| Waltz for Debby | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | End of February/Early March 1962 [1] | |||
| Recorded | June 25, 1961 | |||
| Venue | Village Vanguard, New York City | |||
| Genre | Cool jazz | |||
| Length | 38:29 | |||
| Label | Riverside | |||
| Producer | Orrin Keepnews | |||
| Bill Evans chronology | ||||
| ||||
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.
The album was the fourth and final effort from the unit—LaFaro died in a car accident just ten days after the live date at the Village Vanguard from which Waltz for Debby and its predecessor, Sunday at the Village Vanguard , were taken. The loss of LaFaro hit Evans hard, and he went into a brief reclusion. When Evans returned to the trio format later in 1962, it was with Motian and bassist Chuck Israels. [2]
The title track, a musical portrait of Evans' niece, became a staple of his live repertoire in later years. It originally appeared as a solo piano piece on Evans' debut album, New Jazz Conceptions . It remains what is likely Evans' most well-known song,[ citation needed ] one that he would play throughout his career.
The CD reissue of the album contains several outtakes. The entire day's recordings were released in 2005 as The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 .
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| All About Jazz |  [3] |
| AllMusic | [4] |
| DownBeat |  [5] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [6] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz | [7] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [8] |
The album is widely considered to be one of the best in the Evans canon, and the type of emotive interplay between the musicians that at some points seemed almost deconstructed has served as a model for piano trio play. [9]
AllMusic critic Thom Jurek wrote: "While the Sunday at the Village Vanguard album focused on material where LaFaro soloed prominently, this is far more a portrait of the trio on those dates... Of the many recordings Evans issued, the two Vanguard dates and Explorations are the ultimate expressions of his legendary trio." [4] C. Michael Bailey of All About Jazz wrote: "Along with Bassist wunderkind Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, Evans perfected his democratic vision of trio cooperation, where all members performed with perfect empathy and telepathy... It is these performances, currently available as Sunday at The Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby that comprise the number one best jazz live recording in this present series." [3]
It was voted number 465 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). [10]
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.
Rocco Scott LaFaro was an American jazz double bassist known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio. LaFaro broke new ground on the instrument, developing a countermelodic style of accompaniment rather than playing traditional walking basslines, as well as virtuosity that was practically unmatched by any of his contemporaries. Despite his short career and death at the age of 25, he remains one of the most influential jazz bassists, and was ranked number 16 on Bass Player magazine's top 100 bass players of all time.
Pete "La Roca" Sims was an American jazz drummer and attorney. Born and raised in Harlem by a pianist mother and a stepfather who played trumpet, he was introduced to jazz by his uncle Kenneth Bright, a major shareholder in Circle Records and the manager of rehearsal spaces above the Lafayette Theater. Sims studied percussion at the High School of Music and Art and at the City College of New York, where he played tympani in the CCNY Orchestra. He adopted the name La Roca early in his musical career, when he played timbales for six years in Latin bands. In the 1970s, during a hiatus from jazz performance, he resumed using his original surname. When he returned to jazz in the late 1970s, he usually inserted "La Roca" into his name in quotation marks to help audiences familiar with his early work identify him. He told The New York Times in 1982 that he did so only out of necessity:
I can't deny that I once played under the name La Roca, but I have to insist that my name is Peter Sims with La Roca in brackets or in quotes. For 16 or 17 years, when I have not been playing the music, people have known me as Sims....When I was 14 or 15, I thought ["La Roca"] was clever; right now, it's an embarrassment. I thought that it would be something that people would probably remember - boy, was I ever right on that one! I can't make my conversion.
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.
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.
Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer. He played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties.
The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album is a 1975 studio album by singer Tony Bennett and pianist Bill Evans.
The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961, a three-CD box set released in 2005, marks the first time the entire Bill Evans Trio's complete sets at the Village Vanguard on June 25, 1961, have been released in their entirety. It also marks the first U.S. release of the first take of "Gloria's Step," which is incomplete due to a power failure.
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.
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.
Live at the Village Vanguard may refer to:
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.
How My Heart Sings! is an album recorded by jazz musician Bill Evans in 1962, at the same time as Moon Beams.
Waltz for Debby is a 1964 album in English and Swedish by the trio of American jazz pianist Bill Evans and the Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund. Evans met her on a tour of Sweden and was "bowled over" by her EP recording of "Waltz for Debby" with a Swedish text titled "Monica Vals." Evans's manager, Helen Keane, set up a recording session for them at the end of the Swedish tour.
"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.
Turn Out the Stars: The Final Village Vanguard Recordings is a six-CD box set live album by jazz pianist Bill Evans with Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera recorded over four nights at the Village Vanguard in New York City in 1980 and released on CD on the Warner Bros. label in 1996. A concurrent LP release was made on Mosaic.
The Windmills of Your Mind is an album by Paul Motian released on the German Winter & Winter label in 2011, the final release during his lifetime. It features Motian’s long-standing colleague, guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Thomas Morgan and vocalist Petra Haden.
This is the discography of American jazz musician Paul Motian.
