Although a review of any of Concord Music's new releases in their The Very Best of... series—one that includes jazz giants like Chet Baker, Miles Davis, and Wes Montgomery—must acknowledge that "very best" as used in the titles of these albums refers to music recorded for particular record labels over a limited period of time. "Very best" does not refer to the artist's complete career. That said, there is an argument to be made that when it comes to their compilation, The Very Best of the Bill Evans Trio, the title may well be appropriate.
It's not that the Evans CD covers tracks from the pianist's full career any more than any of the other compilations. It doesn't. And it's not that it looks beyond four albums the trio recorded for the Riverside label. It doesn't. In that respect, the 18-month period in which these four albums were recorded may well represent the shortest period from which any of the other of the Very Bests have been drawn.
Appropriate, then, in what sense? This is not merely a Bill Evans Trio. This, for many jazz fans is thee Bill Evans Trio. This is the first Bill Evans Trio: Evans on piano, Scott LaFaro on bass, and Paul Motian on drums. Bassist LaFaro, so integral a part of Evans' idea of what a jazz trio needed to be doing, was killed in an auto accident in June of 1961, just weeks after the last of the sessions that yielded the tracks on the last two of the recordings, Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard. Evans was so affected by the death of the 25-year-old bassist that he didn't play in public for months and didn't record again until the following year when LaFaro was replaced by Chuck Israels. Motian stuck around and this second trio made two albums, one of which, Moonbeams, has been recently re-released on a remastered CD.
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