The Bill Evans Trio – Explorations (Craft Recordings, Limited Edition, Small Batch One-Step Box Set)

Explorations, the second album by the original Bill Evans Trio, features intimate readings of five standards plus three modern jazz compositions that became synonymous with the trio's sound. Originally released by Riverside Records in 1961, it was the second and final studio album Evans recorded with his classic trio featuring Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums. It is a follow-up to the trio's first recording from two years earlier (Portrait In Jazz).

Few musicians seemed less likely to make an impact on the New York jazz scene in the late Fifties than Bill Evans (1929-80), whose introspective solos and delicate touch were far removed from what was commonly considered "hard bop." Yet Evans was indeed heard, and quickly became one of the most influential musicians on any instrument of the last half century.

Evans was born in Plainfield, New Jersey and attended Southeastern Louisiana University. After a period in the Army, he returned toNew York in 1955 and began working and recording with Tony Scott and George Russell. His subtly swinging, lucidly constructed soloswith these leaders quickly attracted attention, and provided Evans with an opportunity to begin recording under his own name; but he was modest regarding his gifts, and for a time was reluctant to push himself into the limelight. All this changed after he spent severalmonths during 1958 in Miles Davis's band, where he played alongside John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, and became a central figure in Davis's shift to modal improvisation.

The period with Davis allowed Evans to organize his own trio, which featured bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian by the endof 1959. These three players developed a new and more interactive approach to trio playing, one in which all instruments carriedmelodic responsibilities and functioned as equal voices. LaFaro's tragic death in a July 1961 highway accident ended the existence of thisseminal unit; but not before it had recorded four albums, two in the studio and two at a Village Vanguard performance shortly beforethe bassist's death, that influenced several generations of pianists, bassists, and drummers. For the remaining two decades of his life, he continued to work in the trio format he had established with LaFaro and Motian. The unit's repertoire slowly grew to include evocative new originals and worthy standards, as well as the tunes that led to Evans's initial fame. Despite this consistency of format and material, Evans remained uncommonly inspired, able to reach stunning emotional depths with aquiet lucidity that was unmatched. His lyrical melodic inventions, intricate phrasing, complex voicings, and beautiful touch remain asunmistakable influences on pianists more than 40 years after his death.

Limited to 2,500 copies worldwide, this Small Batch pressing is mastered from the original tapes (AAA) by Bernie Grundman and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI using Neotech's VR900 compound and a one-step lacquer process for sonic clarity and detail. Each numbered copy is housed in a foil-stamped, linen-wrapped slipcase.