Moon Beams

The original Bill Evans Trio, with Bill Evans on piano, Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums, was on the verge of greatness when tragedy struck. In July 1961, LaFaro was killed in a car accident, a loss that hit Evans hard. He stepped away from music for nearly a year as he tried to come to terms with the death of his musical counterpart.

When he returned to the studio in May 1962 with Chuck Israels stepping in on bass, the result was Moon Beams, a set largely built around ballads. There is a certain irony to that choice: this kind of material feels completely natural for Bill Evans, especially given his trademark impressionistic, sound-collage style, yet he had rarely sounded so assertive on record. With LaFaro gone, and the group’s natural counterpoint altered, Evans seems to take on a more direct leadership role here.

Ever since leaving Miles Davis' group to form his own trio, Evans had a real gift for choosing material, and Moon Beams is no exception. His own compositions open and close the album. Re: The Person I Knew might seem like a tribute to LaFaro, but it is actually an anagram of producer Orrin Keepnews' name, with a shift from “know” to “knew”. Closing track Very Early brings the album to an end in waltz time.

No doubt a difficult record for Bill Evans to make in the shadow of LaFaro's untimely death, Moon Beams stands as a remarkable return to recording and a major step forward in his development as a leader.