Bill Evans Explorations CD

Bill Evans Trio: Bill Evans (piano); Scott LaFaro (bass); Paul Motian (drums).
Recorded at Bell Sound Studios, New York, New York on February 2, 1961. Originally released on Riverside (9351). Includes liner notes by Orrin Keepnews.
Digitally remastered by David Luke (Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California).
Bill Evans Trio: Bill Evans (piano); Scott LaFaro (bass); Paul Motian (drums).
Recorded at Bell Sound Studios, New York, New York on February 2, 1961. Originally released on Riverside (9351). Includes liner notes by Orrin Keepnews.
Digitally remastered by JVC using XRCD (Extended Resolution Compact Disc) technology.
This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.
When this album was recorded in February of 1961, it had been more than year since the Portrait in Jazz was issued, the disc that won the critics over. By the time of this issue, Evans had released four albums in six years, a pace unheard of during that time. Most musicians were issuing two, three, and even four records a year during the same era. Many speculate on Evans' personal problems at the time, but the truth of the matter lies in the recordings themselves, and Explorations proves that the artist was worth waiting for no matter what else was going on out there. Evans, with Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro, was onto something as a trio, exploring the undersides of melodic and rhythmic constructions that had never been considered by most. For one thing, Evans resurrects a number of tunes that had been considered hopelessly played out, and literally reinvents them -- "How Deep Is the Ocean" and "Sweet and Lovely." His harmonic richness that extends the melodic and color palette of these numbers literally revived them from obscurity and brought them back into the canon. He also introduced "Haunted Heart" into the jazz repertoire, with a wonderfully impressionistic melodic structure, offered space, and depth by the understatement of Motian and extension by LaFaro's canny use of intervals. Also noteworthy is Miles Davis' "Nardis," which Evans first played on a Cannonball Adderley set a couple of years before. The rhythmic workout by the Motian and LaFaro places Evans' own playing in a new context, with shorter lines, chopping up the meter, and a series of arpeggios that open the ground for revelatory solo in counterpoint by LaFaro. Explorations is an extraordinary example of the reach and breadth of this trio at its peak. ~ Thom Jurek
EXPLORATIONS, Bill Evans' fourth solo album, is aptly named. Throughout, Evans displays the high-minded lyrical facility, long flowing phrases and rich sound that made him so popular with both fans and other musicians during the 1950s and '60s. The intrepid nature of his improvisations and the edgy interactivity of his trio echo the album's title in tracks like the expansive "Elsa," "Israel," and the Miles Davis composition "Nardis."
Evans is also a master of the ballad, and he shapes tracks such as "Haunted Heart" and the shimmering, evocative "Elsa" into exercises of grace and sensitivity. There is a fair share of swing here too, with the up-tempo "Sweet and Lovely" and "Beautiful Love." Evan's imaginative, meticulous stylings flow through every piece, and it is difficult to resist the balance of intelligence, tenderness, groove and mood that EXPLORATIONS achieves.
EXPLORATIONS, Bill Evans' fourth solo album, is aptly named. Throughout, Evans displays the high-minded lyrical facility, long flowing phrases and rich sound that made him so popular with both fans and other musicians during the 1950s and '60s. The intrepid nature of his improvisations and the edgy interactivity of his trio echo the album's title in tracks like the expansive "Elsa," "Israel," and the Miles Davis composition "Nardis."
Evans is also a master of the ballad, and he shapes tracks such as "Haunted Heart" and the shimmering, evocative "Elsa" into exercises of grace and sensitivity. There is a fair