More Bill Evans

Got through another Evans CD from the batch that J.'s father sent me. This one is Montreux III, a live set of duets with Gomez recorded and released in 1975. Definitely has its moments, though I am not sure how much it did for me as a whole. The opening Elsa is solid, Minha, which I first heard on his set of Paris concerts from '79, is as melancholy and pensive as ever, and though the entire thing is played rubato, at only four minutes long it does not bore you. The Summer Knows, played as an encore, is also attratcive, and there are some good solos scattered throughout the rest of the tracks. A couple of things immediately jumped out at me, though. First of all, way too much Gomez. I hate to harp on a good musician, especially not being one myself (none of any consequence, anyway), but unless you're Mae West, too much of a good thing could be a problem. John Lewis's Django is one big Gomez solo, his tone is no better than on Half Moon Bay, and the overall sound quality is worse. Not a recipe for success. Evans plays some electric piano here and there. I knew he experimented with it in the seventies, but never actually heard him before. It comes off as an innocent novelty. It adds a little color, but I am not sure I'd miss it if he stuck to acoustic for the entire set. The most curious, though, is how straight Evans plays throughout the date. Straight, linear improvisations, mostly single-note lines, comping metronomically in block chords -- he doesn't really sound like himself. A different side of Evans, and not a bad one per se, but not really distinctive. Was he flying on autopilot because he couldn't get it together that day to play for real? Then why release the record?