‘Bill Evans Trio With Symphony Orchestra’: Where Jazz Meets The Classics

If you want to luxuriate in jazz, then look no further than the Bill Evans Trio with Claus Ogerman conducting a 48-piece orchestra on the appropriately named Bill Evans Trio With Symphony Orchestra. Released in February 1966, the album was the brainchild of Verve’s A&R Director, Creed Taylor.

Taylor was anxious, as perhaps was Evans, to get some crossover success, and so, in 1963, he recorded an album with Claus Ogerman called Bill Evans Plays The Theme From The V.I.P.’s And Other Great Songs. It included a number of popular movie themes that were released as singles to get that all-important airplay.

The Symphony Orchestra album with Ogerman was begun on September 29, 1965, in New York City when four tracks were recorded, with the rest of the album concluded in December. The album includes compositions by Grenados, Bach, Scriabin, Faure, and Chopin as well as two by Evans and one by Ogerman.

Faure’s “Pavane” is beautiful and did much to make this lyrical piece the firm favorite that it has become. Evans’ two numbers, “Time Remembered” and “My Bells,” are very good, particularly the latter. According to Evans, “We weren’t trying to prove any new kind of music on this album: our sole drive was for something artistic.” Artful it is. Artistic too. But, most of all, it is just beautiful.

“I was a teenager when I first listened to Bill Evans, and he, along with Oscar Peterson, is the reason I played piano. Bill Evans with Symphony Orchestra is a wonderful and sometimes overlooked album.” – David Foster

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