Bill Evans – The Paris Concert (Edition Two)

I just bought the 1st and 2nd editions of The Paris Concert. The selection of songs for this album set is fantastic. Every song is interesting to listen to and easy to follow from beginning to end. I am a big Bill Evans fan with over 40 of his albums. This could have easily made my top five Bill Evans albums, then for some reason although this is a live trio recording of piano, bass, and drums, beware that with the exception of “My Romance” what you will hear 80% of the time is just bass and piano. What a shame. I don’t think that this is something that can be fixed. In this case, I think someone simply forgot to turn on the recording mic at the drums. Recall that whenever Bill put a masterpiece out there it was always when you could hear all three instruments very clearly (with regard to Trios, of course). His interplay between the three instruments was what made him so great. If you don’t believe me, check out his Grammy winners: The Bill Evans Album, and I Will Say Goodbye. In these, you get to hear exactly what Bill Evans was trying to convey. On the other hand, with these 2 Paris Concert editions (1 and 2), the drums are so far off in the background that you will not hear them 80%, maybe 90% of the time, which destroys a potential masterpiece. Other than that, this would have easily gotten all 5 stars and would have quite easily become one of my top 5 favorite Bill Evans albums.

by R. Sharif