Unsurprisingly, the Joneses gave Evans solid support all throughout. There isn't quite the magic with his rhythm section that Evans would achieve just a couple of years later with Motion and LaFaro, but these sessions offered a rare glimpse into how much his early playing still stood out even when he doesn't have the benefit of a more familiar working band to enhance it.

Even as Evans was a "pretty" player who avoided rushing or stuffing his notes, he could swing and swing hard as he did on "Minority." On this rendition of "Night And Day," Bill is downright frisky, perhaps egged on by Philly Joe's Latin-style percussion. The show tune "Young And Foolish" is trademark Evans in the way he phrases his notes in long, lyrical lines.

"Tenderly" gets my nod for the best track on here, simply because there was no pianist who could make a waltz sound as buoyant and melodic as Evans could, and he gives this tune the same kind of sublime treatment as he does his own standard "Waltz For Debby."

The solo contemplative "Peace Piece," one of Evans' best known tunes, is here in original form. What is not as well known is that the tune is actually a reworking of Leonard Bernstein's "Some Other Time," and a version of that tune as it was played before it morphed into an Evans original is the bonus track on this release. As it turns out, the two songs aren't much different from each other at all.

Ever much the promoter he is today as he was in 1958, Keepnews' updated liner notes declares that Everybody Digs Bill Evans "might just possibly be my favorite Bill Evans album." Personally, I think I'll side with just about everyone else in calling those 1961 Village Vanguard sessions Evans' most preferred recordings. Nevertheless, Everybody Digs Bill Evans contains all the reasons why the album's title had over time changed from crafty marketing ploy into widely accepted consensus.