Waltz for Debby – Bill Evans Trio

You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians

This episode of 'You'll Hear It' dives into Bill Evans' iconic live album 'Waltz for Debby,' recorded at the Village Vanguard in New York Ci

Key takeaways

The album's opening track 'Waltz for Debby' exemplifies the trio's emotional depth and conversational style, where each musician contributes equally with nuanced timing and space.

Main topics

Bill Evans Trio's live recording at Village Vanguard
Scott LaFaro's final performance and legacy

Notable quotes

'This is maybe the greatest boring coffeehouse jazz record of all time.'

Conclusion

Waltz for Debby stands as a timeless masterpiece that captures the essence of jazz trio

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:21) I'm Adam Maness. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast. Music explored. Jazz explored even? Sometimes we circle back. That's right. Brought to you today by Open Studio. Go to OpenStudioJazz.com for... Speaker 5 (0:36) your jazz listening needs. I brought that back, Peter, because we're bringing it back to a little bit of our roots here. Yes. A little bit of a straight up, straight ahead jazz trio album by the name of Waltz for Debbie by the great Bill Evans. Yes. Do not Speaker 4 (0:47) adjust your dials. You know, we are jazz musicians. In case you're new on the You'll Hear It bandwagon, first of all, where have you been? Speaker 5 (0:54) What have Speaker 4 (0:54) you been listening to? Speaker 5 (0:55) Yeah. Speaker 4 (0:55) What are you doing? That's a great Rihanna record. We should get Speaker 5 (0:59) off of this Bill Evans stuff and go. Ella, Ella, Speaker 4 (1:01) that one? Okay. Yeah. Speaker 1 (1:03) But Speaker 4 (1:03) this record, I think, is it somehow has been quite mated onto the Mount Rushmore of crossover for people that like, you know, the kind of people that have just a couple of jazz albums. Like Speaker 5 (1:15) they're very classy people, but they're not Speaker 4 (1:17) like big into jazz, but they would of course have kind of Speaker 5 (1:20) blue. This is on the cusp though. Speaker 4 (1:22) Yeah. And I think actually it's in more collections than we think for that. This is such a great combination of. jazz piano trio nerddom for sure, but also very accessible, pleasant sounding, dare I even say, and this is not an insult, boring coffeehouse jazz. This is maybe the greatest boring coffeehouse jazz record of all time. Before Speaker 5 (1:43) we get into the album though, I just want to let everybody know, we're going to do in the next couple of weeks here, a mailbag episode. Yes. So we want to hear from you. You can go to youllhear.com and you can leave us a voice message. Speak pipe. Remember those? Yeah. Callbacks. You could also send us an email. Yeah. Mailbag at you'llhearit.com is the address. Speaker 4 (1:59) Yeah, you can send a question. You can send a video question. You can send an audio question if you're sophisticated. Or you can just type in your question. Don't send it by the mail, though, because the regular USPS. Not going to get it. We don't know if it's going to get here. We definitely won't Speaker 5 (2:10) get Speaker 4 (2:10) it. Speaker 5 (2:10) This is such a great album, and it's an amazing story, too. This is one of the last albums in this run by this great trio of Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro, and Paul Motion. And this was recorded June 25th. 1961 at the famed Village Vanguard Club. Speaker 4 (2:27) 7th Avenue South. Speaker 5 (2:28) Yeah. Speaker 4 (2:29) West Village, Greenwich Village, New York City. Yeah. Speaker 5 (2:32) Not controversial to say this is probably the greatest jazz club in the world. Yeah. Right. I think that's pretty much universally. I wouldn't argue Speaker 4 (2:38) with that. I don't think anybody would. And Speaker 5 (2:40) I say that it was recorded Sunday, June 25th, 1961, because actually two albums were recorded this Speaker 4 (2:46) day. Speaker 5 (2:46) Sunday at the Village Vanguard, which is not this album, and Speaker 4 (2:49) Waltz for Debbie. Speaker 5 (2:50) It's the same Sunday, though. Same Sunday, yeah. Same day, those two now classic albums were recorded live. So this is actually a live album, which you almost wouldn't know by the cover and the title. Speaker 4 (3:01) Right, and there's even parts, and we're going to get into that as we listen to it. I think it's such a sonically arresting, stunning album, really. I mean, I think this album is... I'm just going to go ahead and throw this out there. I think this is one of the best-sounding jazz records ever. recorded live or otherwise. I couldn't agree more. You