"Evans claimed that he rarely played anything in the key of D. He found the resonances and overtones inherent to E and A somehow more appealing. However, he had fallen in love with Duke Ellington's 'Reflections In D', a composition inescapably in D. It had first appeared on Ellington's piano trio album made for Capitol in 1952, The Duke Plays Ellington, though Evans discovered it on a Tony Bennett recording. His comments to Nat Hentoff about the piece suggest that he was not aware of Ellington's own recording, but his interpretation sticks closely to the original conception. "I can't imagine," said Evans, "something this beautiful not being better known if it had been around for a long time." This is another of those melodies that Evans clearly loves so much that he sees little need to improve - or improvise - upon it. "I don't do a lot to this song [on New Conversations Warner Bros. CD 2-3177]," he admitted, "because it stands so much on its own that I pretty much play the melody throughout and interpolate some voicings and things like that ... There are some things you just don't [change]." The unadorned eloquence of the piece lends itself to the Evans touch and treatment, allowing the pianist that special combination of passion and restraint that so often delivered him (and his listeners) the greatest musical dividends." - Keith Shadwick, Bill Evans: Everything Happens to Me - A Musical Biography [2002]
