Bill Evans - Interplay [2011 SHM SACD UCGO-9018][FLAC]
Release Date: 1962
Duration: 45:27
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Modal Music, Cool, Jazz Instrument, Piano Jazz, Saxophone Jazz
Recording Date: July 16 & 17, 1962
Track Listing:
01 You And The Night And The Music Howard Dietz/Arthur Schwartz 07:04
02 When You Wish upon a Star Leigh Harline/Ned Washington 05:45
03 I'll Never Smile Again Ruth Lowe 06:34
05 Interplay Bill Evans 08:14
06 You Go to My Head J. Fred Coots/Haven Gillespie 05:06
07 Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams Harry Barris/Ted Koehler/Billy Moll 06:24
The Quintet:
Bill Evans Piano
Jim Hall Guitar
Percy Heath Bass
Freddie Hubbard Trumpet
Philly Joe Jones Drums
AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek:
Interplay stands as some of Bill Evans' most enigmatic and unusual music in makeup as well as execution. It was recorded in July 1962 with a very young Freddie Hubbard from the Jazz Messengers, guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Philly Joe Jones performing five veteran standards. Evans has a more blues-based approach to playing: harder, edgier, and in full flow, fueled in no small part by Hall, who is at his very best here, swinging hard whether it be a ballad or an uptempo number. Hubbard's playing, on the other hand, was never so restrained as it was here. Using a mute most of the time, his lyricism is revealed to jazz listeners for the first time -- with Art Blakey it was a blistering attack of hard bop aggression. On this program of standards, however, Hubbard slips into them quite naturally without the burden of history -- check his reading and improvisation on "When You Wish Upon a Star." Ironically, it's on the sole original, the title track, where the band in all its restrained, swinging power can be best heard, though the rest is striking finger-popping hard bop jazz, with stellar crystalline beauty in the ballads.