Cinema Italia

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Matteo Pagano at Via Veneto Jazz and his associates at Jando Music are releasing Cinema Italia [VVJ 110] on October 28, 2016, It will be available as an audio CD through Forced Exposure via this link and from Amazon as a pre-order.

Cinema Italia features Rosario Giuliani | alto & soprano sax, Luciano Biondini | accordion, Enzo Pietropaoli | doublebass, Michele Rabbia drums on drums, percussions, and electronics.

While themes from movies are quite common as platforms for Jazz recordings, groups fronted by woodwinds and accordion are an unusual combination in the music.

I think this may be due to the fact that the sound of the accordion has never caught on with Jazz fans, although some marvelous musicians have played the instrument over the years including Art van Damme, Mat Mathews, Ernie Felice, Angelo DiPippo, Frank Marocco, Leon Sash, Joe Mooney, Russ Messina, among many others. Of course, today, Richard Galliano and Gary Versace are two masterful players on an instrument that I think deserves a greater appreciation.

For a full listing with annotations of Jazz accordionist please use this link.

Aside from Art van Damme whom I first heard fronting his George Shearing-like quintet on NBC radio in the 1950’s, the Jazz accordionist who made the greatest impression on me was Tommy Gumina.

My first introduction to Tommy’s imposing accordion playing was while watching an episode of The Stars of Jazz television which was syndicated on the ABC network in the late 1950’s.

Actually, I tuned in to view clarinetist “Buddy DeFranco’s Quartet” not realizing at the time that he was sharing a co-billing as “The Buddy DeFranco Tommy Gumina” Quartet.” The artistry of DeFranco in combination with Tommy Gumina just knocked me out and I became an instant fan of both the group and of Gumina’s work on the accordion. Tommy gave the instrument sonorities that were rarely heard in Jazz until much later with the development and use of synthesizers in the music.

From 1961-1964, my good friend, the late Jack Tracy, produced four LP’s for Mercury Records featuring Buddy and Tommy’s group and they have remained among my favorite recordings through the years, especially when I wish to listen to the rarely heard musical textures produced by a combination of [Buddy’s] clarinet and [Tommy’s] accordion.

Imagine my surprise then when Matteo Pagano sent me a preview copy of Cinema Italia [VVJ 110] featuring a woodwind player, in this instance, soprano and alto saxophone player Rosario Giuliani and accordionist Luciano Biondini exquisitely linked through their beautiful renditions of some of the most famous musical themes in Italian Cinema.

Put another way, the music of Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone has never been so sensitively rendered in a Jazz environment. While we were not fortunate to hear DeFranco and Gumina perform Hank Mancini and Carmine Coppola, we can listen to Giuliani and Biondini interpret Morricone’s Nuovo Cinema Paradiso Rota’s haunting Theme from La Dolce Vita along with seven other tracks ably supported by Enzo Pietropaoli on bass and Michele Rabbia on drums, percussion and special effects.

Here’s more about the forthcoming CD from the press release that accompanied the preview copy of Cinema Italia [VVJ 110].

“What would film be without music?

Music conveys all that which images cannot.

The importance of a soundtrack can sometimes even transcend that of images and stories, and great directors often build the entire structure of their masterpiece around a score - the themes in this Cinema Italia are evidence of the viability of this approach.

There have been numerous masterpieces in Italian cinema that have influenced filmmakers around the world and Italy continues to distinguish itself in this art.

The Cinema Italia project is a tribute to the greatness of Italian cinema and its tradition of excellence has contributed to raising global awareness of Italy’s culture.

Equally distinct is the cast of musicians in this album: Rosario Giuliani on sax, Luciano Biondini on the accordion, Enzo Pietropaoli on the double bass and Michele Rabbia on acoustic and electronic drums.

This quartet employs a contemporary music point-of-view in rendering these cinematic refrains, but one which never betrays the melodies of these unforgettable themes.

Giuliani, Biondini, Pietropaoli and Rabbia strive to give these cinematic themes a new force and vitality, demonstrating their immortality while constantly surprising the listener with fresh, innovative versions.

Unforgettable themes from unforgettable movies, as well as, two original tracks by Rosario Giuliani and Luciano Biondini (Bianco e Nero and What is there what is, all combine to confirm the narrative force of these two, incredible composers and four, masterful musicians.

