Saturday Afternoon Listening: Bill Evans at Town Hall, Bill Evans Trio (1966). From the flea market to our turntable. 

The second half of the 1960s started out with very painful news: the death in early 1966 of Bill’s father, Harry Evans Sr. The pianist was scheduled to give an important concert a few days later at Town Hall in New York City [Bill Evans at Town Hall, Verve 831-271-2]. It was to be his debut at this prestigious venue and he was undecided as to whether he should cancel the engagement or not. In the end he decided to perform, and composed a touching four section suite in memory of his father. A neo-Impressionistic Prologue, where echoes of Chopin’s Berceuse mingle weightlessly with a Debussy-like pentatonic approach, was followed by Story Line, practically a remake of the modal Re: A Person I Knew, then came the very moving Turn Out The Stars (he owed the title to his friend and songwriter Gene Lees), and, finally, Epilogue which Evans had recorded seven years before on Everybody Digs. The circumstances as well as the solemn setting of the concert hall surely combined to make this one of his most intense performances of that entire decade.