 Bill Evans The Verve Master Edition reissue of Bill Evans' Conversations With Myself is an amazing thing: the rare jazz "headphones" album. Evans recorded the album by using overdubbing to approximate a "band" from three pianos … and that's a pretty good band. "Featuring Bill Evans (piano), Bill Evans (piano), and Bill Evans (piano, except on track 4)." The only way they could ruin that group would be to throw in the other Bill Evans (the sax player) on sax, although they could salvage that by putting Bill Kurtis on vocals. Conversations With Myself is a true classic, one that reveals a lot with repeated listens, and one that is just plain great to hear no matter when you put it on. The pianos are panned left, center, and right, allowing you to really hear what Evans was going for. It's not like my 4-track tapes where I just put a piano and vocal on every track, so you end up with the general effect of eight babies locked in a music practice room, but rather a very careful interplay between the "three" players. Evans listens to each piano and adds accentuations and lines that serve the songs, approaching one track as a "lead" track, and the others as support. Few players could pull this off without it sounding like Liberace, but Bill Evans is certainly one of the most sensitive and intelligent pianists ever to play, and his introspective nature finds great outlet here. The tunes generally tend toward thoughtful ballads, although there are some spirited ones as well. Monk's "Round Midnight" opens things up, a brilliant exploration of the song and an all-time great piano performance. Monk himself would probably have loved it had he not been so busy muttering to himself all the time. Now there's a missed opportunity: Thelonious Monk Muttering To Myself. I'll pay upwards of $60,000 to the first alternate-reality salvage crew to bring me that one on CD. Next, "How About You?," one of the uptempo tunes, strongly reminiscent of Evans' trio work… you remember it having bass and drums although it's all piano. Great stuff, even some striding. Track three: "Spartacus Love Theme" which is beautiful and perfectly suited to Evans' style. Another classic. It's pretty much all classic, as a matter of fact. "Blue Monk," another Monk tune, is the only track that features two pianos, although it hardly sounds "too sparse." The harmonies in that song would get a little out of hand with three pianos. Thank God Monk wasn't born with thirty fingers. "Stella By Starlight," another favorite of Evans' (made famous by Miles Davis), is very introspective and beautiful. "Hey, There" is another standard, very fine, although a bit samey in the flow of the album. Almost has a piano-bar feel to it, actually. "N.Y.C's No Lark" is the sole Evans original on the album (and an anagram of "Sonny Clark" who had died shortly before this was recorded) and is one of the many highlights. Bluesy, sort of sad, sort of angry, gives you the feeling of drowning a whole lot of sorrow at the piano bar introduced in the previous track. Hazy and with a bit of an edge, it's another classic performance. The album proper closes with track 8, "Just You, Just Me," an uptempo strider very much in the spirit of Monk but also recalling Art Tatum. Two bonus tracks are included, "Bemsha Swing" and "A Sleepin' Bee," recorded around the same time as the other tracks but not included on the original LP. The former is sort of what I'd imagine of Franz Liszt doing a piano transcription of a big-band arrangement of Monk's warhorse, the latter is unashamed prettiness that makes a perfect closer to the disc. And I just noticed in the liner notes that "A Sleepin' Bee" was cowritten by Truman Capote, although I think we can all be glad he never recorded an album – though now that I think about it I'd be curious to hear Capote doing "A Sleepin' Bee" set to a sweaty disco beat during the drugged-out "54" years. The sum is equal to and greater than its parts. Conversations With Myself is a great jazz disc, a great piano disc, and an all-around interesting disc, one of the best, most unique albums around. For the spendthrifts in the audience, this album is also included in its entirety on the 18-CD Complete Bill Evans on Verve, on which it is paired with Trio 64, another entry in the Bill Evans Top 5 at 5 (whoa, I'd love to find that radio station). Chalk this one up on the list of things made in 1964 that make "I Want to Hold Your Hand" look very stupid.
Review by Sweaty Prince |