Tracklist:

01 - La Strada (Nino Rota)          

02 – Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Ennio Morricone)

03 - 8 e 1/2 (Nino Rota)

04 - Deborah's Theme (Ennio Morricone)

05 - Bianco e Nero (Rosario Giuliani)

06 - Impro-Romeo e Giulietta (L.Biondini – R.Giuliani/N. Rota)  

07 - What is There What is Not (Luciano Biondini)

08 - La Dolce Vita (Nino Rota)

09 - C'era una Volta il West (Ennio Morricone)     

You can sample the music on this forthcoming CD through the following audio-only version of Maestro Morricone’s theme from Nuovo Cinema Paradiso [Cinema Italia VVJ 110].

Tadd Dameron - Fontainebleau - Max Harrison [From the Archives]

© -  Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Fontainebleau originates from Tadd Dameron’s last full year of freedom [1956] before the term of imprisonment that more of less ended his career [he was released from prison in 1962 and died of cancer in 1965].

It is a fine set with no clutter in the horns. The title piece if entirely written-out with no scope for improvisation.

Here is Jazz critic Max Harrison’s of it from the February, 1960 edition of the Jazz Review.

© -Max Harrison, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

“Dameron should have been one of the most prominent jazz composers, arrangers and bandleaders in the immediate postwar years for he was certainly among the most gifted. He lacked technical slickness, and that was surely a disadvantage in the busy world of the record makers, but nearly everything he wrote was modestly yet firmly individual. The melodic style, warm but fresh, was the most distinctive single aspect of Dameron's work, yet his orchestration for small and medium-sized groups was instantly recognisable, too. Confining himself mainly to conventional instrumentations, and never seeking really unusual sounds, his textures are almost always striking.

The concise inventiveness of many of his themes, such as Ladybird, Cool breeze, Stay on it, Jahbero, Our delight, The Squirrel, Half step down, please, Symphonette, Hothouse and Good Bait, won them classic status in the jazz of the 19408, and they gave rise to remarkable improvisations by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and others. Navarro was, indeed, the finest interpreter the composer ever found, and they recorded together often during those years. Following the great trumpeter's premature death in 1950, Dameron's career appeared to lose its impetus, and from then until his own demise in 1965 little was salvaged except bits and pieces. Malcolm Lowry (Dark as the Grave, London,1969) compares an artist to a fireman rescuing valuables from a burning house, that house being the work of art, unscathed, intact in the mind which conceived it, but which the artist has had to set on fire before he can exteriorise it. What he finishes with—the 'completed work' —is a small heap of salvaged objects. This will scarcely serve for the greatest works of art, but it would be hard to better as an image of the last decade and a half of Dameron's life.

He had the more gifted jazzman's usual ambition to break out of the straitjacket of repeating twelve- and thirty-two-bar choruses, and wrote an extended piece called Soulphony for Gillespie to play at Carnegie Hall. This has sunk without a trace, but he made further attempts, and the most convincing is Fontainebleau, which he first recorded in 1956 (American Prestige D7842). It tries to suggest, rather than directly portray, the palace of that name (described in the sleeve note of the original American issue as "where the Bourbons used to cavourt"!) and the surrounding forest.

According to Dameron, the quite simple formal plan has three parts. The first, Leforet, opens with a brooding introductory theme that is heard first on the string bass, then on bass doubled with baritone saxophone, then on the remaining horns—trumpet, trombone, alto and tenor saxophones. This leads to the main theme of the section, and of the whole work, stated by Kinny Dorham's trumpet. It is a flowing, lyrical melody characteristic of the composer, and, though perhaps unsuitable for large-scale development, is entirely suitable for its limited use here. This theme is extended in a written-out (not improvised) alto saxophone solo played most expressively by Sahib Shihab, and by the ensemble. A transitional piano solo from Dameron himself leads to Les cygnes.

This opens with a brief ensemble that manages to suggest the main Foret theme without direct statement, and then a baritone saxophone ostinato bridges to the Cygnes theme, the other principal idea of Fon-tainebleau. It is announced on baritone saxophone and trombone accompanied from above with another ostinato by alto and tenor saxophones. As this is developed, trumpet and alto interject motives derived from the main Foret theme.

