Stan Getz & Bill Evans – Previously Unreleased Recordings

A meeting that had to wait

Stan Getz and Bill Evans made these recordings on May 5 and 6, 1964. The material reached listeners as an album roughly a decade later, which explains the historical subtitle Previously Unreleased Recordings. It refers to sessions that had been held back at the time, rather than to a newly discovered recording today. Creed Taylor produced the dates.

The two names suggest an intriguing partnership, but the complete personnel make the prospect richer still. Elvin Jones plays drums, with Richard Davis and Ron Carter taking different sessions on bass. These are four musical voices with enough individual experience to shape much more than accompaniment. Getz and Evans share the billing, while the rhythm section remains essential to the conversation.

Two dates, two bass players

Side A comes from the May 6 session with Ron Carter: Night And Day, But Beautiful and Evans’ own Funkallero. Richard Davis plays on the three regularly listed selections on side B, recorded on May 5: My Heart Stood Still, Melinda and Grandfather’s Waltz. Getz, Evans and Jones are common to both dates.

The change offers a useful listening perspective without reducing either bassist to a simple label. What happens to the relationship between piano, bass and drums when one participant changes? When does Evans support the saxophone line, and when does he offer a separate movement alongside it? A small ensemble makes such choices especially rewarding to follow, because each musician has room to establish an individual role within the performance.

Songbook material and an Evans composition

Cole Porter’s Night And Day opens the regular programme. But Beautiful continues the exploration of songbook material before Funkallero introduces Evans as a composer. On the second side, writing by Rodgers and Hart and by Burton Lane and Alan Jay Lerner sits alongside Lars Färnlöf’s Grandfather’s Waltz. These compositions provide starting points for this particular group of musicians.

This is an inviting record to revisit from different perspectives: follow the tenor saxophone on one pass, the piano on another, and then concentrate on Jones. The Discogs documentation for the reissue also records a short, incomplete Dark Eyes take as an unlisted addition. Because the publisher does not include it in the regular tracklist, our notes identify that distinction instead of presenting it as an ordinary listed selection.

The 2024 Verve edition

The Acoustic Sounds Series presents the album as a single 180-gram LP at 33⅓ RPM. Ryan K. Smith handled mastering at Sterling Sound, with pressing by Quality Record Pressings. A Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket completes the presentation. The publisher identifies original analogue tapes as the source.

This edition deserves to be distinguished from other releases of the shared recordings. References differ on channel information and some timings, so we do not promise unsupported precision on those points. The musical occasion itself is clearly documented: two days in May 1964, an exceptional small ensemble and a body of performances that became available as an album only after a considerable wait.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and dispatch from Hilden.

More from the series: Verve (Acoustic Sounds Series)

Artist page: All titles by Bill Evans

Series: Verve – all 34 records: voices, organ and bossa nova

Musicians

Participants and documented credit status. Track references correspond to the tracklist.

• Stan Getztenor saxophoneParticipation: Album personnel
• Bill EvanspianoParticipation: Album personnel
• Ron CarterbassParticipation: A1, A2, A3
• Richard DavisbassParticipation: B1, B2, B3
• Elvin JonesdrumsParticipation: Album personnel

Ron Carter: side A, May 6, 1964. Richard Davis: side B, May 5, 1964. The incomplete Dark Eyes appears as an unlisted addition only in the Discogs documentation for this edition. Conflicting durations are omitted.