↑ Quoted from Petrik, p. 27.
  5. ↑ after Priestley, p. 199.
  6. ^ Review in the All Music Guide
  7. ↑ Cook / Morton, 6th edition, p. 480 f.
  8. ↑ Petrik, p. 107 f.
  9. ↑ Heckman, cit. after Petrik, p. 108.

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