| Conversations with Myself | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1963 | |||
| Recorded | February 6, 9 and May 20, 1963 New York City | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 36:43 (original LP) 43:49 (CD reissue) | |||
| Label | Verve V6-8526 | |||
| Producer | Creed Taylor | |||
| Bill Evans chronology | ||||
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Conversations with Myself is a 1963 album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans recorded for Verve Records.
During studio sessions on February 6 and 9 and May 20, 1963, Evans recorded on Steinway piano CD 318—the "cherished" instrument of classical pianist Glenn Gould, who was "a connoisseur of Evans's work"—using a method of overdubbing three different yet corresponding piano tracks for each song. [1] The project posed significant "technical and musical challenges" for both Evans and his producer, Creed Taylor. [2]
Because the method was considered controversial in jazz circles at the time, Evans included "A Statement" in the liner notes to the original LP (reprinted in the 1997 CD reissue), in which he wrote: [3]
There is a viewpoint which holds that any recorded music which cannot also be produced in natural live performance is a "gimmick" and therefore should not be considered as a pure musical effort. Because the performance and recording procedure used in this recording might stimulate this issue to a question in some minds, I requested the opportunity to state my firm belief in the integrity of the idea upon which this album was conceived and some supporting reasons.
To the person who uses music as a medium for the expression of ideas, feelings, images, or what have you; anything which facilitates this expression is properly his instrument. ... I remember that in recording the selections, as I listened to the first track while playing the second, and the first two while playing the third, the process involved was an artificial duplication of simultaneous performance in that each track represented a musical mind responding to another musical mind or minds.
The argument that the same mind was involved in all three performances could be advanced, but I feel that this is not quite true. The functions of each track are different, and as one in speech feels a different state of mind making statements than in responding to statements or commenting on the exchange involved in the first two; so I feel that the music here has more the quality of a "trio" than a solo effort.
Another condition to be considered is the fact that I know my musical techniques more thoroughly than any other person, so that, it seems to me, I am equipped to respond to my previous musician statements with the most accuracy and clarity.
Evans followed Conversations with Myself with Further Conversations with Myself (1967) and New Conversations (1978), both also recorded with overdubbed piano tracks.
Evans was not the first jazz musician to use overdubbing. In 1941, Sidney Bechet had made an experimental one-man-band recording of the song "The Sheik of Araby." In addition, the technique had been extensively used by guitarist Les Paul, and Rosemary Clooney had overdubbed vocals to prerecorded big-band tracks made by Duke Ellington for the album Blue Rose (1956), among other examples. [4] Most notably, the pianist Lennie Tristano, who was a significant influence on Evans, [5] had made extensive use of overdubbing on a self-titled album recorded in 1955. Evans biographer Peter Pettinger notes that this recording was "technically, although not musically, the precursor" of Evans's ambitious album. [6]
Conversations with Myself features five jazz standards along with three compositions by Thelonious Monk. For one of the Monk pieces, "Blue Monk," Evans uses only two piano tracks instead of the three used for all the other selections. [7] Another of the Monk tunes, "Bemsha Swing," wasn't included on the original LP but was highly valued by Evans's manager, Helen Keane, and reinstated for the CD releases [8] along with Evans's interpretation of "A Sleepin' Bee" by Harold Arlen.
The first piece recorded for the album was a new Evans original, "N.Y.C.'s No Lark," a "brooding" composition commemorating Evans's friend and fellow jazz pianist Sonny Clark, who had died one month before Evans began work on this album. The title of the piece is an anagram based on Clark's name, [9] and its "B" section alludes to Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird , "which tells a story of death and transfiguration." [10]
The program is rounded out by a complex elaboration of the love theme composed by Alex North for the 1960 Stanley Kubrick film Spartacus , which Evans had seen at a drive-in with his friend the pianist Warren Bernhardt. Bernhardt recalled that during the film, Evans had said, "Oh, wow, listen to that theme, that's a beautiful theme." [11] Evans biographer Keith Shadwick describes this highly acclaimed performance as "utterly inspired .... It goes beyond what is done elsewhere on the album .... Here, the pacing, contrast and drama that occur throughout the exchanges are a constant marvel. Evans takes enormous risks, such as the miraculous tracery of the fast right-hand lines embroidering the final collective improvisation." [12]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| DownBeat |  [13] (Original Lp release) |
| AllMusic |  [14] |
| All About Jazz |  [15] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | [16] |
The album earned Evans his first Grammy Award in 1964 for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group, and had received a 5-star review in DownBeat in 1963. [17]
Writing for AllMusic , music critic Michael G. Nastos said:
Certainly one of the more unusual items in the discography of an artist whose consistency is as evident as any in modern jazz, and nothing should dissuade you from purchasing this one of a kind album that in some ways set a technological standard for popular music—and jazz—to come. [14]
Jason Laipply of All About Jazz wrote:
[The album] was an instant classic for the jazz community. Evans' work on the ten tunes included here is truly inspired and amazing to behold .... [T]his glimpse of the artist at a heightened level of expression is very rewarding indeed. However, for the casual fan, I would not suggest this disc. The musical vocabulary is complex enough that the simple beauty of the songs, and Evans’ playing, is at times lost. [15]
Pettinger, himself a concert pianist, calls the album "a work of staggering resource and beauty, appreciated especially (but not only) by professional pianists." [18] Shadwick observes that Evans accorded "each recorded piano part a rhythmic, harmonic and melodic role in direct parallel to his own trio's work." [19] He also notes that the album was released "to universal critical acclaim" [20] and that he regards it as the pianist's "most revered" recording next to only "the 1961 live-at-the-Vanguard recordings." [21]
Verve released the album on CD in 1984 and then brought out a newly remastered digipak "Verve Master Edition" in 1997.
