This dovetails neatly with other recent reissues of probably the most influential pianist of the past half-century: namely, the 1961 Village Vanguard material, his 1962 Interplay quintet sessions (see Jazzwise 188) and his collaborations with Cannonball Adderley (Jazzwise 185). The hugely impressive output of the early Evans, from New Jazz Conceptions to the co-led Empathy with Shelly Manne, certainly benefits from being heard end-to-end, showing that the energetic and percussive late-1950s touch was still discernible as his career progressed. A small reservation is that the three short solo tracks of the first album (including the debut of ‘Waltz For Debby’) are grouped together at the end, although the two solos from the next album Everybody Digs (the fantastic ‘Peace Piece’ is one) are correctly surrounded by trio material. The booklet note (which also includes reproductions of the issued notes for the seven albums) makes mention of the brief January 1959 session not released till much later, and of course there are some alternate takes not here – but the crucial ‘Autumn Leaves’ is the ‘right’ version, and the Explorations version of ‘The Boy Next Door’ (also not originally released) is included. Speaking of ‘Autumn Leaves’, the audio quality of Portrait In Jazz further puts to shame the recent AvidJazz reissue (Jazzwise 187), and generally the sound here is acceptable and reasonably consistent.