My favourite jazz album was recorded 60 years ago today, on June 25, 1961 at the Village Vanguard in New York. Bill Evans's great trio, with Scott La Faro & Paul Motian. Great music captured from the five sets the trio played that Sunday.
Here's the Bill Evans Trio at The Village Vanguard.
Scott LaFaro, Bill Evans, Paul Motian
Photo: Steve Schapiro, 1961
"It is not going too far to see this short-lived trio as redefining the nature of the jazz rhythm section."
- @tedgioia
Scott LaFaro, Bill Evans, Paul Motian
Photo: Steve Schapiro, 1961
"It is not going too far to see this short-lived trio as redefining the nature of the jazz rhythm section."
- @tedgioia
Producer Orrin Keepnews checks in with the trio.
Scott LaFaro, Bill Evans & Paul Motian, at the Village Vanguard, 1961
📷 Steve Schapiro
The trio performed five sets that Sunday; songs from each were recorded.
Scott LaFaro, Bill Evans & Paul Motian, at the Village Vanguard, 1961
📷 Steve Schapiro
The trio performed five sets that Sunday; songs from each were recorded.
I find this astounding: The Trio was not booked as the headline act at The Village Vanguard; they were supporting the vocal group Lambert Hendricks & Ross.
The portrait of Bill Evans on the cover of the 1961 album Sunday at the Village Vanguard is by Donald Silverstein. Odd that they would say "featuring Scott La Faro" on the cover, without also mentioning drummer Paul Motian.
A photograph by Steve Schapiro of Scott LaFaro & Bill Evans rehearsing at The Village Vanguard in 1961
Scott LaFaro's composition Gloria's Step was dedicated to his girlfriend, dancer Gloria Gabriel. "The song name originated because LaFaro knew the sound of Gloria’s footsteps when she came up the stairs to their apartment, not because she was a dancer.”
Scott LaFaro died ten days after that Sunday, July 6, 1961 in a car accident on U.S. Route 20 between Geneva & Canandaigua NY.
"Bill was in a state of shock. Look at my gig book: nothing, nothing, nothing with Bill, until December. Bill was like a ghost."
- Paul Motian
"Bill was in a state of shock. Look at my gig book: nothing, nothing, nothing with Bill, until December. Bill was like a ghost."
- Paul Motian
A recording sheet from The Village Vanguard, June 25, 1961, 60 years ago today.
"I remember listening to the tapes and saying, ‘There’s nothing bad here!’ Normally, you can cut one or two things right away, and there was nothing bad."
- Orrin Keepnews
"I remember listening to the tapes and saying, ‘There’s nothing bad here!’ Normally, you can cut one or two things right away, and there was nothing bad."
- Orrin Keepnews
A second LP of material recorded that day was released in 1962: Waltz for Debby. Another great shot of Bill Evans by Don Silverstein on the back cover.
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