Search - Bill Evans :: The Best of Bill Evans on Verve

A Best of That Won't Let You Down

J. Cohen | 10/26/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bill Evans is every pianists' favorite pianist. Miles Davis said his playing was "like crystal notes or sparkling water cascading down from some clear waterfall," and his playing really is that gorgeous. And with this Best Of, you get a wonderful selection of Evans' best on the Verve label which he recorded on for the majority of his career. Some of his individual Verve albums, unfortunately, can be a bit uneven (though a few are stunners), and this disc really gleans the very best from all of those albums. It also has a nice variety in terms of players and instruments. Though Evans is best known for his trio recordings, this album has everything from solo piano to Evans playing with Stan Getz. You won't be disappointed by any of the tracks on here. Highly recommended for anyone!"

The obvious, and the not so obvious

A. Edwards | 02/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not a frequent purchaser of compilations, but I am a diehard Bill Evans fan who sees real value in this compilation. Anyone who's immersed themselves in Evans' recordings for a number of years can guess what they'd expect to find on a "best of" compilation - a cut or two from the Sunday at the Village Vanguard recordings, something from Portrait, something from Explorations. However, those recordings are all absent here. What you get instead are all the right tunes to introduce someone to Bill Evans - like Beautiful Love, How Deep is The Ocean, and Who Can I Turn To - only taken from albums that not every Evans listener will be familiar with. The result is a disk that does its job as a sampler but also holds something for those who may own ten or more Evans albums already. For instance, Autumn Leaves, taken from the 1969 album "What's New", includes the introduction that did so much to set apart his early Autumn Leaves take on Portrait in Jazz, but is presented with a starkly different frenetic intensity, courtesy of a young, energetic Eddie Gomez, as well as a great contribution from flutist Jeremy Steig. All of the albums represented here are great albums - not obscure recordings since relegated to record company vaults - like many less worthwhile compilations. Yet, Verve also avoided all the recordings like Portrait in Jazz, which you can count on any Evans fan to have already worn thin. A very sage choice of tracks, and one compilation that I'm not sorry to have purchased."