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Beatstreet

Bill Evans: Loose Blues

Milestone/ Universal; CD; Rs. 295

Probably best known to the lay public for his participation in the best-selling jazz album of all time, Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue”, Bill Evans was greatly appreciated by jazz aficionados as a pianist and composer, marked by the profundity of his playing and the original beauty of his compositions. This album, taken from a 1962 recording session which did not see light till two years after his death in 1982, places him in a slightly bigger setting than the trio (with a bassist and a drummer) or solo sessions he was used to. Apart from Philly Joe Jones on drums (who like him had worked with Davis) and Ron Carter on bass, it has Zoot Sims on tenor saxophone, one of the greatest exponents of cool jazz, and Jim Hall on guitar, possibly the pick of his peers on that instrument. Evans was not only addicted to heroin at the time of this recording but also in pressing need of money to feed his habit. Yet the music shows no trace of being affected either by his addiction or the resulting ulterior financial motive for his work. Evans and his colleagues sail through eight numbers lasting about 45 minutes seemingly with deceptive ease. Evans, who also had something of a reputation for cool jazz, and Sims, in particular, toss off beautiful improvisations on all the pieces, Hall also contributing equally in this department. Most of the themes are rendered either by the ensemble or by Sims, whose tone is marvellously light and airy. Carter and Jones pitch in with a duo intro on the two takes of the title track, whimsically respelt “Loose Bloose”, while Jones has a sizzling solo intro on “Funkallero”, perhaps the best-known of the compositions (all by Evans himself) here. We also get piano intros on a couple of pieces, as also a guitar-piano intro on “There Came You”. The title of the last track, the brisk-paced “Fun Ride”, sums up one aspect of the album, but altogether it is much more than that.

JAZZEBEL

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