Bill Evans – Interplay

I, like “everybody,” also dig Bill Evans.

Thanks in small part to his fundamental quietude, and largely due to his jazz sensei liner notes to Kind of Blue, Bill Evans has taken on a kind of holy bodhisattvic role in the history of modern jazz, emerging as a sort of a zen shaman of the Soto school; playing Dogen to Bud Powell’s wild-eyed Rinzai passions, or Monk’s Bodhidharma eccentricisms.

While I have come to really appreciate what Evans and LaFaro achieved together, I prefer Percy Heath on this album, and of all the Evans-Jim Hall collaborations, this is my favorite.

In fact, this may just be my favorite Evans album all the way around. I listen this version of “You And The Night And The Music” at least once a week. It’s just so good.

Listen, you should. And you too will see why Everybody Digs Bill Evans.