Jazzmatazz Review - The Last Waltz

Bill Evans Trio

The Last Waltz
(Milestone)

Bill Evans's last recorded performances took place at the Keystone Korner jazz club in San Francisco. The engagement took place over nine days from August 31 through September 8, 1980. Sixty-five previously unreleased performances of 32 songs by his final trio have been released by Milestone as an eight-CD boxed set, The Last Waltz. Todd Barkan, who owned the club, produced the set.

Bill Evans was born 8/16/1929 and became one of the most influential jazz pianists of his generation. He extended bop style with more advanced harmonies and voicings. He had a sensitive touch and a strong sense of swing; his playing was introspective and imbued with feeling and emotion.

His first album was 1956's New Jazz Conceptions. It was two years until he recorded his next album as a leader, Everybody Digs Bill Evans. In the interim he worked with George Russell and other musicians. He then collaborated with Miles Davis on Miles's classic Kind of Blue, which introduced modal playing jazz.

At the end of 1959, Evans formed the classic trio with bassist Scott La Faro and drummer Paul Motian that redefined the jazz piano trio. Before this trio, bassists and drummers tended to provide a steady foundation for the improvisations of the pianist. La Faro changed the role of the bass from keeping time to being a lead instrument. His playing was lyrical and conversational. Likewise, drummer Paul Motian's playing relied less on timekeeping and more on using the drums to create varying textures and on interacting with the other members of the group.

After LaFaro's tragic accidental death in 1961, Evans worked with a variety of bassists and drummers. Bassist Eddie Gomez had the longest tenure (from 1966-77). During this period, Evans's groups were still very good and continued to play well, but seemed somewhat static¾there didn't seem to be much growth or development going on.

Evans's last trio formed with the addition of Marc Johnson in Spring, 1978 and Joe LaBarbera in January 1979. Evans didn't change his fundamental approach, but got deeper into the tunes and seemed to put more emotion into his playing. I think the youth, talent and energy of his new bandmates pushed Evans to a state of renewed creativity. Evans began writing more new tunes over the previous few years. On the set he plays his recent compositions "Knit for Mary F," "Yet Ne'er Broken," "Tiffany" (Joe LaBarbera's daughter), "Your Story," and "Letter to Evan" (for his son's fourth birthday).

At the Keystone Korner date, Evans also went back to some tunes he played early in his career such as "Like Someone in Love" and "Mother of Earl," as well as his usual book of standards and originals. (An essay by Derek Richardson discusses the prior history of many of the tunes Evans played during the engagement.) I wonder if he might have been thinking of his mortality¾he knew that he was ill, yet refused to be hospitalized; he insisted on playing instead. (He died on September 15^th¾a week after this engagement.)

For me, the highlight of this set is the six versions of "Nardis," all but one over fifteen minutes long, the longest is nearly twenty minutes long. Evans had been playing "Nardis" for twenty years. First recorded on 1958's Portrait of Cannonball, the tune was usually his closing tune of the night. During a set on September 3^rd, Bill Evans stated that "I'd like to conclude this set with an extended version of something that's been in our repertoire from the beginning and has evolved and... We've learned from the potential of the tune and every once in a while a new gateway opens and... It's like therapy, this tune."

Evans usually started "Nardis" with a very abstract, stretched out, introductory solo. Tension builds as you can sense him almost stating the theme and in anticipation of the trio joining in. (In addition, Johnson has some beautiful bass solos.) It seems appropriate that the box set ends with a version of "Nardis."

It's useless to speculate how his music would have developed had he lived longer. We're just lucky to have these wonderful performances documented and available.

— Alan Lankin, 19 Oct 2000

[I should note that there's another set drawn from the 1980 Keystone Korner engagement: the out-of-print Japanese 8-CD set Consecration (Alfa) is drawn mostly from first the set of each evening, while The Last Waltz is drawn primarily from the second and third sets of each evening. Milestone will be reissuing Consecration in the U.S. in 2002.]