Sweet and Lovely: Bill Evans’ Trio Explorations Revisited in New Set from Craft
Craft Recordings is revisiting a halcyon period of The Bill Evans Trio. Due on November 21, Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Recordings collects the complete studio recordings by the Bill Evans Trio lineup of Evans (1929-1980), bassist Scott LaFaro (1936-1961), and drummer Paul Motian (1931-2011). The 3CD or 5LP set presents the complete albums Portrait in Jazz (1960) and Explorations (1961) plus 26 alternate takes – a full 17 of which are previously unreleased.
Evans, a pioneer in the area of modal jazz (in which the solos build from the key, not – as is traditional – from chord changes only), enjoyed many fruitful label affiliations in his too-short lifetime, including tenures at Verve, MGM, Fantasy, and Warner Bros. (among others). But one of the most beloved remains his earliest – with Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer’s New York-based Riverside Records. Evans’ 1956 debut New Jazz Conceptions was released on Riverside, and he remained with the label through 1962. Even while fighting the considerable demons that ultimately led to his death at the age of 51, Evans was capable of creating music both heartbreaking and beautiful. He arguably found his most sympathetic partners when he formed his first Trio on Riverside.
Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian were, for the brief but incandescent period between 1959 and 1961, as closely attuned as any trio in the jazz oeuvre. LaFaro and Motian weren’t so much supporting Evans as all three gentlemen were playing as one voice, tearing down the walls of convention in a free, post-bop environment. Yet this groundbreaking team only recorded three dates together, resulting in two live albums and two studio albums. The two studio sets are featured on Haunted Heart. (The live dates were presented on Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard).
Portrait in Jazz – Evans’ fifth LP as a leader – was recorded eight months after Evans gifted Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue with his piano and compositional skills. Motian had previously recorded with Evans on New Jazz Conceptions and in various group settings, but the addition of LaFaro to the lineup led to an altogether new sound in which the bass was of almost equal importance as the piano. On the December 28, 1959 session recorded at Reeves Sound Studio in New York, the trio reimagined standards both classic (“Someday My Prince Will Come,” “What Is This Thing Called Love,” “Spring Is Here”) and contemporary (“Witchcraft”) as well as two Evans originals (“Peri’s Scope” and “Blue in Green,” the latter of which is co-credited to Miles Davis and was recorded just months earlier for Kind of Blue). Evans transformed the language of the piano with his introspective, sensitive, and conversational playing, all qualities on full display on Portrait in Jazz.
Evans, Motian, and LaFaro didn’t enter the studio again until the February 2, 1961 date at Bell Sound that yielded Explorations. (The delay was largely due to Evans’ battle with addiction, which led LaFaro to play with Ornette Coleman in the interim.) Though tensions between Evans and LaFaro spilled over into the studio, the resulting album recaptured the trio’s magic. Evans originals were absent from this set which comprised classics from Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz (“Haunted Heart”), Irving Berlin (“How Deep Is the Ocean”), and Harry Warren and Mack Gordon (“I Wish I Knew”) as well as Miles Davis’ “Nardis” (which Evans had previously recorded with Cannonball Adderley) and the waltz “Elsa,” composed by Evans’ friend Earl Zindars. (Evans returned to the ballad just a few weeks later with Adderley and then again with his new trio in 1965.) “How Deep Is the Ocean” is particularly notable as Evans and the group didn’t state the melody until near the piece’s conclusion.
