Bill Evans - Jim Hall - Undercurrent (LP, Album, Ltd, Num, RE, RM, RP, S/Edition, Gat) Mint (M) / Mint (M)

Summary: Vinyl, LP, Numbered, Undercurrent, Bill Evans - Jim Hall, 2023, US, Limited Edition

Media Condition:  Mint (M)
Sleeve Condition: Mint (M)
Country:    US  
Released:  2023
Genre:       Jazz
Style:         Cool Jazz

Comments:
New, Sealed.
 

Notes:

Comes in a single pocket gatefold jacket. Includes a MFSL catalog single fold color card inner and a MFSL 'Original Master Sleeve'.

[Back cover and labels
Originally released ℗ 1962 by Blue Note Records © 1962 Blue Note Records. Blue Note® is a registered trademark of Capitol Records, LLC.

[Back cover
Printed in the U.S.A.
Mastered on The Gain 2 Ultra Analog System™
Special Limited Edition

[Gatefold interior - publishing
A1 <> Chappell & Co. · ASCAP
A2 <> Broadcast Music, Inc.
A3 <> Suffolk Music · BMI
B1 <> M J Q Music · BMI
B2 <> Julie Music · BMI
B3 <> Bregman, Vocco & Conn · ASCAP

A1. My Funny Valentine
A2. I Hear A Rhapsody
A3. Dream Gypsy
B1. Romain
B2. Skating In Central Park
B3. Darn That Dream

Barcode and Other Identifiers:

Rights Society ASCAP
Rights Society BMI
Barcode 8 21797 10031 1
Barcode 821797100311
Matrix / Runout MoFi 1-031AR1 KW@MoFi 22486.1(3)
Matrix / Runout MoFi 1-031B R1 KW@MoFi 22486.2(3)

Record Company Capitol Records, LLC
Phonographic Copyright (p) Blue Note Records
Copyright (c) Blue Note Records
Manufactured By EMI Music Special Markets
Distributed By Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Inc.
Licensed From Sony Music Entertainment
Published By Chappell & Co., Inc.
Published By Broadcast Music, Inc.
Published By Suffolk Music
Published By MJQ Music
Published By Julie Music
Published By Bregman, Vocco & Conn
Mastered At Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
Lacquer Cut At Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
Pressed By Record Technology Incorporated

Data provided by Discogs

MOFI 1-031

Bill Evans catapulted to the top of the jazz world in June 1961 after reeling off three straight masterpiece sessions at New York's Village Vanguard with his trio. Yet the emotional highs came to a screeching halt shortly thereafter when bassist Scott LaFaro died in a car accident. Devastated, Evans refrained from playing for nearly a year. If not for an inspirational collaboration of tremendous creative outpouring, one wonders what fate may have befallen Evans. Undercurrent, the outcome of two studio sessions with guitarist Jim Hall, is that project.

While Evans managed to sit down for a few one-off takes between LaFaro's passing and these April-May 1962 dates, he largely remained on hiatus and abstained from recording. Whether it owes to the intimate pairing, he and Hall's brotherly chemistry, or the exquisite selection of program material, the results consistently come across as the equivalent of a private meditation - such is the level of introspective depth and quietly shaded interplay throughout. For Evans, the duet clearly functions as therapy, a healing episode in which his partner patiently lays back, shadowing moves and suggesting others, neither musician interested in the spotlight but each striving for (and achieving) transcendent beauty.

In tackling standards such as Rodgers and Hart's "My Funny Valentine" and the Broadway classic "Darn That Dream," as well as the Hall original "Romain," the pair traverses complex harmonies with the astute elegance of a figure skater. At times, Evans and Hall go for broke on a hard-swinging romps, yet it's their implied melancholy and drifting, softly struck melodic refrains on waltzes and ballads that bestows Undercurrent with a nuanced romanticism and whispered atmosphere befitting the record's title.

Indeed, even the album's cover - an iconic photograph by Toni Frissell - exhibits the surreal, almost-hallucinogenic properties of the fare contained within.