{"id":2478,"date":"2021-01-27T23:02:51","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T05:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=2478"},"modified":"2021-06-24T16:51:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T21:51:39","slug":"review-dave-brubecks-time-outtakes-and-bill-evans-live-at-ronnie-scotts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/review-dave-brubecks-time-outtakes-and-bill-evans-live-at-ronnie-scotts\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Dave Brubeck’s ‘Time OutTakes’ and Bill Evans ‘Live at Ronnie Scott\u2019s’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dave Brubeck and Bill Evans were the twin Great White Hopes of jazz piano at the apex of the Pax Americana. Born on opposite coasts at the opposite ends of the 1920s, both men achieved great popular success. Brubeck, the elder of the two, became a cult figure on college campuses during the 1950s and famously made the cover of Time magazine at the decade\u2019s midpoint. While Evans got a later start, a high-profile stint in Miles Davis’ pivotal Kind of Blue<\/em> (Columbia, 1959) sextet slingshotted him to prominence. So, it\u2019s unsurprising that sixty years on, the arrival of new recordings by the two pianists – Brubeck\u2019s Time OutTakes<\/em> (Brubeck Editions, 2020) and Bill Evans Live at Ronnie Scott\u2019s<\/em> (Resonance Records, 2020)- qualify as a genuine event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Brubeck\u2019s case, the recording in question presents six alternate takes and two new selections from sessions for one of the most iconic and beloved jazz albums of all time. While Time OutTakes<\/em> doesn\u2019t call for a radical reconsideration of the music, it provides a fascinating look at how this music evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with \u201cTake Five,\u201d a tune most serious jazz fans might be grateful never to hear again. The alternate take recorded June 25, six days before the final version is presumably the most presentable–or most instructive–of the 40 from that session that producer Teo Macero was said to have rejected. The first thing you might notice is the initial four-bar melody, which differs from the final version by repeating in the fourth bar the phrase from the third that ends on concert E-flat, rather than on concert B-flat. Paul Desmond’s alto solo is somewhat tentative compared with the gliding lyricism of the buy take. It’s as if he\u2019s trying to work out what to play on an extended modal vamp, a problem Davis worked out with more success on the Kind of Blue<\/em> sessions several weeks earlier at the same studio. Drummer Joe Morello felt no such hesitation, charging through his drum showcase with flashing Krupa-esque swagger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBlue Rondo \u00e0 la Turk” finds Brubeck stretching out in ten blues choruses that feature occasional \u201cwrong\u201d notes that seem less like mistakes than the pianist dropping-in tricks he learned from his studies with Darius Milhaud. Perhaps emboldened by the leader, Desmond, too, chooses notes far outside the harmony, helping to fashion a cut that is avant-garde in ways beyond the use of the 9\/8 Karsilama rhythm.<\/p>\n\n\n