Over the weekend, pianist Dave Thompson sent along a link to a recently uploaded, hour-long video of the Bill Evans Trio in concert in 1977. While the person who uploaded it thought the performance took place in Boston, it actually was held at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, N.Y. Based on my additional research, two concerts dates were advertised—one for Friday, April 8, 1977, at 8 p.m. (tickets were $4, or $2 for students and seniors) and the second on Tuesday, April 12. But the trio didn't play two different concerts.
According to writer Tonino Vantaggiato in Italy, Evans's mother, Mary Soroka Evans, died on April 5, 1977. As a result, the concert and the classroom time the trio planned to spend with Eastman professor Bill Dobbins had to rescheduled. While bassist Eddie Gomez had planned to make the April 8 concert date, he was already obligated to record with Jack De Johnette the following week on McCoy Tyner's album Supertrios. So Chuck Israels was called.
On April 12, the concert was videotaped for At the Top, a jazz series of concerts produced for Rochester's WXXI, a PBS TV station. The video was broadcast on TV on Thursday, July 21, 1977 on Channel 24. The music also aired on WXXI-FM, Tonino said, adding that there were two sets separated by an intermission. The video is likely the first set.
The songs on the video (the first concert) are Emily, Time Remembered, Summertime, In Your Own Sweet Way, I Loves You Porgy, Up With the Lark, Some Other Time and My Romance. The high points for me here are Evans on Porgy and Some Other Time. Chuck Israels on bass is commanding throughout.
After the intermission, Tonino said, the songs were (in no particular order) Sugar Plum, How My Heart Sings, Autumn Leaves, My Foolish Heart, Minha (All Mine) and All Of You, which Tonino notes was usually a set closer at the time.
Though the video and sound on the YouTube video aren't great, what's interesting is that Chuck is on bass. I wasn't aware that he played gigs with the trio so late into the 1970s, but he did. And his bass playing here is superb, especially on the solos. One senses Evans was wooing him with hopes of bringing him in if Eddie Gomez, the trio's working bassist at the time, left the group.
I reached out to Chuck for additional insights:
Hi Marc. Bill called and the three of us flew up to Rochester together from New York on Sunday night. On the plane, Bill wrote quick chord charts for "Emily" and "Up With the Lark" on airline stationery. At the time, I was unfamiliar with these songs. Two other songs that I don't believe were part of Bill's repertoire then were Minha (All Mine) and All Of You. He might have written out charts for these as well.
We jumped in unrehearsed, and this was the result. I remember interacting with students in classrooms, so we probably did a few clinics at the Eastman School of Music between concerts while up there. Bill had a connection through Professor Bill Dobbins.
Among the things that strike me: By this time, Bill seemed to be on autopilot—a high level one, but the newness of the music had receded somewhat from Bill since I’d last played with him. I felt that beginning to happen before I left the trio 11 years earlier. Maybe the fact that I didn't really challenge him on bass that night made some contribution to this.
I know I didn’t push him or compete with him the way Scotty LaFaro had. By 1977, 11 years of study, composing and general musical development later, maybe I might have been able to do that more. But there were reasons it didn’t seem like the best path for me, career-wise. A few months after our concert in Rochester, Eddie left the trio and Philly Joe was playing drums. Bill was looking for a bass player.
Around that time, I played with them for a few nights at New York's Village Vanguard. But there was so much intravenous cocaine-consumption going on that the music became frantic. So I turned down Bill’s invitation to join the trio. Bassist Marc Johnson took the job a few days later.
As much of an impact that Bill's music had on me (almost immeasurable), the majority of its effect happened starting in 1955, before I played with him and had only heard him. And while his playing still sets some essential aesthetic boundaries for me, something was starting to lose immediacy for me by the time I left the trio. I was determined to create music on my own that held the powerful thrills Bill’s music first provided. I’m still chasing that dream. [Photo above of the Eastman Theatre]
That said, I’m glad to have access to this video, even though the quality is abominable, the sound isn’t much better, and the bass sounds over-amplified. I’m sure I didn’t use a pickup, but there’s an enormous amp behind me. Maybe the sound guys were running the bass mic through that. In any case, the bass sound veers a little too much towards an electric quality for my taste. Of course, that may also be the poor sound quality of the recording.
Here's the Bill Evans Trio in Rochester in April 1977, with Bill Evans on piano, Chuck Israels on bass and Eliot Zigmund on drums...
If you're a stickler for sound, as I am, do your best to line up the following audio with the video. The audio likely came from the tape used for the WXXI-FM broadcast...
And here's what Chuck is up to more recently. Here's the Chuck Israels Orchestra playing Evans's Show-Type Tune...
And here's the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra playing Concerto Peligroso...
