Bill Evans & Jim Hall - Undercurrent (1976 Japanese United Artists Vinyl LP)

Bill Evans & Jim Hall - Undercurrent | Vinyl LP - 1976 United Artists Japanese Pressing (GXC-3128, King Record Co., includes obi and insert)

Bill Evans and Jim Hall recorded Undercurrent in a single session at Sound Makers Studio in New York on May 14, 1962. There are no other musicians on the record. Evans plays piano and Hall plays guitar, and the two of them navigate six pieces without a bass or drums to anchor the time or fill the harmonic space between them. The result is an album where neither musician leads and neither accompanies: they move together, sometimes in unison, sometimes in counterpoint, adjusting to each other in real time with a sensitivity that only works when both players trust each other completely. "My Funny Valentine" opens with Hall's guitar stating the melody while Evans builds chords underneath, and within a minute the roles have reversed without either musician signalling the change. "Skating In Central Park," a Hall original, has a lightness that its title earns. "Dream Gypsy" and "Romain" are Evans compositions that stretch the harmony further from the standards. "Darn That Dream" closes with both musicians at their most restrained.

Evans had played on Miles Davis's Kind of Blue three years earlier and was leading his own trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, the group that redefined the piano trio format. Hall had played with Sonny Rollins, Jimmy Giuffre and Chico Hamilton. Toni Frissell, the fashion and portrait photographer who worked for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, took the underwater photograph that became one of the most recognisable jazz album covers.

This is the 1976 Japanese pressing (GXC-3128), manufactured by King Record Co. Ltd as part of the Jazz Library 1500 series, with an obi and an insert carrying both the original English liner notes and Japanese notes.