''Sunday at the Village Vanguard'' is a live album by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

pianist and composer Bill Evans and his Trio consisting of Evans, bassist

Scott LaFaro Rocco Scott LaFaro (April 3, 1936 – July 6, 1961) 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 ...

, and drummer

Paul Motian Stephen Paul Motian (March 25, 1931 – November 22, 2011) was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer. Motian played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties. He first came to prominence in the ...

. Released in 1961, the album is routinely ranked as one of the best live jazz recordings of all time.

History

''Sunday at the Village Vanguard'' was drawn from material recorded on June 25, 1961, at the

Village Vanguard The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jazz ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. The trio played five sets -two in the afternoon and three in the evening- each one comprising four or five numbers and lasting about half an hour.Peter Pettinger, ''Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings'' (Yale University Press, New Haven & London, (1998): p.109-114, ) This was the last performance by the Bill Evans Trio with bassist Scott LaFaro, who was killed in a car accident eleven days after the recording. Riverside had been looking for only one album from this date, but LaFaro's death changed the economics. The album was subtitled ''"Featuring Scott LaFaro"'' and was rushed out for release three months after recording by September 1961. Evans and producer

Orrin Keepnews Orrin Keepnews (March 2, 1923 – March 1, 2015) was an American jazz writer and record producer known for founding Riverside Records and Milestone Records, for freelance work, and for his work at other labels. Biography Early life Keepnews ...

reportedly selected the tracks for ''Sunday at the Village Vanguard'' to best feature LaFaro's masterly performance on bass, beginning and ending with two tracks ("Gloria's Step" and "Jade Visions") written by LaFaro himself, and with all the others featuring solos by him. This memorable day's performance resulted in additional material released in a second album in 1962, '' Waltz for Debby'', as well as a further selection of takes appearing posthumously in 1984 as another LP: ''Bill Evans — More From the Vanguard'' (

Milestone A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...

M-9125). In numerous interviews Evans has paid tribute to what he always considered to be his finest trio: :::"I am thankful that we recorded that day, because it was the last time I saw Scott and the last time we would play together. When you have evolved a concept of playing which depends on the specific personalities of outstanding players, how do you start again when they are gone?" After this recording at the Village Vanguard and the death of LaFaro, became one of the extreme low periods in the life and career of Evans. He did not play for many months, not even at home.

Reception

Writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

, music critic Thom Jurek wrote of the album: "This trio is still widely regarded as his finest, largely because of the symbiotic interplay between its members. This is a great place to begin with Evans." C. Michael Bailey of

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

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." Starting in 1992, both this album and its successor ''Waltz for Debby'' have been awarded a crown in all nine editions of ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled ...

''.Tom Hull Penguin Guide jazz crown list retrieved 26 June 2021.
/ref> In 2000, it was voted number 946 in

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

's ''

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by th ...

''. In 2005, the album was included in Robert Dimery's ''

1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die ''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...

''.

Reissue

In 2005, Riverside issued '' The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961'' a fully remastered three- CD box set containing virtually all the material from the entire day's recording at the Village Vanguard (one number has been lost) on that date of 25 June. While all of this music was already available on the 12-CD box-set released in 1984 ''Bill Evans - The Complete Riverside Recording'', this re-issue has had the audience ambiance enhanced and includes introductions, on-stage discussions between the musicians, interaction with the audience, and a few bars of music that Evans improvised to fill out the tape at the end of the night.

Track listing

#"Gloria's Step" (take 2) (

) – 6:09 #"

My Man's Gone Now "My Man's Gone Now" is an aria composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by DuBose Heyward, written for the opera '' Porgy and Bess'' (1935). Sung in the original production by Ruby Elzy, it has been covered by many singers, notably Ella Fitzgera ...

" (

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

) – 6:21 #" Solar" (

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

) – 8:52 #" Alice in Wonderland" (take 2) ( Sammy Fain) – 8:34 #" All of You" (take 2) ( Cole Porter) – 8:17 #"Jade Visions" (take 2) (Scott LaFaro) – 3:44 Bonus tracks on CD: #

"Gloria's Step" (take 3) – 6:54 #"Alice in Wonderland" (take 1) – 6:59 #"All of You" (take 3) – 8:03 #"Jade Visions" (take 1) – 4:16

Personnel

* Bill Evans – piano *

– bass *

– drums

Credits

*Orrin Keepnews – Producer *Dave Jones – Recording engineer *Ken Deardoff – Album design *Donald Silverstein – Album cover photograph * Steve Schapiro – Back liner photograph (''"The trio, between sets, in the back room at the Vanguard"'') *

Ira Gitler Ira Gitler (December 18, 1928 – February 23, 2019) was an American jazz historian and journalist. The co-author of ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' with Leonard Feather—the most recent edition appeared in 1999—he wrote hundreds of ...

and Orrin Keepnews –

Liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desc ...

References

External links

Bill Evans entry at the Jazz Discography Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunday At The Village Vanguard Albums produced by Orrin Keepnews Bill Evans live albums 1961 live albums Riverside Records live albums Albums recorded at the Village Vanguard