Dr. Bob Prescribes Bill Evans: Alone

Posted by Robert Greenberg on Tuesday, July 16th, 2024

As I know I’ve already mentioned, since I turned 70 this past April, I’ve decided to stop worrying about repeating myself.

So here I go again.

Asking me to name my favorite music, or favorite composer, or favorite performer is something of a waste of time, as I tend to be most in love with whatever/whomever I’ve just been listening to. Besides, at this point of my life, I rarely listen to music just for pleasure. Rather, I’m typically listening to the music I’m writing about or preparing to lecture about.

However, there is an exception to this work-related listening – when I actually listen to music for the sheer pleasure of it – and that’s when I’m in my car. Consequently, if someone really wants to know what I’ve been listening to by choice – and by extension, what music is currently giving me the most pleasure – I merely need to be asked what’s in the CD player of my 2017 Toyota Highlander/Dadmobile.

Bill Evans (right) in 1968 with his impossibly great trio; at left, Eddie Gomez (bass; born 1944) and at center, Jack DeJohnette (drums; born 1942). I swear to you, listening to music gets no better than when these three are playing together!

Answer: 99% of the time, it’s jazz piano. And for the last 18 months (or so), it’s been almost exclusively albums featuring Bill Evans (1929-1980) playing solo, or with the guitarist Jim Hall as a duo, or with various of his trios.

Bill Evans is no stranger to my Patreon posts. Music History Monday for August 16, 2021 – which appeared on the anniversary of his birth on August 16, 1929 – offered up a biographical sketch of his all-too-brief and all-too-troubled life. Dr. Bob Prescribes for March 2, 2021, offered up a rave recommendation for the Bill Evans Trio’s “Village Vanguard Sessions,” recorded live at New York City’s Village Vanguard on June 25, 1961. I said it then and I’ll say it now: that double album – featuring Bill Evans on piano, Scott LaFaro on bass, and Paul Motian on drums – must be considered among the greatest jazz recordings of all time. Dr. Bob Prescribes for June 22, 2021, fawned over the two albums Evans made with Tony Bennett: The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album (on Fantasy, recorded, June 10 – 15, 1975); and Tony Bennett & Bill Evans: Together Again (on Rhino Records, recordedSeptember 27-30, 1976).

So here we go again: more Bill Evans. How lucky we are.…

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