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Resonance is issuing a previously unreleased studio album recorded by pianist Bill Evans (1929–’80) with his trio in 1968. (Photo by German Hasenfratz/Courtesy of Andreas Brunner-Schwer)
(Photo: )The term “lost session” has been overused, but it is certainly appropriate for the new release by iconic pianist Bill Evans (1929–’80). Resonance Records will issue LP, CD and digital editions of Some Other Time: The Lost Session From the Black Forest, a previously unreleased studio album that was recorded on June 20, 1968.
Joining Evans for this trio date were bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette, both of whom were interviewed for the liner notes booklet that accompanies the album.
Resonance will issue a limited edition, hand-numbered, two-LP version, mastered by Bernie Grundman and pressed on 180-gram vinyl, for Record Store Day (April 16). This LP will be sold at select independent record stores participating in the event.
Some Other Time, which includes more than 90 minutes of music, also will be available as a two-CD or digital version on April 22. Tracks include standards such as “My Funny Valentine,” “These Foolish Things,” “What Kind Of Fool Am I?” and “On Green Dolphin Street.”
This remarkable album presents Evans—who was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1981—in trio, duo and solo settings.
Some Other Time includes a 40-page booklet with interviews, essays and rare photos. Among those contributing essays are jazz journalist Marc Myers and German jazz historian Friedhelm Schulz.
“There was big excitement about us going to the studio,” DeJohnette says in an interview included in the liner notes. “This record represents a time and space where [Evans] was exploring new approaches to standard repertoire rhythmically and harmonically.”
Gomez also reflects on Evans in the liner notes: “Every time he touched the piano, he touched my heart, and he played with a sound that was just a gorgeous sound.”
Some Other Time was recorded by MPS Records founder and producer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer along with writer/producer Joachim-Ernst Berendt at the MPS studios in the Black Forest (Villingen, Germany).
This lineup of Evans’ trio was only together for six months. The only album of this trio that’s ever been available is a live concert recording made at the 1968 Montreux Jazz Festival. That performance took place just five days prior to the trio going into the MPS studios.
Although the tracks on Some Other Time were intended for an album release, it never came to fruition. These recordings were only recently discovered in the Brunner-Schwer family archives.
To stream the track “You Go To My Head” on SoundCloud, click here.
Fans who pre-order the album on iTunes receive four tracks instantly: “You Go To My Head,” “It Could Happen To You,” “These Foolish Things” and “How About You?” To pre-order on iTunes, click here.
To pre-order Some Other Time from the Resonance website, click here.
In 2012, Resonance released the album Live At Art D’Lugoff’s Top Of The Gate, which Evans recorded in Greenwich Village on Oct. 23, 1968. For that show, Evans was accompanied by Gomez on bass and Marty Morell on drums. To read more about that album or to order it, click here.
Visit the Record Store Day website to see a full list of stores that are participating in the April 16 event.
—Bobby Reed
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