know, I couldn't agree more. Okay. So not as controversial as I thought. Speaker 5 (3:20) So let's check out the first track. This is the stunningly beautiful, the unbelievably gorgeous. And by the way, one of the great starts to an album too. You know, you and I are both a sucker for the ballad start. Yes. Which takes guts to do. Sue us. We're introspective, romantic Speaker 4 (3:34) gentlemen. Yeah. Speaker 5 (3:35) You typically, when you're putting together a set list for an album, you think, oh, let's hit them with something bouncy, something catchy. Speaker 4 (3:42) But people like Speaker 5 (3:43) Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Brad Melda. Speaker 4 (3:47) They love to tear your heart out first. This is my Foolish Heart. Speaker 5 (3:56) That first cymbal swell. Yeah. You know? Speaker 4 (4:04) And the second. What a great palm motion choice to delay the snare drum time. Yeah. The swirl that comes in. But Bill Evans gives them a space to make that decision. There's lots of space in this period. And it's a good decision. Speaker 4 (4:30) This is like jazz piano trio breathwork, you know. It Speaker 5 (4:34) is. All of them. Speaker 4 (4:36) And again, a bold choice for an opening track. Yes. I couldn't imagine this record not starting here. Scott LaFaro, he was very young on this, right? He was 25. So stunningly patient and sparse, you know, notes at the right place. Sounds like an OG. Speaker 5 (5:08) Yeah, I mean, we should mention here that Scott LaFaro would die in a car accident 11 days after this recording. So he was 25 years old, and this would be the last recording he would make. And who knows what would happen, because you mentioned the patience. Yeah. His soloing on this album, and actually his whole career, but especially with the Bill Evans Trio, was like some of the most prodigious bass soloing ever. Speaker 4 (5:33) Yeah. Speaker 5 (5:34) And... It's a big what if in the music. It's like Clifford Brown and a few other folks that we've lost way too early. Lee Morgan. What would have happened? Speaker 4 (5:43) Yeah. What would have happened? Can we go back and just listen? I know we've got a great six tracks. I'm so like on the vibe on this. But can we listen to the beginning? Because this is kind of just the very first couple seconds. This is a little bit of, we've had a couple records. This is a stunningly beautiful start, I think. Such a vibe. But it's a little bit of a sloppy start. Right? Oh, I love a sloppy start. Yeah, which as well as it's recorded and as well behaved and quiet as the audience is, you kind of feel the audience, but you don't really hear them like some, like, you know, like at the Pershing in Chicago with Ahmad, like that crowd Speaker 5 (6:15) was loud. The Blackhawk. Yeah, Speaker 4 (6:16) you hear a couple little like clearing of throats, but not. Right, but it's very Speaker 5 (6:19) classical. Dishes clanging like at the Blackhawks. Speaker 4 (6:22) And especially knowing how close everyone's sitting. Yeah, that first. It's a little sloppy, right? I love that. Speaker 4 (6:30) It's not all super, but that's so, that sets the tone for how they're going to play the rest of the set, actually. Well, so this atmosphere that you were mentioning, like the bad coffeehouse jazz, Speaker 5 (6:41) the AI jazz, this is what that is kind of programmed on. It's Speaker 4 (6:46) a Speaker 5 (6:46) real shame because it'll never get to the sort of like the graininess that is on this trio at all times. Yeah, because it kind of takes. Speaker 4 (6:56) what it perceives maybe as the idiosyncratic elements of this. And it's like, oh, that's part of it. Like with not hitting that one. And then it'll do it at weird times, you know. It's like three people walking into a room. They're not, you don't just walk in a line together. That's weird. You kind of like, you each have your own personality. So it's not about bum, bum. Like it's sort of Speaker 3 (7:17) bum, bum, bum. Speaker 4 (7:18) Yeah. Speaker 3 (7:19) Oh, Speaker 4 (7:20) man, it's great. I mean, Speaker 5 (7:20) what's the adjective that describes this trio? Conversational. That's what everybody always says. It's a conversational style of the trio where each member has equal weight to contribute to it. And just like a conversation, I mean, we never talk over each other. Everybody knows that. I was Speaker 4 (7:34) going Speaker 5 (7:34) to say, Speaker 4 (7:34) they don't converse like we do. They listen to each other. Who are you, by the way? Speaker 5 (7:37) Yeah, but it's true. Like there's going to be, you know, not perfection. It's not like a scripted, you know what I mean? Not a Speaker 4 (7:45) perfect album.