Transition from Les cygnes to L'adieu is ill-defined and the third section introduces no fresh material. It begins with another ensemble suggesting the chief Foret theme, followed by the baritone saxophone ostinato that earlier appeared at the be ginning of Les cygnes. Over this a modification of the Cygnes theme itself is given out by alto and tenor saxophones, and it resolves, still supported with the baritone ostinato, to the introductory Foret theme on alto, then on both alto and tenor. This, too, is in modified form—almost jaunty compared with its sombre initial appearance. Restatements of this motive, by trumpet, then by alto and tenor saxophones, alternate with two further ensembles, the last of which brings Fontainebleau to a close.

It is typical of Dameron to proceed by suggestion rather than direct statement, but his thematic cross-references from one section to another help to produce a satisfyingly tight structure. And the listener's interest is sustained by real melodic invention. As usual, the orchestration is effective, and recalls a comment by Dexter Gordon (Quoted in Ira Gitler, Jazz Masters of the 40s, New York, 1966), made after playing some Dameron scores, that every line—all the subsidiary parts—had melodic significance, not just the top one. In fact variety is achieved here with diversified themes and the melodic extensions arising from them, by line, that is, not colour. Colour and texture have their place, however, and the composer gets a notable effect by introducing two of his themes— the Foret introduction and Les cygnes—in low register and then transposing them to high on their reappearances. Similarly, the baritone saxophone ostinato is succeeded by an alto and tenor one in Les cygnes.

These changes, allied to the slowly quickening tempo, produce a feeling of increasing brightness as the work moves from its brooding start to an affirmative conclusion. The weaknesses, as noted, are the vague demarcation between Les cygnes and L'adieu, and the fact that the latter, because it introduces no material of its own, does not constitute a truly independent third section: another theme was needed, and it is hard to believe that Dameron would have found it difficult to think of one.

Fontainebleau leaves no room for improvisation, but this performance is considerably aided by Dorham's trumpeting, by Sahib Shihab's alto and Cecil Payne's baritone saxophone, and by Shadow Wilson's drumming. The ensemble playing is scarcely in the highest class, yet a more cleanly executed reading by a larger group which the composer recorded in 1962 (American Riverside RLP419]) has a rather unpleasant routine-session glibness which robs the piece of some of its character. Dameron often complained about the poor quality of the performances his work received, and insisted that he was poorly represented on records, but Dorham & Co. showed a proper understanding of his pithy yet relaxed music ….”

Jazz Review, February 1960

Shirley Horn: Live at The Four Queens

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

Vocalist Shirley Horn’s singing style has been described as reflective, compelling, sparsely evocative, sweetly sensuous - a mood singer par excellence.

In their Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Ed., Richard Cook and Brian Morton note that: “The inevitable complaint is that Horn goes on making the same record …. Yet nobody grumbled much about the sameness of Ella, Billie or Sarah, in their various careers. Shirley’s difficulty is that her preference for achingly slow tempos and sung-spoken lyrics doesn’t chime very easily with the modern attention span.”

They go on to observe that the patented Horn gallop which, if you are new to her, is a whisker above dead slow, often provokes shivers of pleasure given her amazing ability to emotional frame a lyric.

Shirley Horn in performance was an event and further proof of that assertion can be found in this press release from Resonance Records.

Resonance Records Presents

SHIRLEY HORN LIVE A T THE 4 QUEENS

Deluxe CD Package & Digital Edition Available September 16, 2016 The first previously unreleased recordings by Shirley Horn in nearly a decade!

Recorded Live at Las Vegas's 4 Queens Hotel on May 2, 1988 with Shirley Horn's Trio of over 20 Years, Bassist Charles Ables & Drummer Steve Williams

52-Minute Set of Never-Before-Released Material Originally Recorded by

KNPR Las Vegas for the Syndicated Weekly Radio Program

"Monday Night Jazz at the Four Queens"

Includes a 56-Page Book of Rare, Previously Unpublished Archival Photos,

Essays & Interviews with Producer Zev Feldman, Journalist and Author James Gavin,

Vocalist Sheila Jordan with journalist Ted Panken, Trio Drummer Steve Williams

Washington, D.C. Radio DJ Rusty Hassan,

Original KNPR Broadcast Engineer, Brian Sanders,

Plus jazz record veterans and Shirley Horn producers,

Jean-Philippe Allard and Richard Seidel

Los Angeles, August 2016 - Resonance Records is pleased to announce the release of SHIRLEY HORN LIVE AT THE 4 QUEENS, a previously unissued live recording by legendary singer/pianist Shirley Horn accompanied by her rhythm section of over 20 years, the late bassist Charles Abes and drummer Steve Williams, recorded by Las Vegas NPR affiliate KNPR on May 2, 1988 at what noted author James Gavin describes as "Las Vegas's hip little oasis for jazz lovers, the jazz club inside the 4 Queens Hotel."

