The twelve tracks which comprise this live album were recorded across five sets — two afternoon, three evening — at The Village Vanguard in New York City on 25th June 1961. The trio consisting of Bill Evans on piano, Scott LaFaro on double bass and Paul Motian on drums had first recorded together in late December 1959, the resulting studio album Portrait in Jazz being released in 1960, soon followed by Explorations, studio-recorded in February 1961 and released the following month. Six of the Village Vanguard tracks were released as Sunday at The Village Vanguard in October 1961, and six more as Waltz For Debby in March 1962; eventually all twelve were released together in 1973 on The Village Vanguard Sessions. In 2005, the 3-CD box set The Complete Live At The Village Vanguard 1961 included all the afternoon and evening sets in their entirety, and illustrated that the original twelve tracks could not be bettered.
The twelve tracks included one Evans composition, two by LaFaro, two by Miles Davis, with the remainder being from the Great American Song book or jazz standards. Compared to other piano trios of the time (and also some later ones) the success of this one was not solely down to Evans' piano playing but equally to LaFaro and Motian. The understanding and empathy between the three were exemplary. Bass and drums were not in this trio just to keep time (and maybe get an occasional solo) but to be equal partners with Evans. In the main, LaFaro would be in the spotlight as much as Evans, roaming free, with the two often having musical dialogues. Rather than metronomic time-keeping, Motian's subtle patterns did the job without drawing attention away from his bandmates. As ever, the ezz-thetics sound restoration is second to none; however, that restoration did not remove the ambient sounds of the venue so the live atmosphere remains intact.
Tragically, aged twenty-five, LaFaro was killed in a car accident eleven days after the Village Vanguard recording, so the developing rapport between the trio members was nipped in the bud. Thankfully, the Village Vanguard recordings captured the trio in top form and, ever since, the resulting albums have been recognised as some of the best ever recorded, an essential part of any respectable jazz collection.
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