Sadly, any further explorations of the original Bill Evans Trio were curtailed when LaFaro perished in a car accident, aged just 25, in 1961. Evans’ grief was so consuming that he didn’t perform in a public setting for nearly one year after LaFaro’s death. On these records, Evans achieved an intimacy on his instrument that remains unparalleled today, deconstructing and reconstructing classic melodies and his own compositions with ceaseless invention and abundant heart. Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings includes rare photos, an introduction by The Doors’ John Densmore, liner notes by Eugene Holley Jr., and remastered audio by Paul Blakemore. The vinyl version has had lacquers cut by Kevin Gray and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl. You’ll find the track listing and pre-order links below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Studio Recordings (Craft, 2025)
3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
5LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD 1/LP 1-2, Sides A-C
- Come Rain or Come Shine (Take 5, Album Master)
- Autumn Leaves (Take 13, Stereo Album Master)
- Witchcraft (Take 5, Album Master)
- When I Fall in Love (Take 2, Album Master)
- Peri’s Scope (Take 2, Album Master)
- What is This Thing Called Love (Take 4, Album Master)
- Spring is Here (Take 6, Album Master)
- Someday My Prince Will Come (Take 5, Album Master)
- Blue in Green (Take 3, Album Master)
- Witchcraft (Take 4, Alternate, Mono) *
- Witchcraft (Take 6, Alternate, Mono) *
- Spring is Here (Take 4, Alternate, Mono) *
- Come Rain or Come Shine (Take 2, Alternate, Mono) *
- Come Rain or Come Shine (Take 4, Alternate, Mono)
CD 2/LP LP 2-4, Sides D-G
- Autumn Leaves (Take 9, Mono Album Master)
- Blue in Green (Take 1, Alternate, Mono)
- Blue in Green (Take 2, Alternate, Mono)
- Someday My Prince Will Come (Take 1, Alternate, Mono) *
- Israel (Take 1, Stereo Album Master)
- Haunted Heart (Take 3, Stereo Album Master)
- Beautiful Love (Take 2, Stereo Album Master)
- Elsa (Take 5, Stereo Album Master)
- Nardis (Take 2, Stereo Album Master)
- How Deep is the Ocean (Take 3, Stereo Album Master)
- I Wish I Knew (Take 4, Stereo Album Master)
- Sweet and Lovely (Take 4, Stereo Album Master)
- Elsa (Take 4, Alternate, Stereo) *
- Elsa (Take 6, Alternate, Stereo) *
- Sweet and Lovely (Take 3, Alternate, Stereo) *
- Sweet and Lovely (Take 5, Alternate, Stereo) *
CD 3/LP 4-5, Sides H-J
- Sweet and Lovely (Take 6, Alternate, Stereo) *
- Nardis (Take 1, Alternate, Stereo) *
- Beautiful (Take 1, Alternate, Stereo)
- I Wish I Knew (Take 2, Alternate, Stereo)
- I Wish I Knew (Take 3, Alternate, Stereo) *
- I Wish I Knew (Take 5, Alternate, Stereo) *
- Haunted Heart (Take 2, Alternate, Stereo) *
- The Boy Next Door (Take 1, Outtake, Stereo) *
- The Boy Next Door (Take 4, Outtake, Stereo)
- The Boy Next Door (Take 6, Outtake, Stereo)
- Walking Up (Take 1, Outtake, Stereo) *
- How Deep is the Ocean (Take 1, Alternate, Stereo) *
- How Deep is the Ocean (Take 2, Alternate, Stereo)
CD 1, Tracks 1-9 released as Portrait in Jazz – Riverside RLP 1162, 1959
CD 1, Track 14 and CD 2, Track 2 released on Portrait in Jazz (Keepnews Collection) – Riverside RCD-30678, 2008
CD 2, Track 1 released on mono pressings of Portrait in Jazz – Riverside RLP 12-315, 1959
CD 2, Track 3 and CD 3, Tracks 3 and 9 released on The Complete Riverside Recordings – Riverside RCD-018-2, 1987
CD 2, Tracks 5-12 released as Explorations – Riverside RLP 9351, 1961
CD 3, Tracks 4, 10 and 13 on Explorations (Original Jazz Classics Remasters) – Original Jazz Classics OJC-32842-02, 2011
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With the wealth of “alternate takes – a full 17 of which are previously unreleased” my hope is that, with this release, the record (pun intended) is complete! That is, it would appear to this fan that his ship has finally come in, the end of the rainbow’s story arc (yes, another pun)!