Resonance will release this album in a deluxe CD package and a digital edition on Friday, September 16, 2016.

Live at the 4 Queens was recorded only one year after her 1987 "comeback album" on Verve Records, I Thought About You, which reignited her international touring career after a nearly 20-year hiatus during which she had restricted her musical activities to her home town of Washington, D.C. so she could devote herself to raising her daughter.

The album includes a comprehensive 56-page book dedicated to documenting the life and career of Shirley Horn featuring essays and interviews with Resonance Records producer Zev Feldman, journalist and author James Gavin, jazz record veterans and Shirley Horn producers Jean-Philippe Allard and Richard Seidel, long-time Shirley Horn drummer Steve Williams (in conversation with Library of Congress jazz specialist, journalist and radio host Larry Appelbaum), Horn's friend and colleague, singer Sheila Jordan (in conversation with noted jazz journalist Ted Panken), Washington, D.C. jazz radio veteran Rusty Hassan, KNPR engineer Brian Sanders, manager Sheila Mathis and finally, Rainy Smith, Horn's daughter.

Featuring nine tracks and over 50 minutes of music, Live at the 4 Queens features Shirley Horn's interpretations of popular songs including "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" by Cole Porter, "The Boy from Ipanema" (the female version of "The Girl from Ipanema") by Antonio Carlos Jobim, "Isn't It Romantic" by Rodgers and Hart, "Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?) by Jimmy Davis, Roger ("Ram") Ramirez, and James Sherman and many others.

Long a favorite of Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, who both championed her early in her career, Shirley Horn was a unique jazz presence. As a performer, Shirley Horn was immediately recognizable for the mood she created, her swinging, harmonically sophisticated piano playing and her evocative, velvety voice. As a pianist, she was so gifted that Miles Davis once said "If she don't play, I ain't gonna play..." in reference to a gig at the Village Vanguard, and would have her perform as a sub for Wynton Kelly at various club performances. As a singer, she never failed to cast a spell on a room. She inevitably transported her listeners with her moodiness and her uncanny ability to maintain a compelling sense of musical motion even at the slowest possible tempos, which became a hallmark of her style.

When producer Richard Seidel signed Shirley Horn to Verve in the mid-1980s, her career was relaunched, and this time she became celebrated internationally as well as in the United States. A series of enormously successful albums followed. Most featured just her regular trio with bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams, while others had rhythm section colleagues like Ron Carter and Billy Hart, along with special guests such as Miles Davis, Toots Thielemans, Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis. And as a stylistic departure, Horn recorded the memorable album, Here's to Life (recorded in 1991 and released in 1992), in which Horn is showcased with a large ensemble arranged and conducted by Johnny Mandel (who received a Grammy® award for his work on the album).

Shirley Horn's return to prominence had her performing in all the major festivals around the world, plus iconic American venues like Carnegie Hall, prestigious concert halls throughout Europe and Asia, and even in the White House. Horn continued touring and recording at a torrid pace for nearly a decade until health problems forced her to pare back her performing and recording activities in the early 2000s. Nominated nine times for Grammys®, Horn finally won one for Best Jazz Vocal Performance in 1999 for her album, I Remember Miles, produced by Richard Seidel.

This album, Shirley Horn Live at 4 Four Queens, captures her at her creative peak. As Seidel observes, "This record is very much in the vein of Shirley's first album on Verve [ I Thought About You] and is an excellent example of her work in an intimate club atmosphere."

