Eliane Elias' return to the Blue Note label after a decade working elsewhere is a triumph. This salute to the late pianist
Bill Evans, one of her favorite players, explores a number of songs he recorded, including both standards and originals.
Evans' bassist from his final trio,
Marc Johnson, is not only a long-time collaborator with
Elias but also her husband; drummer
Joey Baron rounds out the band. While
Elias is influenced by
Evans' playing style, his arrangements are only a launching pad for her approach to each tune; never does she sound like an obvious
Evans clone. Her lush take of "My Foolish Heart" features
Johnson on the late
Scott LaFaro's bass (the talented
Evans sideman who died in a 1961 car wreck just ten days after recording the landmark sets with the pianist at the Village Vanguard). "Evanesque" is a newly discovered work that came from a cassette given to
Johnson by
Evans, so
Elias adjusted the work by incorporating new material with his conception. The freewheeling take of "Solar" is a masterful group improvisation upon the
Miles Davis theme.
Elias' moving ballad "After All" is a sincere tribute to
Evans. She has also built confidence in her singing over time; always gifted with a tender, sensuous voice,
Elias glides gently over
Johnson's walking introduction to "A Sleepin' Bee" and offers an equally delicate "Walt for Debby." She wrote words to
Evans' previously unknown "Here Is Something for You," which was also discovered on the cassette given to
Johnson. It is heard in two versions, a solo version with voice and piano where
Elias mostly closely mirrors
Evans' playing, then the original rehearsal by
Evans, which segues into an excerpt of
Elias' new version. The Japanese version of this delightful CD features an added track, "Re: Person I Knew." ~ Ken Dryden