This groundbreaking recording was the first to feature then-unknown Bill Evans as a leader, and it also introduced a trio format of piano, bass, and drums, which would become Evans's standard format for playing and recording. NEW JAZZ CONCEPTIONS, recorded when Evans was just 26, merges his articulate, vigorous playing with the music of fellow Tony Scott Quartet musicians Teddy Kotick on bass and the extroverted Paul Motian on drums. The album's four original compositions include "Five," a witty, complicated song which makes clever use of the chords from "I Got Rhythm," and the disjointed, slightly off-kilter "Displacement," a study in a common Evans theme of playing against the meter and around the beat of a composition. The most remarkable material is the wonderfully eloquent piano solo, "Waltz for Debby," written for Evans's niece, which became perhaps the most renowned classic of his musical career.
High-Definition premium 180 gm vinyl LP pressing of this 1956 album from the Jazz great. |