Details: Bill Evans (1929-1980), Conversations with Myself. Verve, 1963. Total time: 43:59.
My father's favorite musician again. Here he is overdubbed playing piano, dueting and even seemingly trio-ing by himself.
This is the first time I've really listened to this entire album although I've heard Evans recordings for much of my life. The opening chords are startling--sounds so much like Debussy. Once again a reminder of Evans' roots studying classical music as a youngster.
The recording technology that enabled this overdubbing in 1963 must have been remarkable to see in action.
Also this album reminds me of another virtuoso pianist and contemporary of Evans: Glenn Gould. Both men died tragically young and at about the same age, and both were masters at the piano who experimented with recording technologies. I wish I had gotten the chance, like my father and brother Michael, to see Evans play piano in person.
Most of the Evans recordings in my collection were either my father's or were given to me by him. My dad had an expansive collection of LP records. I used to joke that he had every recording ever made by Evans including a few that Evans himself was unaware of.
No comments:
Post a Comment