This reissue does an outstanding job of reducing noise from the master tapes — now well over fifty years old — without sacrificing musical detail. At times, Evans and Hall go for broke on a hard-swinging romps, yet it’s their implied melancholy and drifting, softly struck melodic refrains on waltzes and ballads that bestows Undercurrent with a nuanced romanticism and whispered atmosphere befitting the record’s title. The first of two meetings on record in a duo format with guitarist Jim Hall, the collaborations are often exquisite. But there was a danger attached to their proposed recording; as Peter Pettinger points out in his Bill Evans biography, How My Heart Sings, both the guitar and piano are chordal instruments and a duet presented the risk of overcrowding and acoustic collision.

Whether it owes to the intimate pairing, he and Halls' brotherly chemistry, or the exquisite selection of program material, the results consistently come across as the equivalent of a private meditation, such is the level of introspective depth and quietly shaded interplay throughout. The pleasure of these eight cuts (two of them previously unreleased, all of them recorded over two days in the spring of 1962 in New York) lies in the sense of overhearing a private conversation between two particularly thoughtful people.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has been the undisputed pioneer and leader in audiophile recordings since the company's inception in 1977. They were part of a circle of musicians in New York in the early sixties, centred on George Russell, and including Jimmy Giuffre and Gil Evans, all united in a common aesthetic. I've wanted this record for a long time, but it's not easy to find in the used bins in clean condition, and this is a reasonably quiet pressing (although by no means silent).

Other than four piano solos from April 4, 1962, this set was pianist Bill Evans' first recordings after a hiatus caused by bassist Scott LaFaro's tragic death in a car accident.DOL do not indicate the source of their recordings, but on my system this LP, and the others I have, sound much like older CDs. Note that the DOL cover is not black and white but has a blue tint, as in the Blue Note reissue of 1988, but with no lettering.

However, those were big band albums and had no space at all for any real interaction between the pianist and guitarist. LondonJazz is a not-for profit venture, but may occasionally take on work as a paid publicist and/or sell advertising packages. Bill Evans catapulted to the top of the jazz world in June 1961 after reeling off three straight masterpiece sessions at New York’s Village Vanguard with his trio. We will introduce you exclusively to Duologi finance products provided by Specialist Lending Ltd t/a Duologi through the Deko platform.Some reissues include four bonus tracks, including two alternate takes and previously unheard versions of "Stairway to the Stars" and "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You.

In tackling standards such as Rodgers and Hart's ' My Funny Valentine ' and the Broadway classic ' Darn That Dream ' as well as the Hall original ' Romain ', the pair traverses complex harmonies with the astute elegance of a figure skater. While Evans managed to sit down for a few one-off takes between LaFaro’s passing and these April-May 1962 dates, he largely remained on hiatus and abstained from recording. As Hall's solo gets under way Evans provides a pointillistic background that grows in intensity, urging on the guitarist, who replies with increasing heat before passing things off to Evans and getting into some spirited comping of his own. If you love jazz, you need this easy -to-listen-to, let's relax with a drink and have some ear candy. In his November 26, 1962 review for DownBeat magazine jazz critic Pete Welding states: "This collaboration between Evans and Hall has resulted in some of the most beautiful, thoroughly ingratiating music it has been my pleasure to hear.My favourite pieces at the moment are Evans' own composition "Romain", which is an extraordinarily melancholy piece of NY bedsit music. Yet the emotional highs came to a screeching halt shortly thereafter when bassist Scott LaFaro died in a car accident. Throughout its history, Mobile Fidelity has remained true to this goal, pioneering state-of-the-art technologies and setting audiophile standards that remain in place today.