Outstanding post-bop from Norway, including the jazz dance classic Cordon Bleu, and a killer version of Footprints. Erik Andresen on alto saxophone, Roy Hellvin piano, Tore Nordlie double bass and Svein Christiansen drums. Recorded in 1970; originally released on Arne Bendiksen’s Flower label in 1971.

After recent recordings with Mark Turner and Billy Hart, the pianist leads his own quartet through a programme of standards and blues, live at the Village Vanguard.
‘Its prime melodic voice is the veteran trumpeter Tom Harrell. Iverson extols the poetic vulnerability in his playing, particularly in such ballads as The Man I Love and Polka Dots and Moonbeam. The album’s effervescent swing is thanks to the top-flight rhythm team of bassist Ben Street and drummer Eric McPherson, whose subtle invention helps drive Denzil Best’s bebop groover Wee and two irresistibly bluesy Iverson originals.’

The Barca-born pianist back to wow us again on piano, Fender Rhodes, Chinese gongs, and a little whistling; with longtime collaborator Masa Kamaguchi, and Detroit drum wizard Gerald Cleaver. ‘Where melodic density meets contrapuntal dialogue, a free interplay of rich textures and riveting, masterly improvisation. This smooth complexity is what gives rise to the group’s uniqueness.’
The Wire magazine hailed the first volume: ‘deep and thoughtful’.

Top Wayne Shorter; marvellous extras.

Stone classic BE, recorded live at The Village Vanguard in New York on June 25, 1961. With Scott LaFaro — ten days before his death in a car accident — and Paul Motian.

Giddily lovely ballads from 1962, with Chuck Israels taking over from Scott LaFaro.
That’s Nico on the cover.

A newly-discovered recording of a live performance by the Trio, with Eddie Gómez playing bass and Eliot Zigmund drums, on June 20, 1975, at Oil Can Harry’s, Vancouver, Canada.

His trio with Chuck Israels and Larry Bunker, performing live at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in early March, in the selection broadcast by WBGO-FM and PBS-TV later that month. Properly restored and remastered.

His two Riverside masterpieces Sunday At The Village Vanguard and Waltz For Debby.
The music sounds better than ever after Ezzthetics’ restoration-work, which removes the accustomed breaks between tracks, so that the concerts unfold continuously and vividly, laced with crowd chatter and clinking glass, and all. You feel like you’re there in the Village Vanguard, in 1961, enraptured. Evans is exquisitely soulful throughout, and the improvisatory trio interplay is famously stunning: check My Man’s Gone Now, featuring Scott LaFaro.
It’s a scorcher. Unmissable.