Bill Evans: Three Classic Albums Plus

Rating: ★★★★

Record and Artist Details

Label:

Avid

September/2019

Avid has gradually created a worthwhile if inconsistent stable of public-domain reissues, but I feel the stable door should have shut before this one got out – hence the split rating. The music is, of course, wonderful and historically important, consisting of the first and third albums with LaFaro (Portrait In Jazz and Sunday At The Village Vanguard, plus a selection of alternate takes therefrom) along with the pre-LaFaro Everybody Digs Bill Evans with the two Jones non-brothers. But, whereas the last-named has the three musicians fully present and sounding roughly as they do on previous CD releases of the album, there are problems with the rest. The Vanguard reproduction is comparatively thinner and more toppy, with what seems like tape-copy noise audible during quieter passages, while the great Portrait suffers far more so. Oddly, that album's version of ‘Autumn Leaves’ is the renowned, longer mono-only take (omitting the less exciting stereo one), but that's no consolation when the sound is unsatisfactory.

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