© Introduction. Copyright ® Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected, all rights reserved.
“Simultaneously, Evans took the next logical step in his sequence of unaccompanied piano recordings for Verve by cutting Alone, a recital entirely devoid of extra piano tracks. Recorded in September and October 1968, this may be seen as a logical extension of his search for further clarity of line and texture, as he had said in the liner notes to Further Conversations - but in his own notes for Alone he did not mention this…..
Certainly the music on Alone is much more unified and intense than that on Further Conversations from the previous year. Here, Evans does not have to consider embellishment, accompaniment or any other aspect of multiple piano tracks. He pares his playing to essentials and concentrates on his involvement with the music. Because of the absence of all other accompaniment, Evans can be as flexible as he needs to be and takes appropriate advantage. He adopts the simplest of approaches: exposition, improvisation, resolution. He also allows himself complete freedom of invention harmonically, rhythmically and melodically. Apart from his natural ability, the resulting power and logic is largely due to his certain vision and thorough preparation.
Talking to Marian McPartland just prior to the recording, Evans was in a decisive mood. "You can hear that I know exactly what I am doing," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind when I play. I know the reason for everything I do." As if ruminating on his upcoming solo sessions, he elaborated: "If you play too many things at one time, your whole approach will be vague. You won't know what to leave in and what to take out. I would say to a young musician: know very clearly what you're doing and why - play much less, but be very clear about it ... Take an idea - any idea - play it upside down, backwards, change the rhythm, and so on. Take any combination of notes that might occur to you and try to find 18 different ways of doing it." With a set of standard songs on Alone, he practiced what he preached.
As Evans attempts to penetrate the surface meaning of each tune he reaches different and deeper levels of meaning and inspiration, involving himself not only in any "message" a song might have but also in the beauties to be found in the study and redeployment of its components. Again in his album notes, Evans observes: "As you can readily see from the length of the tracks, I did get involved perhaps most successfully in 'Never Let Me Go'."22 Running for over 14 minutes, the song provides Evans with sufficient raw material to play himself through most of his own personal licks and cliches into fresh and invigorating musical waters. His inspiration is palpable. Other songs are given less magical transformations, but nothing from these sessions is wholly without its own small successes and surprises, the album being a formidable achievement at a time when Evans's relationship with Verve was winding down. Certainly Doug Ramsey in his Down Beat review agreed, making one especially prescient point. "When the dust subsides from the meaningless battles for recognition waged by so many of his contemporaries," wrote Ramsey, "[Evans] will still be there, playing his music as he hears it. And he hears it beautifully."”
Keith Shadwick, Bill Evans - Everything Happens to Me - A Musical Biography [2002]
“His playing on the Alone conveyed a feeling of unaffected nobility. Evans made no special effort to produce beautiful tone, but did so anyway — it was simply the way he played. There was much oscillation between keys a major third apart, except on the superbly paced "Never Let Me Go," which built and arched consistently in one tonality and unified mood. There are two "bonus" tracks on the CD release, chips off the workbench block that Evans would surely not have wanted to be issued — witness the disdain with which he casually finger-flicked the endings away, as if to say: No good, forget that one!
This LP won him his third Grammy award.”
Peter Pettinger, Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings [1988]
The Grammy Award-winning Alone was Bill Evans' first single piano solo album following in the footsteps of his 1963 Verve session Conversations With Myself (three pianos overdubbed) and his 1967 Further Conversations With Myself, also on Verve (two pianos overdubbed).
For this Compact Disc release, we have included two recently discovered, previously unreleased tracks. Track 6 is a medley of All The Things You Are (the abrupt beginning is as it exists on the original tape) and Joe Zawinul's beautiful waltz Midnight Mood. Evans' only other earlier interpretation of All The Things You Are was also done solo (for Riverside) and also did not see release until many years after it was recorded. The final track is an alternate take of A Time For Love.
Richard Seidel
The following are Bill Evans' liner notes from the original LP:
“Perhaps the hours of greatest pleasure in my life have come about as a result of the capacity of the piano to be in itself a complete expressive musical medium. In retrospect, I think that these countless hours of aloneness with music unified the directive energy of my life. At those times when I have achieved this sense of oneness while playing alone, the many technical or analytic aspects of the music happened of themselves with positive rightness which always served to remind me that to understand music most profoundly one only has to be listening well.
Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience. This has nothing to do with my desire to communicate or not, but rather I think it is just a problem of personal self-consciousness which had to be conquered through discipline and concentration. Yet, to know one is truly alone with one's instrument and music has always been an attractive and conducive situation for me to find my best playing level. Therefore, what I desired to present in a solo piano recording was especially this unique feeling.
As you can readily see from the length of the tracks, I did get involved perhaps most successfully in Never Let Me Go. It is difficult to make a qualitative judgment, however, since one always must be wary of falling prey to indulgence in a too subjective feeling unsupported by musical content.
My solo piano professional experience has been negligible and it is sad that this great tradition in jazz is in danger of extinction because of the prevalent public attitude relegating a single pianist to background for conversation or dinner.
Therefore, I hope that my playing has sufficient merit to carry the listener without distraction to the musical feeling I have strived to accomplish in these recorded performances.” - Bill Evans
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