Recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1961, shortly before
Scott LaFaro's death,
Waltz for Debby is the second album issued from that historic session, and the final one from that legendary trio that also contained drummer
Paul Motian. While the
Sunday at the Village Vanguard album focused on material where
LaFaro soloed prominently,
Waltz for Debby is far more a portrait of the trio on those dates.
Bill Evans chose the material here, and, possibly, in some unconscious way, revealed on these sessions -- and the two following
LaFaro's death (
Moonbeams and
How My Heart Sings!) -- a different side of his musical personality which had never been displayed on his earlier solo recordings or during his tenures with
Miles Davis and
George Russell.
Evans was an intensely romantic player, flagrantly emotional, and that is revealed here in spades on tunes such as "My Foolish Heart" and "Detour Ahead." There is a kind of impressionistic construction to his harmonic architecture that plays off the middle registers and goes deeper into its sonances in order to set into motion numerous melodic fragments simultaneously. The rhythmic intensity that he displayed as a sideman is evident here in "Milestones," with its muscular, shifting time signature, and those large, flatted ninths with the right hand. The trio's most impressive interplay is in "My Romance," after
Evans' opening moments introducing the changes. Here
Motian's brushwork is delicate, flighty, and elegant, and
LaFaro controls the dynamic of the tune with his light-as-a-feather pizzicato work and makes
Evans' deeply emotional statements swing effortlessly. Of the many recordings
Evans issued, the two Vanguard dates and
Explorations are the ultimate expressions of his legendary trio. ~ Thom Jurek