These latest additions to Resonance’s live albums of Bill Evans are issued separately but simultaneously, no doubt because they commemorate the pianist’s only two visits to Buenos Aires. Despite the changing politics of Argentina and the resulting tensions described in the notes, both concerts were stage-managed by the same engineer who happily made tapes that were tacitly approved by Evans and his manager Helen Keane. They were subsequently released without any such approval on the Argentine label Yellow Note and by West Wind and others, but Resonance’s sound quality as well as their overall presentation makes these versions far superior.

The differences in Evans’ own circumstances are not unduly emphasised in the notes, though in 1973 he was in a relatively good place psychologically, while in 1979 (less than a year before his death) he was much less so. But the ebullience of the earlier date isn’t aurally distinguishable from the later desperation, for they both result in exceptional displays of technique and invention – often in lengthy solo introductions that are sometimes almost as abstract as Erroll Garner’s, the longest being the nearly eight minutes preceding the 1979 ‘Nardis’. The two regular rhythm-sections are of course highly competent and attuned to each other and to the pianist, while a feature of the 1973 concert is Gomez doing a couple of solos with the bow, including alternating choruses with Morell’s brushes on ‘My Romance’.

Interestingly, there are only two duplications of repertoire between these concerts, while each event includes one Latin-American song standard, which was not Evans’ usual bag. Several song-titles that were inaccurately identified on the bootlegs are corrected in the listings here, yet the descriptive note of the 1979 album confusingly refers to four tracks by their earlier wrong names. But that’s a small problem when set alongside the wonderful music that ensues.