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Buy this set and listen to it in moments of repose. I thank heaven that this last incomprehensibly beautiful opening of the worlds most pianistically beautiful flower was captured so well on recording tape. Bill continues to bring joy to many many thousands of hearts. Words cannot describe the enormity of this "moment" or collection of "moments" in musical history. It will lift your heart and inspire you. I know first hand, as I was there for his last set at the Keystone as a young jazz piano player in San Francisco in 1980. This recording represents a peak performance of perhaps the greatest (most influential) jazz pianist in its short history, incredibly occurring in the last hours of his life. The evening was electrifying, the highs joyous beyond measure, and the lows a deep well of heart-ripping emotion.
I've listened to most of his live recordings and I have to say, even the LaFaro days did not produce music of this pedigree.I'd be lying if I said much of the music here is upbeat. Evans is at the top of his game.Most great art moves us in ways that are difficult to explain. It is melancholy. I cannot recommend this enough. Haunted by his inner demons, Evans found solace in heroin and (towards the end) cocaine. Finding the right adjective to describe Bill Evans is tough. Genius, mastermind, virtuoso, etc.--they all fit. They all struggled with booze & drugs.
Every song on "The Last Waltz" is absolutely dripping with emotion, and one gets the sense that Bill was trying to go out with a bang. This recording is no exception and like a Fellini film or Yeats poem, leaves the listener breathless. Evans' circumstances at the time of recording. It is a brooding, nuanced portrait of one of the greatest men to ever play the piano. This desperation doesn't translate into sloppy playing--quite the opposite. Sadly, Evans lost the battle and his body succumbed in 1980. Evans was dying at the piano as he stomped through "Up With the Lark" or delicately teased out "Knit for Mary F", and you can sense an urgent desperation to impart his gift to an audience just one more time. Evans was simply one of the most innovative jazz pianists of the 20th century.
This is partly, I think, because the songs take on another dimension due to Mr. He poured everything he had left into his music. As jazz fans know, this is a common thread that links the greats: Charlie Parker, Art Pepper, Miles Davis, John Coltrane. One of his last shows was a multi-night gig at San Francisco's Keystone Korner, captured on this BRILLIANT box.Much like the aforementioned Art Pepper, Evans' playing took on a new dimension in his final years.
Some songs here are repeated (up to 6 times) over the course of the box set, but I'd be perfectly happy to listen to them back to back (and have).It may lack the intense sense of discovery and invention from his early work, but this has all the wonderful interplay and sensitivity of Evan's great trio works from the past, and clearly shows he had plenty of great music left in him when he passed away. How could hours and hours of recordings from a dying man's last gig be so inventive, so satisfying, so consistent, so full of life. How can this band bring something new and fascinating to each rendition.
Marc Johnson really brings out the best in Bill Evans. The tone production on this set of albums is also very good.I'm a Bill Evan's fan and own most of what he has recorded. This recording was made in 1980 about a week before Bill Evan's untimely death. I think it was a sound he was looking to create ever since the untimely death of Scott LaFaro.There is an intensity to Bill Evan's playing a poignancy that is not to be missed. I have never regretted laying out the cash for this set of albums. He may have new it was coming because he is really at his best in this recording. Every track is incredible.I particularly like the recording because of the chemistry of the group.
I can't imagine anyone who puports to love music not wanting these CD's. I first heard him solo in Conversations with Myself in an old record now scratched beyond recognition and have forever been listening out of the corner of my ear for him on albums - trios, groups, sideman - and always feel that he has been playing in a way that tells us who he is and what it is he wants us to remember. At least I have these. I was going to go hear Bill Evans for the first time in Boston at the gig after this one - and he died. And these CD's, are what I think he wants us to remember. They are truly a thank you - to the people then and the people who would come - and a way of thinking of Bill Evans that will always be in whatever parts of our minds are moved and thrilled by music, skill and art.
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