Bill Evans Remastered a Second Time

Unless I am mistaken, You Must Believe in Spring, a Bill Evans trio album that was not released by Warner Records until after his death in September of 1980, has recently gone through a second remastering process. The original release consisted of seven tracks, two of which were Evans originals: “B Minor Waltz (for Ellaine)” and “We Will Meet Again (for Harry).” The title track was composed by Michel Legrand for the film The Young Girls of Rochefort, where it was given the title “Chanson de Maxence.” An English text for the tune (and its new title) was provided by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The other contributing composers were Gary McFarland (“Gary’s Theme”), Jimmy Rowles (“The Peacocks”), “Sometime Ago” (Sergio Mihanovich) and “Suicide is Painless,” composed for the movie M*A*S*H by Johnny Mandel.

from the Amazon.com Web page

In 2003 Rhino Entertainment reissued the album on compact disc, adding three bonus tracks, Vincent Youmans “Without a Song,” Miles Davis’ “Freddie Freeloader,” and Cole Porter’s “All of You.” At that time two of the original tracks were remastered: “B Minor Waltz” and “The Peacocks.” At the beginning of this past June the Craft Recordings division of Concord Records released a new recording on which all of the remaining tracks were remastered. That album is now available for streaming, MP3 download, audio CD, and vinyl, all of which may be purchased from Amazon.com through the above hyperlink.

You Must Believe in Spring was Evans’ 70th studio album. It was also his final recording session with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Eliot Zigmund. Those circumstances may account for the profound lyricism of Gomez’ playing, giving him all of the microphone exposure necessary to highlight his bass lines without overpowering Evans’ improvisations. One tends to avoid concepts such as “lyricism” when discussing jazz; but those familiar with a generous share of the Evans canon know that lyricism was his strong suit, even when the music he was playing had a bopping spirit.

The entire album (including the bonus tracks) is slightly less than an hour in duration. Nevertheless, there is more than enough to engage and sustain the attention of the serious listener. At the same time, there is a prevailing rhetoric of wistfulness suggesting that, while one may be serious about listening, there are any number of lighter shades to the dispositions that emerge through the improvisations by all three members of Evans’ trio.