Undercurrent | ||||
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Studio album by Bill Evans and Jim Hall | ||||
Released | August 18, 1962 [1] | |||
Recorded | April 24 & May 14, 1962 | |||
Studio | Sound Makers, New York City | |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Length | 30:12original LP 52:21 CD reissue | |||
Label | United Artists UAJS 15003 | |||
Producer | Alan Douglas | |||
Bill Evans chronology | ||||
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Bill Evans and Jim Hall chronology | ||||
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Alternative cover | ||||
![]() Blue Note 1988 reissue |
Undercurrent is a 1962 album by jazz pianist Bill Evans and jazz guitarist Jim Hall. The two artists collaborated again in 1966 on the album Intermodulation .
The front cover image for Undercurrent is Toni Frissell's photograph "Weeki Wachee Spring,Florida". The album was originally released on United Artists,then reissued by Solid State in 1968. Later,the album was reissued on the Blue Note label;both Blue Note and United Artists Records have been part of the same catalog for many decades. The original LP and the first CD reissue featured a cropped,blue-tinted version,overlaid with the title and the Blue Note logo in white;but for the most recent (24-bit remastered) CD reissue,the image has been restored to its original black-and-white coloration and size,without lettering.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
DownBeat | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() (Original Lp release) |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
All About Jazz | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
In his November 26,1962 review for DownBeat magazine jazz critic Pete Welding states:"This collaboration between Evans and Hall has resulted in some of the most beautiful,thoroughly ingratiating music it has been my pleasure to hear."
Original LP
Bonus tracks on 2002 Blue Note CD reissue:
Recorded on April 24 (#2,7,8) and May 14 (all others),1962.
Kind of Blue is a studio album by the American jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis. It was released on August 17, 1959 through Columbia Records. For the recording,Davis led a sextet featuring saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley,pianist Bill Evans,bassist Paul Chambers,and drummer Jimmy Cobb,with new band pianist Wynton Kelly appearing on one track—"Freddie Freeloader"—instead of Evans. The album was recorded in two sessions on March 2 and April 22, 1959,at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City.
Explorations is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans that was originally released on Riverside label in 1961. The album won the Billboard Jazz Critics Best Piano LP poll for 1961.
The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album is a 1975 studio album by singer Tony Bennett and pianist Bill Evans.
Intermodulation is a 1966 jazz album by pianist Bill Evans and jazz guitarist Jim Hall. It is a follow-up to their 1962 collaboration,Undercurrent.
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.
1958 Miles is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis,released in 1974 on CBS/Sony. Recording sessions for tracks that appear on the album took place on May 26,1958,at Columbia's 30th Street Studio and September 9,1958,at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. 1958 Miles consists of three songs featured on side two of the LP album Jazz Track,which was released in November 1959,one song from the same session not appearing in the album,and three recordings from Davis' live performance at the Plaza Hotel with his ensemble sextet. The recording date at 30th Street Studio served as the first documented session to feature pianist Bill Evans performing in Davis' group.
Interplay is a 1963 album by jazz musician Bill Evans. It was recorded in July 1962 in New York City for Riverside Records. The Interplay Sessions is a 1982 Milestone album that includes the entirety of this album,and tracks recorded for Riverside on August 21 and 22 of the same year with a different lineup . The Interplay Sessions peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Jazz Albums charts in 1983. The CD reissue Interplay adds another take of "I'll Never Smile Again" as a bonus track. At the Grammy Awards of 1984,Orrin Keepnews won the Grammy Award for Best Album Notes for the reissue.
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.
California Here I Come is a live album by jazz pianist Bill Evans. It was recorded in 1967,but not released on the Verve label until 1982 as a double LP. It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Jazz Album charts in 1983 and was reissued on CD in 2004. The pieces were recorded at the Village Vanguard,where Evans had previously recorded the sets that appeared on the highly influential Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard,both later comprised on the definitive collection The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings,1961.
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.
Alone (Again) is a solo piano album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans,recorded in December 1975. A follow-up to his earlier solo album Alone,it was released in 1977 on Fantasy Records and reissued on CD in 1994 by Original Jazz Classics. At the time it was recorded,Evans had been playing an increasing number of solo dates and was inspired after hearing Marian McPartland play solo in Monterey. Evans's manager Helen Keane commented:
As much as Bill enjoyed playing alone at home,and although by this time he regularly included a solo section in his concert program,he found recording in this context very difficult. It was probably the only area he felt insecure about musically,and the fact that he'd gotten a Grammy for Alone didn't seem to help.
Stan Getz and J.J. Johnson at the Opera House is a 1957 live album by Stan Getz and J. J. Johnson. They were accompanied by the Oscar Peterson trio and Connie Kay on drums. Two different versions of the same material,one recorded in Chicago and one recorded in Los Angeles by the same musicians,were released by Verve under the same title. One recording was mono and the other was stereo.
Portrait of Cannonball (1958) is the ninth album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley,and his first release on the Riverside label,featuring performances by Blue Mitchell,Bill Evans,Sam Jones,and Philly Joe Jones.
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.
Grantstand is an album by American jazz guitarist Grant Green featuring performances recorded in 1961 and released on the Blue Note label in 1962. Green is heard in a quartet with saxophonist Yusef Lateef,organist Jack McDuff,and drummer Al Harewood. The CD reissue released in 1987 features one bonus track from the same session.
This is a Herbie Mann discography. Mann spent his early years recording for a number of jazz oriented record labels,and signed with Atlantic Records in 1961. He recorded with them through the 1960s and 1970s,including their subsidiary Cotillion Records,where he ran his own imprint,Embryo Records,in the 1970s,for his records as well as other musicians. Mann also ran two independent record labels,Herbie Mann Music in the 1980s,and during the 1990s,Kokopelli Records. Minor reissues are not noted.
The Complete Town Hall Concert is a live album by the American bassist,composer and bandleader Charles Mingus,recorded at The Town Hall in New York City and first released on the United Artists label in 1962 as Town Hall Concert. The album was rereleased with additional tracks on the Blue Note label in 1994 as The Complete Town Hall Concert.
Desmond Blue is an album recorded by American jazz saxophonist Paul Desmond released in 1962 and was his first LP for RCA Victor. The album was produced by George Avakian,who had worked with Desmond at Columbia Records. Avakian left Columbia in 1958 to join the brand new Warner Bros. Records,where he produced Desmond's previous album,First Place Again. Joining RCA Victor in 1960,Avakian once again recruited Desmond to his label,and he produced all six of the albums Desmond recorded for RCA Victor as a leader. Desmond Blue was also the first Desmond solo album to feature the saxophonist in an orchestral setting. RCA reissued the album in 1978 as Paul Desmond - Pure Gold Jazz (ANL1-2807). Desmond returned to the orchestral format later in the decade,when he signed with CTI Records and recorded Summertime.
Jim Hall was an American jazz guitarist,composer,and arranger. His discography consists of 39 studio albums,10 live albums,1 EP,1 single,10 videos,and 22 compilations,all released between 1957 and 2016. In addition,he was a sideman on numerous albums by other artists.