30. The Bill Evans Trio - Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961)

1. Gloria's Steps*

2. My Man's Done Gone*

3. Solar

4. Alice in Wonderland (Take 2)*

5. All of You

6. Jade Visions

A

The Book is really forcing me to ask myself the question "How much jazz is too much jazz?" 

I mean, don't get me wrong - I like jazz well enough. But it's definitely not my favourite genre of music, and I'm starting to suffer from jazz exhaustion as a result. 

That might be one reason why, even though this is often ranked as one of the greatest jazz albums, I'm only giving it a straight A. It's very, very good, but not entirely my cup of tea. Any given track on this album is great, but listening to them all in a row multiple times kind of wore me out. 

Still, focus on the positive. This is a very pretty album. Really, it's some of the prettiest music I've heard. And the highly improvisational nature of the music means that every track shifts and changes in a way that creates a wonderful atmosphere. The playing by all three members is also astonishing. Bassist Scott LaFaro is especially impressive. Apparently he died shortly after the sessions from which this album was cut were recorded, and as a result Bill Evans selected the tracks specifically to highlight his playing. And really, it's very strange. All three musicians seem to be soloing at once, but everything holds together beautifully.

Then again, that's one thing that irks me about fans of music that requires a high degree of musicianship. At some point they stop caring if the music is any good and just start getting high on the complexity of the playing. And while this is a beautiful and impressive album, one complaint I have is that there isn't a single memorable tune. I suppose this is part of the point of the music - seeing how far the trio can stray from the original composition without losing its essence - but it still kind of bugs me. I like this stuff, but I guess I'm just not cut out to be a serious jazz fan.

Vituperative asides aside, I really did enjoy this. I don't understand it but I enjoyed it, especially the way it defies expectations of how the three different instruments complement each other. The whole soloist/accompanist dichotomy basically gets thrown out the window. And it is, as I said, very pretty.

Interestingly, there aren't any tracks written by Evans himself on this album. I think they were held over for a second album of material recorded during those sessions at the Vanguard. So while I greatly admire the man's playing, I can't make any comment on his abilities as a composer. Oh well.

So this is faultless on a technical level but lacks that edge to make it perfect musically. This is my blog and that is my opinion.  The End.