Undercurrent

Product Information

The cover of the album doesn’t feature any names or even a title, just a mysterious black and white photograph of a woman floating, Ophelia-like, in dark water. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

There are a few exceptions, though--the blues come gleaming through on the limber "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" and the more reflective "Romain.I also love "Skating In Central Park" which sways along with gently caressed piano chords and a delightfully subdued guitar lead. Whether it owes to the intimate pairing, he and Halls' brotherly chemistry, or the exquisite selection of program material, the results consistently come across as the equivalent of a private meditation, such is the level of introspective depth and quietly shaded interplay throughout. I Hear a Rhapsody is an extraordinary exercise in leisurely poise, forming a seamless musical statement. I am not generally a fan of Bill Evans (wash your mouth out with soap and water) but have always admired Jim Hall. They were part of a circle of musicians in New York in the early sixties, centred on George Russell, and including Jimmy Giuffre and Gil Evans, all united in a common aesthetic.

The jacket of this album is not glossy and succeptible to smudges from picking it up with dirty hands, or ink transfer if stacked against other records. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Later, the album was reissued on the Blue Note label; both Blue Note and United Artists Records have been part of the same catalog for many decades. I have only recently discovered this album which is true masterpiece of duet playing, of two highly skilled jazz musicians listening to each other with intensity. I've wanted this record for a long time, but it's not easy to find in the used bins in clean condition, and this is a reasonably quiet pressing (although by no means silent).Bill Evans catapulted to the top of the jazz world in June 1961 after reeling off three straight masterpiece sessions at New York's Village Vanguard with his trio. The front cover image for Undercurrent is Toni Frissell's photograph "Weeki Wachee Spring, Florida". At times, Evans and Hall go for broke on a hard-swinging romps, yet it's their implied melancholy and drifting, softly struck melodic refrains on waltzes and ballads that bestows Undercurrent with a nuanced romanticism and whispered atmosphere befitting the record's title.

No other version outside of this analogue copy brings you face-to-face with these two jazz giants’ sonic communion, a kind of spiritual musical summit on which Evans’ deft keyboard touches and Hall’s reliably subtle phrasings seamlessly mesh and wonderfully dance, the compositions streaked with natural instrumental decay, full-frequency extensions, and poignant emotionalism that, on this LP, you can feel. The first of two meetings on record in a duo format with guitarist Jim Hall, the collaborations are often exquisite. On Skating in Central Park that chiming guitar sound becomes a dominant feature and, set against it, Evans is wittily wistful and melancholy, each piano note precise and clear cut until he smoothly recedes into the background and lets Hall take centre stage. Yet the emotional highs came to a screeching halt shortly thereafter when bassist Scott LaFaro died in a car accident.I can not fathom why a label which is considered to be an audiophile label would put out such a bad sounding record. Jim Hall had already long been an admirer of Bill Evans when the two men convened in April 1962 under the auspices of United Artists to record this remarkable duet album. This reissue does an outstanding job of reducing noise from the master tapes — now well over fifty years old — without sacrificing musical detail. It gets all the stars because is is a great modern jazz album performed as only the late, lamented Mr Evans could arrange and do. For me it's up there with the Hall, Baker, Desmond recordings, my all time favourite before Undercurrent.