Search - Bill Evans :: Quintessence

Quintessence is aptly named! Ten Stars!! **********

Steven Katz | 01/19/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Quintessence is the album I would choose to listen to of all others if I was told, "you have one jazz album to select if stranded on a desert isle" -- or for life! Evans breaks from many of his standards, and from the group of people he played with for longer stretches, and comes up with an absolute beauty. Don't buy another jazz album until you have bought Quintessence. You will want to buy a copy for every jazz friend!"

Essence of Evans

J. Thomas | Out on the Lost Highway | 11/29/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tour de Force with some of jazz's greatest musicians. Kenny Burrell, Ray Brown, Bill Evans, Philly Joe Jones. Plenty of Bill on the keys and Ray on the bass strings. Quintessence sounds slightly like Vince Guaraldi's band but with more force and greater repetoire. This is a special album and a must for fans of Bill Evans or fans of the other fine musicians present here."

The LAST Evans album you need

K. Swanson | Austin, TX United States | 09/14/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this on the recommendation of the two other reviews here, and I've got to say it's by far the weakest and most boring Bill Evans album I own, of about forty. Buy it at your own risk; almost any other official Evans recording is more exciting and interesting than Quintessence.



The line-up is great, but it sounds like everyone phoned their performances in. I never thought Evans could make an elevator-jazz record, but here it is. It's smooth jazz, Evans-style, which is still decent, but hardly real Bill Evans jazz (which is some of the sweetest music ever made, to my ears). The sound is good, but the soul is weak.



For anyone else, this might have been a decent if uneventful outing; for Evans, it's a nadir. By his standards, this is a true stinker. Little emotion or fire from anyone, muted interplay, and the overall feeling that they were all up the whole night before partying, then remembered at dawn they had a session at noon.



Bass Face has some good moments, but compared to Evans' other work, this would be the worst track on most of his albums.



At first I thought it was that I wasn't listening properly; it happens to us all, great music can sometimes not hit you immediately. But, after repeated tries in various settings and states of mind, I can affirm my initial impression: booooooorinnnnngggggg. Even his normally fiery interplay with Jones is missing. This was a weak period for Evans, just before his renaissance for the last few years before his death, and his lack of commitment and inspiration is obvious if you know his other eras well.



Save your money. Quintessence is for Evans completists only. Even then, you're better off chasing bootlegs than getting this.



Two stars is by comparison to normal Evans quality. For any other group, it's a 3-star album, if a lackluster one.



No offense to those who love this record; I'm just trying to save folks some money so they can buy one of at least a couple dozen superior Evans recordings."