When producer Zev Feldman became aware of the recordings that make up this album, he was thrilled. Shirley Horn was a very special artist for him. Feldman, like Horn, is a Washington, D.C. native. Now 43, Feldman came of age while Horn was still only playing in and around Washington at jazz clubs like the Pigfoot and the One Step Down. Right at the time Feldman started working in the record business for PolyGram, which became Universal Music Group, from the mid-1990's to the mid-2000's, Shirley was one of the biggest stars of the label and Feldman was a Verve representative promoting her steady stream of new albums being released during that period. Feldman saw Horn often in those days, even drove to her house on more than one occasion to have her sign CD booklets, and attended many concerts as a part of his job arranging venue sales for record retail. "Being the local Verve representative, I got to see her play everywhere from The Kennedy Center and Bohemian Caverns in DC, to the Village Vanguard in New York and Zanzibar Blue in Philadelphia." But beyond his role as a label rep, he developed a friendship with Horn and on numerous occasions was invited after gigs to join in her inner circle with manager Sheila Mathis and drummer Steve Williams. So when the opportunity arose for Resonance to pursue the release of the material, Feldman jumped at the chance.

Since Feldman knew what an important artist Shirley Horn was (and because inexplicably no books have been written about her), he was determined to make this album package the most authoritative and comprehensive compendium of materials possible with an extensive 56 page book of analytical, scholarly essays; first-person accounts by musicians and producers who worked with Horn; remembrances by her friends, colleagues and her daughter; plus a number of previously unpublished photographs from the Shirley Horn archives at the Library of Congress. Feldman says, "We want this release and album book to remind us why she was great, why she mattered."

Live at the 4 Queens was captured the day after Horn's 54th birthday, and you can hear what a good time she's having celebrating the occasion in Las Vegas on this recording. The CD kicks off with a spirited instrumental version of the 1950's classic "Hi-Fly" by Randy Weston, and also includes Rainy Smith's (Horn's daughter) favorite song that her mother would play, "Meditation," which she humorously says she never knew the name of all these years until now. The hallmarks of any Shirley Horn album are of course the ballads, and this album delivers two powerful ones — "Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?)" and "Just For A Thrill," which James Gavin writes "builds slowly; then her bristling chords build up so much tension that the energy explodes in a big crescendo. Horn lets it subside like a cloud of smoke." "The Boy from Ipanema" is a playful take on the bossa nova classic, which Horn actually got to perform once at Antonio Carlos Jobim's birthday party in Rio de Janeiro. And one of Horn's rollicking blues staples, "Blues for Big Scotia," closes the set in rousing form.

As Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times on November 10, 1988, "Songs are lucky when Shirley Horn chooses them. She honors melodies just by singing them unadorned, in a voice of honey and smoke; she enunciates every word, shaping small and large peaks with just a slight pause or a lingering vowel. . . And when the time comes to improvise, the song's emotion guides her; she drapes lyrics in bluesy curves and finds epiphanies in tender phrases."

Shirley Horn left an indelible mark on the jazz scene with her catalog of recordings. And one can't deny her influence on other musicians — her contemporaries, as the great Sheila Jordan suggests in her interview from the liner notes, and as those who came after her, such as the gifted singer/pianist Diana Krall. This package is a tribute to Shirley Horn's memory and Resonance Records is thrilled to celebrate and contribute to her legacy with this release. The recordings illuminate her genius and represent her creative peak. Live at the 4 Queens reminds us of what an extraordinary artist she is.

Resonance Records is delighted to release Shirley Horn Live at the 4 Queens with the participation of KNPR Las Vegas. Produced by for release by Zev Feldman along with executive producer George Klabin. Sound restoration is by George Klabin and Fran Gala. The beautifully designed package is the creation of long-time Resonance designer, Burton Yount.

TRACK LISTING

1.    Hi-Fly (6:20)

2.    You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To (3:59)

3.    Meditation  (9:05)

4.    The Boy from Ipanema (5:19)

5.    Isn't It Romantic (10:08)

6.    Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?) (5:25)

7.    Something Happens to Me (3:12)

8.    Just for a Thrill (5:08)

9.    Blues for Big Scotia (3:16)

Resonance Records continues to bring archival recordings to light. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Resonance Records is a division of Rising Jazz Stars, Inc. a California 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation created to discover the next jazz stars and advance the cause of jazz. Current Resonance Artists include Richard Galliano, Polly Gibbons, Tamir Hendelman, Christian Howes and Donald Vega. www.ResonanceRecords.org

Bill Evans - LIVE AT TOP OF THE GATE

© -Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

The editorial staff at JazzProfiles continues its features on recently released recordings by George Klabin and the fine team at Resonance Records, although in the case of Bill Evans Live at Art D’Lugoff’s Top of the Gate, “recent” is a relative term as you will no doubt note as you read the following Press Release.

