| New Jazz Conceptions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | End of February 1957 [1] | |||
| Recorded | September 18 and 27, 1956 | |||
| Studio | Reeves Sound Studios, New York City | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 41:18 (original LP) 49:56 (CD reissue) | |||
| Label | Riverside RLP 12-223 | |||
| Producer | Orrin Keepnews | |||
| Bill Evans chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Alternative cover | ||||
 LP cover | ||||
New Jazz Conceptions is the debut album by jazz pianist Bill Evans, recorded in two sessions during September 1956 for Riverside Records.
Evans was playing a gig with his old friend, the guitarist Mundell Lowe, who had been recording for the newly emerging independent jazz label Riverside. Lowe played a demo tape featuring Evans over the phone to Riverside producer Orrin Keepnews and his partner, Bill Grauer, who were sufficiently impressed that they resolved to catch Evans playing live. After hearing him at the Village Vanguard several times, they offered him a recording contract at scale wages. Keepnews had some trouble persuading Evans to record—an ironic situation, as "usually, of course, it is the artist trying to persuade the producer." [2]
The album was recorded in two sessions on September 18 and 27, 1956. [3] Evans played three extremely brief solos: Duke Ellington's "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good," Richard Rodgers's "My Romance," which would remain an integral part of Evans's repertoire and be recorded by him many times in trio settings, and the original version of his own most widely recognized and recorded composition, "Waltz for Debby." [4]
On the album, these solos were interspersed among eight trio recordings featuring bassist Teddy Kotick and drummer Paul Motian, both of whom Evans had been playing with in Tony Scott's quartet. [5] Motian would go on to become a member of Evans's classic 1959–1961 trio with Scott LaFaro. The trio recordings included three more originals by Evans: "Five," "Displacement," and "No Cover, No Minimum," the first of which would become a regular part of his repertoire for the rest of his career. [6] Like many jazz tunes, "Five" is based on the chord changes of Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" and, unusually for Evans, it has an angularity reminiscent of the compositions of Thelonious Monk; [7] pianist Warren Bernhardt, a close friend of Evans, noted that it's extremely difficult to play. [8]
New Jazz Conceptions was Evans's sixth recording project overall, and he wouldn't allow himself to be coaxed back into the studio as a leader for another 27 months, for the seminal follow-up Everybody Digs Bill Evans . In the meantime, he continued to develop his personal style as a sideman, recording with such important contemporaries as George Russell, Charles Mingus, Helen Merrill, Miles Davis, Michel Legrand, Cannonball Adderley, and Art Farmer. [9]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| All About Jazz | (no rating) [10] |
| AllMusic |   [11] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [12] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | [13] |
Although a critical success that gained positive reviews in DownBeat and Metronome magazines, New Jazz Conceptions was initially a financial failure, selling only 800 copies the first year. [4]
Writing for AllMusic, music critic Scott Yanow said about the album: "Bill Evans' debut as a leader found the 27-year-old pianist already sounding much different than the usual Bud Powell-influenced keyboardists of the time. ... A strong start to a rather significant career." [11] Conversely, David Rickert of All About Jazz noted the apparent influence of Powell and wrote, "Even at this stage he had the chops to make this a good piano jazz album, but in the end it's not a very good Bill Evans album. ... There are glimpses of the later trademarks of Evans' style." [10]
Evans biographer Keith Shadwick comments that the album "conclusively demonstrated Evans to be a highly competent and sophisticated modern jazz pianist with a definite compositional gift, but also showed him to be considerably short of a unified musical personality. It would be no coincidence that he would not make another album as a leader for close on two-and-a-half years." [14]
New Jazz Conceptions was digitally remastered and released on CD by Riverside/Original Jazz Classics in 1987 with an alternative version of "No Cover, No Minimum" as a bonus track. Riverside reissued it with 20-bit K2 super coding in 2004.
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.
Sunday at the Village Vanguard is a live album by jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans and his Trio consisting of Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Paul Motian. Released in 1961, the album is routinely ranked as one of the best live jazz recordings of all time.
Riverside Records was an American jazz record company and label. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, Jr, under his firm Bill Grauer Productions in 1953, the label played an important role in the jazz record industry for a decade. Riverside headquarters were located in New York City, at 553 West 51st Street.
Waltz for Debby is a live album by jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans and his trio consisting of Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Paul Motian. It was released in 1962.
Orrin Keepnews was an American jazz writer and record producer known for founding Riverside Records and Milestone Records, for freelance work, and for his work at other labels.
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.
On Green Dolphin Street is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans, recorded with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones in early 1959, shortly before the Kind of Blue sessions in which both Evans and Chambers participated, but not released until 1975 as part of the double LP Peace Piece and Other Pieces. In 1995, it was issued on CD by Milestone Records under the current title, which comes from the jazz standard "On Green Dolphin Street" by Bronislaw Kaper, which Evans had first recorded the previous year with Miles Davis.
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.
The Bill Evans Album is a recording by the jazz pianist Bill Evans, released in 1971 on the Columbia label. It was his first album to feature all compositions written, arranged, and performed by him. On the record, Evans plays both an acoustic and a Fender Rhodes electric piano.
"Waltz for Debby" is a jazz standard composed by pianist Bill Evans, which became "his most famous tune." He first recorded it as a brief solo piano piece on his debut album, New Jazz Conceptions (1956). Lyrics were added about six years later by Evans's friend Gene Lees. "Debby" in the composition's title refers to Evans's then 3-year-old niece, Debby Evans, whom he often took to the beach.
Loose Blues is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans released on the Milestone label, featuring performances by Evans with Zoot Sims, Jim Hall, Ron Carter, and Philly Joe Jones, recorded in 1962.
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.
Jazz à la Bohemia is a live album by American jazz pianist Randy Weston recorded on October 14, 1956 at the Café Bohemia in Greenwich Village and released on Riverside later that year.
