Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz

Performer: Bill Evans (Piano)
Engineer: John Jelinas
Producer: Dick Phipps
Distributor: IDN Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Marian McPartland, Bill Evans (piano). Recorded on November 6, 1978. Includes liner notes by Marian McPartland. This part of The Jazz Alliance Piano Jazz series. Personnel: Bill Evans (piano); Marian McPartland (piano). Recording information: 11/06/1978. Photographers: Karen Mantlo; Barbara Bordnick; Tom Copi. One of the first programs which Marian McPartland recorded for her long-running Peabody Award-winning radio series Piano Jazz remains one of her most memorable. Her guest was the phenomenal Bill Evans, just under two years before his untimely death. Evans' solo performances are outstanding, including a brief take of his best-known work, "Waltz for Debby," and his dazzling interpretation of Duke Ellington's hidden treasure "Reflections in D." McPartland proves to be an engaging interviewer, getting her guest to discuss his technique in detail and encouraging him to demonstrate specific examples as they talk. They mesh well together on their half-dozen duo piano performances, especially during a buoyant improvisation of Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way." McPartland's only solo is a delightfully off-kilter take of her good friend Alec Wilder's ballad "While We're Young." This is the third time this program has appeared on CD; this edition improves upon the earlier 1993 Jazz Alliance version by adding more striking and informative packaging, as well as correcting a typographical error in one of the song titles. Unfortunately, no unissued material has turned up. Jazz piano fans should consider this an essential purchase. ~ Ken Dryden

One of the most original and influential pianists in jazz, Bill Evans possessed an intensely personal and lyrical approach. The release of his first records under his own name, as well as his appearance on Miles Davis's KIND OF BLUE, pushed Evans rapidly to the forefront of jazz piano. For much of his career--which began in the 1950s and spanned several decades--he worked exclusively with his own trios, which brought collective interplay to new heights and extended the vocabulary of post-bop jazz piano.

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