Village Vanguard session with Bill Evans


Hi folks, could you explain why the Village Vanguard recording with Bill Evans is so famous? What qualities does it possess?
I'm asking this question because I can't explain why the recording is so great. If I'm listening to Kind of Blue with Miles Davis quintet I can understand why it is a famous recording. It is because it has an almost Zen quality to it: the timing was perfect and also the organization of the music --> the musicians played the right notes at the right place. There were no redundant notes.

Chris
dazzdax
Thanks to onhwy61 for the Gopnik article. Just sat and read it with the album on in the background and got chills--which Gopnik's writing does for me not quite as often as Evans' playing, but often enough. To anyone else who enjoyed that article, his book "Paris to the Moon" is fantastic, as is his essay "The Last of the Metrozoids" which, while not about music, talks about art and a life well lived in the same sort of spirit as the Evans article. Happy listening, everyone.
Ghosthouse, thank you very much for the link. This is truly unbelievable. I'm flabbergasted. Bill was a genius, some kind of Mozart on the piano. Everything he played was a reflecting of his unconscious mind. This level of playing can't be learned even if you are a quite talented piano player.
Happy New Year to you too!

Chris
Dazzdax - so glad you enjoyed the stuff at that link. I neglected to give credit to my brother-in-law (a gifted musician in his own right) for showing it to me and enabling me to share it. I'm a relative newcomer to jazz and Bill Evans specifically, but I agree with your assessment of his "genius" as a musician. AND he's not too shabby as a philosopher either! I especially appreciate his obvious humility and lack of pretention. Wish I could have met him.
I'm spinning Waltz / Sunday this morning. There's nothing better on a quiet rainy Sunday morning. Combined with the newspaper and a good cup of coffee, life is good.
Yes, I wish I could have met him too. He looked like a "nerd" at time of the interview (and at time of the classic Village Vanguard recordings) but what a genius he was! It wouldn't surprise me if he was already playing piano when he was six years old (improvising on "One Day My Prince Will come").

Chris