Try as we might, we could not improve on the explanation of how, what when, why the recording came about and its significance as described in the press release that accompanied the preview copy of the music and the video that closes this piece. So we thought it best to bring both of them to you “as is.”

The availability of more music from pianist Bill Evans is always an event, one that is made especially so when Resonance Records applies its magical talents to producing it.

RESONANCE RECORDS TO ISSUE UNRELEASED LIVE PERFORMANCES BY LEGENDARY PIANIST BILL EVANS

LIVE AT ART D'LUGOFF'S TOP OF THE GATE –

AVAILABLE JUNE 12, 2012

HISTORIC PERFORMANCES CAPTURED BY LABEL PRESIDENT

GEORGE KLABIN MORE THAN 40 YEARS AGO

With Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of the Gate, Resonance Records offers listeners a table at the front of the stage for a stellar performance by one of jazz's greatest trios. It's October 23, 1968 in Greenwich Village, and legendary pianist Bill Evans is joined by bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell for two top-notch sets, represented here in their entirety. Aired only once, on Columbia University radio station WKCR-FM, this concert hasn't been heard for more than forty years and has never been released in any form.

"This gives people a good idea of what it must have been like to be in the room at the time and experience the music," says producer Zev Feldman. "We've done everything short of building a time machine."

The credit for the recording's remarkable clarity and intimacy rests entirely with George Klabin, then a 22-year-old recording engineer granted unprecedented access to the date by Evans' longtime manager, Helen Keane. Jazz fans can be forgiven for being skeptical after countless long-lost jazz recordings have hit the market only to sound as if they were transmitted over the telephone via a bad connection on a stormy night. Klabin, however, conscientiously positioned separate microphones on each member of the trio, yielding a pristine mix that's the next best thing to being there. This is, quite possibly, the best-engineered and most gorgeous-sounding live recording ever made of Evans.

"Being able to hear jazz up close, as I did in clubs, I was dismayed by what I heard on live recordings," Klabin recalls. "The sound was so often muddy and distant and not satisfying. I wanted to capture the intimacy."

The benefits of Klabin's approach can be heard from the first notes of Evans' delicate introduction to "Emily," which ring out with a hushed brilliance while the gentle murmur of diners can be heard unobtrusively in the background. "This release celebrates the memory of Bill Evans," Feldman says, "but it also celebrates the memory of Art D'Lugoff, who was a visionary and obviously one of New York's greatest music impresarios, and the Village Gate as well, which sadly is no longer with us either."

D'Lugoff opened the Village Gate in 1958, followed by the upstairs club, Top of The Gate, a few years later. The Greenwich Village establishments thrived for the next three-and-a-half decades, hosting not only the era's most influential figures in jazz but rising stars in folk music, world music, blues, and comedy, as well as off-Broadway shows. Just to give some idea of how central the Gate was: at the same time that Evans, Gomez and Morell were treating the audience upstairs to the music you're listening to now, patrons downstairs were thrilling to the sounds of Thelonious Monk or Charles Lloyd, whose quartets were sharing the stage that week.

Despite that monumental double-bill, however, the evidence we now have proves that it would have been difficult to top the show being put on by the Evans trio. At this time, Gomez was two years into what would become an eleven-year stint in the trio, while Morell had joined the group literally the same week the show was documented. The trio had quickly found its footing, however, playing at the height of their powers individually and collectively. For proof, look no further than the extended drum/bass interaction on the second disc's "Autumn Leaves."

Throughout the two sets, Evans showcases his gift for interpreting standards, playing only one original ("Turn Out the Stars") over the seventeen tracks. "My Funny Valentine" moves effortlessly from tenderness to passion, while "Gone With the Wind" erupts at a breakneck pace and "Here's That Rainy Day" concludes the evening with heart-breaking emotion.

Students of Evans' music will be delighted to see that three pieces ("Emily," "Yesterdays," and "'Round Midnight") are represented in both the first and second sets, offering a rare opportunity to compare the soloists' diverging takes on the same tunes in a single evening. Also, as Feldman points out in his notes, several of the selections possess historic significance: both "My Funny Valentine" and "Here's That Rainy Day" (and possibly "Mother of Earl") mark Evans' first documented trio performances of those songs, while "Here's That Rainy Day" may be the first time Evans recorded that piece period.