Tracks 9 and 10 not part of original LP release. Track 7 recorded on February 6, 1963; tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 8-10 on February 9; tracks 3 and 4 recorded on May 20, 1963.
William John Evans was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines continue to influence jazz pianists today.
Portrait in Jazz is the fifth studio album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans as a leader, released in 1960. It is the first of only two studio albums to be recorded with his famous trio featuring bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian.
Explorations is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans that was originally released by Riverside Records in 1961. It was the second and final studio album Evans recorded with his classic trio featuring Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums.
New Jazz Conceptions is the debut album by jazz pianist Bill Evans, recorded in two sessions during September 1956 for Riverside Records.
Undercurrent is a 1962 jazz album by pianist Bill Evans and guitarist Jim Hall. The two artists collaborated again in 1966 on the album Intermodulation.
Intermodulation is a 1966 jazz album by pianist Bill Evans and guitarist Jim Hall.
Know What I Mean? is a 1962 jazz album by alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, accompanied by Bill Evans and the rhythm section of the Modern Jazz Quartet. It was released on the Riverside label as RLP-433.
Everybody Digs Bill Evans is a trio and solo album by jazz pianist Bill Evans. It was released in early 1959 on the Riverside Records label.
Moon Beams is a 1962 album by jazz musician Bill Evans and the first trio album he recorded after the death of bassist Scott LaFaro. It introduces two important Evans originals, "Re: Person I Knew", and "Very Early," which Evans had actually composed as an undergraduate. The originals serve as bookends to an album otherwise consisting of standards from the 1930s and 1940s.
You Must Believe in Spring is an album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans, recorded by him with bassist Eddie Gómez and drummer Eliot Zigmund in August 1977 and released in February 1981, shortly after Evans's death in September 1980.
Further Conversations with Myself is a 1967 album by jazz pianist Bill Evans. All the pieces are solo with piano overdubs, a method Evans used on his earlier release Conversations with Myself. This time, however, he employed only two piano tracks instead of three. The album was nominated for a Grammy. It was reissued on CD by Verve in 1999.
Alone is a solo piano album by jazz musician Bill Evans, recorded in the fall of 1968 for Verve Records, featuring a particularly notable 14+-minute performance of the jazz standard "Never Let Me Go." Evans contributed notes to the album, including the following statement:
Perhaps the hours of greatest pleasure in my life have come about as a result of the capacity of the piano to be in itself a complete expressive musical medium. In retrospect, I think that these countless hours of aloneness with music unified the directive energy of my life. At those times when I have achieved this sense of oneness while playing alone, the many technical or analytic aspects of the music happened of themselves with positive rightness which always served to remind me that to understand music most profoundly one only has to be listening well. Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience. This has nothing to do with my desire to communicate or not, but rather I think just a problem of personal self-consciousness which had to be conquered through discipline and concentration. Yet, to know one is truly alone with one’s instrument and music has always been an attractive and conducive situation for me to find my best playing level. Therefore, what I desired to present in a solo piano recording was especially this unique feeling.
I Will Say Goodbye is an album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans, recorded in 1977 but not released until January 1980. It was his final album for Fantasy Records, making the title quite appropriate.
Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra is an album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans and his trio, released in 1966, featuring jazz arrangements of works by classical composers Granados, J.S. Bach, Scriabin, Fauré, and Chopin. The trio is accompanied by an orchestra consisting of strings and woodwinds arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman. Originals by both Evans and Ogerman are also included.
Bill Evans at Town Hall is a live album from 1966 by American jazz pianist Bill Evans and his trio. It is his only commercial trio recording featuring drummer Arnold Wise, and it was the last recorded appearance of bassist Chuck Israels as a regular member of the trio.
Quintessence is an album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans. It was recorded in 1976 for Fantasy Records and released the following year. At this time usually playing solo or with his trio, for these sessions Evans was the leader of an all-star quintet featuring Harold Land on tenor saxophone, guitarist Kenny Burrell, Ray Brown on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.
The Gary McFarland Orchestra is an album by composer, conductor, and vibraphonist Gary McFarland with an orchestra featuring guest soloist jazz pianist Bill Evans recorded in early 1963 for Verve.
The Tokyo Concert is a live album by jazz pianist Bill Evans with bassist Eddie Gómez and drummer Marty Morell recorded at the Yūbin Chokin Hall in Tokyo, Japan, in 1973 and released on the Fantasy label.
Symbiosis is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans with an orchestra playing a two-movement work composed by conductor Claus Ogerman, recorded in February 1974 and originally released on the German MPS label.
Time Remembered is a modal jazz standard composed by jazz pianist Bill Evans.
