Search - Bill Evans :: Sunday at the Village Vanguard: Keepnews Coll

ULTIMATE CLASSIC TRIO

DAVID HALL | USA | 10/24/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There was some kind of Creative Harmonic Convergence that Jazz was the recipient of during the brief time The Bill Evans Trio,(Bill Evans (Piano), Scott LaFaro (Bass), Paul Motian (Drums), played together. To listen to SUNDAY AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD is to become aware of a chemistry, a creative fire present in this trio. A fire that is timeless. The music on this c.d. sounds as fresh and exciting today as the moment it was expressed through these three musical artists. Sometimes I wonder how Scott LaFaro might have evolved musically. There is no doubt of his connsumate gifts as a bassist. He seems to me to be exploding with musical expression. Wonder if he had the chance to develop further whether there might have come into his playing less busyness, more economy, silence. Somehow Bill Evans had that quality from the very beginning. I've never had a pianist affect me the way Bill Evans always has. Especially the ballads. This album is mostly up tempo, and yet I love it for the same reason I do the ballads. It seems to me that Bill Evans played from his heart and soul, and that he penetrated into such a depth in this region of his own being, that his heart and soul becomes the heart and soul of the listener, in this instance - my own. Paul Motian's exquisite, understated and refined playing was the perfect support and complement for the trio. This is the trio against which all others have been and will continue to be measured. To listen to this album is to be touched by PERFECTION."