The year is not half-over yet, but this could very well be the jazz release-from-the-vaults of 2016. The folks at Resonance, particularly musical sleuth Zev Feldman, have upped the ante with this beautifully produced and presented gem of a previously unknown, never-before released studio date by the great pianist Bill Evans. Not only does it feature Evans at the height of his prowess as an interpreter of jazz standards, but it’s the only studio recording made by a very special version of his trio featuring Eddie Gomez on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums.
The full title of this release is Some Other Time: The Lost Session From the Black Forest. It was recorded on June 20, 1968, by legendary German jazz producers Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer and Joachim-Ernst Berendt. It was released for Record Store Day in a special limited-edition hand-numbered two-LP set as well as a deluxe two-CD set and a digital edition.
This trio existed only for about six months in 1968. Producer Berendt heard them play at the Montreux Jazz Festival that year (a performance that was released by Verve), and invited them to record at his noted studio in Villingen, Germany. Evans was under contract to another label at the time, and because all the necessary permissions could not be obtained, this recording was not released at the time and sat in the vaults for nearly 50 years. Feldman found out about the recording when he met a member of the Brunner-Schwer family in 2013, and spent the next two-plus years working to get it released.
Original plans in 1968 called for a one-disc release, but when Feldman listened to all of the recordings he knew they all deserved to be heard. He was right. Other than two numbers (“Baubles, Bangles and Beads” and “What Kind Of Fool Am I?”) that appear as different takes on both discs, and alternate takes of “You’re Gonna Hear From Me” on disc two, it’s a varied program of nearly 20 straight-ahead songs, blues and ballads.
And although it is no surprise that an ensemble of these three stellar names plays so tightly and intuitively, it’s still a marvel the way they do. Gomez of course played bass with Evans for many years, but DeJohnette only briefly sat at the skins with them. Though he’s better known as one of the leading names in free jazz, he shows here that he knows his way around the standards and can play the brushes with great subtlety.
Highlights? It’s pretty hard to beat the lead tracks on each disc, “You Go To My Head” on disc one and “You’re Gonna Hear From Me” on disc two. Evans works his usual magic on both of these upbeat tunes while his rhythm section does just what Evans looked for in his players, which is to be active contributors themselves rather than just backers. Elsewhere, the two are up to the challenge of Evans’s own “Walkin’ Up,” one of the faster and more percussive versions of this I’ve heard.
The album is, as usual, beautifully presented in a double-fold digi-pak containing the two discs and a 40-page booklet that has an essay by jazz writer Marc Myers, interviews by Feldman with Gomez and DeJohnette, full documentation and lots of great photos. And the music itself is gorgeously rendered. As I said, one of the historic jazz releases of the year. Resonance hits the mark again. Here’s a mini-documentary about the album that’ll give you some idea of how great it sounds.
(Resonance, 2016)
