Moon Beams (Remastered 2025) The Bill Evans Trio

• 1 Re: Person I Knew (Remastered 2025) 05:45
• 2 Polka Dots And Moonbeams (Remastered 2025) 05:02
• 3 I Fall In Love Too Easily (Remastered 2025) 02:41
• 4 Stairway To The Stars (Remastered 2025) 04:53
• 5 If You Could See Me Now (Remastered 2025) 04:30
• 6 It Might As Well Be Spring (Remastered 2025) 06:05
• 7 In Love In Vain (Remastered 2025) 04:59
• 8 Very Early (Remastered 2025) 05:07
• Total Runtime 39:02

Info for Moon Beams (Remastered 2025)

Moon Beams is a 1962 album by jazz musician Bill Evans and the first trio album he recorded after the death of bassist Scott LaFaro. It introduces two important Evans originals, "Re: Person I Knew" (an anagram of the name of his then-producer, Orrin Keepnews), and "Very Early," which Evans had actually composed as an undergraduate. The originals serve as bookends to an album otherwise consisting of standards from the 1930s and 1940s.

"Moon Beams was the first recording Bill Evans made after the death of his musical right arm, bassist Scott LaFaro. Indeed, in LaFaro, Evans found a counterpart rather than a sideman, and the music they made together over four albums showed it. Bassist Chuck Israels from Cecil Taylor and Bud Powell's bands took his place in the band with Evans and drummer Paul Motian and Evans recorded the only possible response to the loss of LaFaro -- an album of ballads. The irony on this recording is that, despite material that was so natural for Evans to play, particularly with his trademark impressionistic sound collage style, is that other than as a sideman almost ten years before, he has never been more assertive than on Moon Beams. It is as if, with the death of LaFaro, Evans' safety net was gone and he had to lead the trio alone. And he does first and foremost by abandoning the impressionism in favor of a more rhythmic and muscular approach to harmony. The set opens with an Evans original, "RE: Person I Knew," a modal study that looks back to his days he spent with Miles Davis. There is perhaps the signature jazz rendition of "Stairway to the Stars," with its loping yet halting melody line and solo that is heightened by Motian's gorgeous brush accents in the bridge section. Other selections are so well paced and sequenced the record feels like a dream, with the lovely stuttering arpeggios that fall in "If You Could See Me Now," and the cascading interplay between Evan's chords and Israel's punctuation in "It Might as Well Be Spring," a tune Evans played for the rest of his life. The set concludes with a waltz in "Very Early," that is played at that proper tempo with great taste and delicate elegance throughout, there is no temptation by the rhythm section to charge it up or to elongate the harmonic architecture by means of juggling intervals. Moon Beams was a startling return to the recording sphere and a major advancement in his development as a leader." (Thom Jurek, AMG)

Bill Evans, piano
Chuck Israels, bass
Paul Motian, drums

Recorded May 17th, 29th and June 2nd, 5t 1962 at Sound Makers Studio, New York City
Produced by Orrin Keepnews

Digitally remastered

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 48 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 192 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

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This album contains no booklet.