In addition to offering this vital concert for the first time, Feldman and Klabin have labored to surround the music with important context, assembling a package rich with photographs, information and reminiscences. Both Gomez and Morell offer heartfelt reflections of their time with Evans, while Klabin explains his methods in enlightening detail and Raphael D'Lugoff looks back at growing up in his father's legendary venue. A younger Raphael can be seen in a family photo alongside his father and sister Sharon, one of several historical documents included in the package, which also features memorabilia from the club and the actual contract for the week signed by Evans. D'Lugoff also provided a picture of the bustling street scene outside the Gate from the 1960s.

The liner notes also include an essay by pioneering jazz critic Nat Hentoff, an appreciation by the great vibist Gary Burton. These notes are lined with iconic photographs by Jan Persson, Raymond Ross, Herb Snitzer, Fred Seligo, and Tom Copi, whose striking cover image is graced by the original logo from the Top of the Gate sign.

The album will be available in a 2-CD deluxe digi-pack with a 28-page booklet. Additionally, a limited first-edition pressing of 3,000 hand-numbered 3-LP 180 Gram vinyl box sets will be made available, pressed by Record Technology Incorporated (R.T.I.), including a 4-panel booklet featuring the same content as the CD booklet. This edition was pressed at 45 RPM for optimum sound and mastered by Bernie Grundman. The entire package will also be downloadable with an e-booklet (where available) for those who choose to purchase the album digitally.

Resonance Records has chosen to participate and show support as an independent label for Record Store Day (April 21) by exclusively releasing a limited edition pressing of 1500 units of a 4 track "Selections From Top of The Gate," 10" record, pressed by Rainbo on cobalt blue-colored vinyl at 33 1/3 RPM. 

Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of the Gate follows Resonance's release earlier this year of Echoes of Indiana Avenue, a landmark collection of previously unreleased recordings of guitar master Wes Montgomery. Together, the two collections cement the label's place at the forefront of both new and archival jazz. "Our mission is both exposing deserving living talent and preserving the great jazz of the past," Klabin says. "We look to capture moments that are seminal or important in the career of the musician and in the history of modern jazz, so this is a perfect example."

For Feldman, the opportunity to work on not only a Bill Evans release but a recording from this particular era has been a dream come true. The producers' introduction to Evans' music came courtesy of the pianist’s work with this particular group, featuring Gomez and Morell. "This is something very personal for me because it was one of the first groups of Bill's that I had a love for," Feldman says. "I'm just so grateful to George that he took the initiative to document these performances, and it's just incredible that it's been tucked away for all these years and has stood the test of time."

Klabin recalls that October night 40-odd years ago as "one of the best experiences of my life. This was one of the best Bill Evans trios playing during a period, on a night, where Bill Evans was at his best." 

Bill Evans · Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of the Gate 

(recorded October 23, 1968)

Resonance Records HCD - 2012 · Release Date: June 12, 2012

Bill Evans - piano

Eddie Gomez - bass

Marty Morell - drums

TRACK LIST:

Disc One - Set 1

1. Emily (Mandel & Mercer)

2. Witchcraft (C. Coleman)

3. Yesterdays (J. Kern)

4. Round Midnight (T. Monk)

5. My Funny Valentine (Rogers & Hart)

6. California Here I Come (De Sylva, Jolson & Myers)

7. Gone With The Wind (Magidson & Wrubel)

8. Alfie (B. Bacharach)

9. Turn Out The Stars (B. Evans)

Disc Two - Set 2

1. Yesterdays (J. Kern)

2. Emily (Mandel & Mercer)

3. In A Sentimental Mood (D. Ellington)

4. Round Midnight (T. Monk)

5. Autumn Leaves (J. Kosma)

6. Someday My Prince Will Come (Churchill & Morey)

7. Mother Of Earl (E. Zindar)

8. Here's That Rainy Day (Burke & Van Heusen)

For further information on this and other Resonance Records releases, visit: ResonanceRecords.org

 

Resonance Records is a program of the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation,

a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

For media information, please contact:

323-556-0500

Or email:

info@resonancerecords.org

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