Friday FIVE: August 21 - Portrait in Jazz

Everyone knows Kind of Blue. But the pianist at that session, Bill Evans, was quietly developing something extraordinary of his own. In this episode I put the spotlight on Portrait in Jazz, recorded in a single day in December 1959 with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. Evans called their approach simultaneous improvisation, three equal voices in conversation rather than a piano supported by a rhythm section. The result is one of the finest jazz trio albums ever made. Start with Autumn Leaves. Let the trio do the rest.

The Friday FIVE is a weekly five-minute podcast series from Musically Speaking that features five minutes of music commentary, examples, and recommendations from Jarrod Richey.

Here’s a link to a recording of Autumn Leaves: https://youtu.be/C1mMsz2I1c8