Bill Evans’s return to full activity in 1962 came almost a year after his celebrated trio recordings at the Village Vanguard. Just ten days after that classic “live” session, bassist Scott LaFaro had died in a highway accident. Evans, deeply shaken, eventually re-formed his trio with the same drummer (Paul Motian) and Chuck Israels on bass. Their first visit to a studio was for a dual purpose: to make an all-ballad-tempo album, Moonbeams, and this “normal” set at the same time. It was producer Orrin Keepnews’s thought that recording eight slow numbers in a row might prove unduly enervating; accordingly, the total two-album repertoire was interspersed over three days of recording and the net result was two excellent additions to the Evans catalog.

with Chuck Israels, Paul Motian