Symbiosis Bill Evans

Album review

Bill Evans’ enormous discography is so big that some of his albums fall too quickly into the oblivion. Published in 1974 by the German label MPS, Symbiosis is one of his overlooked albums for you to rediscover without delay! Recorded in the CBS studio on the 30th road of New York on the 11th, 12th and 14th of February 1974, he is reminiscent of the pianists interest for classical and Third Stream music, this current that oozed out the brain of Gunther Schuller synthesizing classical western music and jazz. Composed by Claus Ogerman who Evans had hired in 1965 for his album Bill Evans Trio With Symphony Orchestra, this concert work for the jazz trio and symphony orchestra mixes both written and improvised passages. We find both tonal and serial writing throughout this recording, giving a result that would make Glenn Gould go on to say, in one of his radio emissions, that Symbiosis is a "remarkable and marvelous" work. Gould would later add that Ogerman has an "astonishing harmonic inventiveness" but concerning Bill Evans, there are "too many contradictions between the improvised parts, or supposedly improvised, from someone as gifted as Bill Evans and the very sophisticated well-structured scaffolding implemented by Ogerman". Surrounded by his disciples Eddie Gomez on the double bass and Marty Morell on the drums, Bill Evans is far from being as uninspired as his fellow Canadian. His singular approach, out of this world even, surely baffled more than a few people in the past. But, with the help of time, we are still amazed by the beauty and the intelligence of the changes of rhythms and colours. And by the work itself. © MD / Qobuz