The Bill Evans Trio - Portrait In Jazz

It was also Evans’ first album with the talented bassist Scott La Faro. Their superb chemistry is evident from the very first tune and Evans was surely aware of that. As opposed to his previous albums, no solo piano selections were included here and the trio is heard throughout the whole album. The Evans-La Faro collaboration would reach a climax with their June 1961 club recordings at the Village Vanguard in New York. La Faro would die in a car accident soon after (on July 6, 1961), at the age of 25. The repertoire here consists basically of standards (all of them treated in Evans’ very personal style) plus two originals: Peri’s Scope - premiered on Portrait In Jazz, Evans wouldn’t record it again until 1967 - and Blue In Green, first recorded earlier that year with Miles Davis on Kind Of Blue.

William John Evans was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block chords, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines continues to influence jazz pianists today.