Conversations with Myself (album)

Conversations with Myself is a 1963 album by American jazz musician Bill Evans.

Conversations with Myself
Studio album by
Bill Evans
Released1963
RecordedFebruary 6, 9 and May 20, 1963
New York City
GenreJazz
Length36:43 (original LP)
43:49 (CD reissue)
LabelVerve
V6-8526
ProducerCreed Taylor
Bill Evans chronology
The Gary McFarland Orchestra
(1963)		 Conversations with Myself
(1963)		 Plays the Theme from The V.I.P.s and Other Great Songs
(1963)

History

Recording with Glenn Gould's piano, CD 318, at studio sessions on February 6 and 9, and May 20, 1963, Evans used the method of overdubbing three different yet corresponding piano tracks for each song. The album features mostly traditional pop standards. Alongside these are three compositions by Thelonious Monk, and one Evans original, "N.Y.C.'s No Lark", commemorating Evans' friend and fellow jazz pianist Sonny Clark, who died one month before Evans began work on the album.

Evans followed Conversations with Myself with Further Conversations with Myself (1967) and New Conversations (1978), both recorded in a similar vein.

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
DownBeat[1]
(Original Lp release)
Allmusic [2]
All About Jazz [3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings[4]

The album earned Evans his first Grammy Award in 1964 for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group. It received a 5-star review in DownBeat in 1963.[5]

Writing for Allmusic, music critic Michael G. Nastos wrote:

Certainly one of the more unusual items in the discography of an artist whose consistency is as evident as any in modern jazz, and nothing should dissuade you from purchasing this one of a kind album that in some ways set a technological standard for popular music – and jazz – to come.[2]

Jason Laipply of All About Jazz wrote:

[The album] was an instant classic for the jazz community. Evans' work on the ten tunes included here is truly inspired and amazing to behold... this glimpse of the artist at a heightened level of expression is very rewarding indeed. However, for the casual fan, I would not suggest this disc. The musical vocabulary is complex enough that the simple beauty of the songs, and Evans’ playing, is at times lost.[3]

Track listing
  1. "'Round Midnight" (Monk, Williams) – 6:35
  2. "How About You?" (Lane, Ralph Freed) – 2:50
  3. "Spartacus Love Theme" (Alex North) – 5:10
  4. "Blue Monk" (Monk) – 4:32
  5. "Stella by Starlight" (Young, Washington) – 4:52
  6. "Hey There" (Richard Adler, Ross) – 4:31
  7. "N.Y.C.'s No Lark" (Bill Evans) – 5:36
  8. "Just You, Just Me" (Jesse Greer, Raymond Klages) – 2:37
  9. "Bemsha Swing" (Denzil Best, Monk) – 2:56
  10. "A Sleepin' Bee" (Arlen, Capote) – 4:10

Tracks 9 and 10 not part of original LP release. Track 7 recorded on February 6, 1963; tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 8-10 on February 9; tracks 3 and 4 recorded on May 20, 1963.

Personnel

References
  1. DownBeat: October 24, 1963, Vol. 30, No.28.
  2. Nastos, Michael G. "Conversations with Myself > Review". Allmusic. Retrieved June 28, 2011.
  3. Laipply, Jason (October 1997). "Conversations with Myself > Review". All About Jazz. Retrieved June 28, 2011.
  4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 457. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  5. All About Jazz review. Jason R. Laipply. Retrieved January 2009.
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