Bill Evans - Further Ahead: Live in Finland 1964-1969 (2025) [CD-Rip]

Further Ahead: Live in Finland (1964-1969), a stunning new collection of never-before-heard performances by the master jazz pianist Bill Evans, will arrive as a limited, 180-gram two-LP set on Record Store Day (April 12, 2025) from Elemental Music. This set of major discoveries — which will also be released in a two-CD edition on April 18 — is the 13th Evans archival package to be produced by the award-winning “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman in cooperation with the Bill Evans Estate.

Feldman says, “Evans is widely celebrated and has legions of fans all over the world, and these never-before-released recordings present yet another chapter of his musical legacy being issued for the very first time… It’s not lost on me how precious each of these Evans projects is. We take them incredibly seriously and try to present Bill Evans in the best way possible, and also create packages that people will want to come back to for many years to come. Evans is eternal.”

Further Ahead comprises recordings made during the keyboardist’s Scandinavian tours of the ‘60s. He is heard, at the height of his powers, in Helsinki performances in 1964 (with his working trio including bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker) and 1965 (supported by bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and drummer Allan Dawson, with special guest Lee Konitz), and in 1969 at Tampere (with his longest-running trio mates, bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell).

CD1#1-5
Bill Evans - piano
Chuck Israels - bass
Larry Bunker - drums
Recorded live in Helsinki on August 13, 1964.
CD1#6-8
Bill Evans - piano
Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen - bass
Alan Dawson - drums
Lee Konitz - alto saxophone (CD1#8)
Recorded at Helsinki Jazz Festival, Helsinki on November 1, 1965.
CD2
Bill Evans - piano
Eddie Gomez - bass
Marty Morell - drums
Recorded at University of Tampere, Tampere on October 28, 1969.

Review by Alyn Shipton
The first session here, for Finnish radio with Israels and Bunker is by the group that would record Trio ‘65 five and a half months later for Verve. It sounds confident, as a band playing on the road would do, but this sounds more like a standard piano trio than their later studio work – more a case of Evans accompanied by bass and drums than the collective interaction that his trios had at their best.

That said, Evans ventures some flurries of remarkable invention in the closing section of ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’ and on that, and ‘How My Heart Sings’, Israels takes his customary neat and well-formed solos. His playing is outstanding on ‘Nardis’, which – referring back to the 1961 Explorations album – has the best ensemble interplay of the set, though the closer ‘Five’ is a quote-spotter’s paradise with extracts (among others) from Monk and Hodges tunes appearing, being picked up and dropped in quick succession.

This is followed by a real treat for Evans followers – a set with 19-year-old NHØP and Alan Dawson. The basslines in ‘Detour Ahead’ interact beautifully with Evans, and Dawson shows why he influenced so many drummers with his superb playing, mixing timekeeping with inventive interjections. ‘Come Rain…’ is revisited here, but this trio’s treatment is very different from the previous year’s, with the members having a much fuller musical conversation. It’s a matter of regret that these fine players didn’t work and record with Bill more often. Niels told me he often thought of himself as a ‘pianist who played the bass’ and the way he picks up ideas from Bill and then develops them in his solo is masterly. This set wraps up with Lee Konitz (who was touring with NHØP and Dawson) sitting in, but it’s a shame there isn’t more of this Helsinki Festival show with just the trio.

The second CD/LP in the set is the Gomez/Morell group that is already well represented on record (notably the Live in Copenhagen Resonance set reviewed in Jazzwise 291, and the previous Live in London set issued in 2019). They create the most rewarding trio playing on the album, as the players know each other well and interact marvellously. Even when repertoire duplicates their other issues, there are plenty of fresh ideas – rounding off the set perfectly.

Tracklist
CD1
01. How My Heart Sings (4:29)
02. Come Rain or Come Shine (4:55)
03. Nardis (5:31)
04. Autumn Leaves (5:13)
05. Five (2:44)
06. Detour Ahead (5:54)
07. Come Rain or Come Shine (5:33)
08. My Melancholy Baby (8:20)

01. Very Early (5:27)
02. Who Can I Turn To? (5:53)
03. 'Round Midnight (7:08)
04. Gloria's Step (5:21)
05. Turn Out the Stars (5:10)
06. Autumn Leaves (5:40)
07. Quiet Now (5:57)
08. Emily (5:54)
09. Nardis (10:35)