BILL EVANS: “Conversations With Myself” LP

Description

BILL EVANS: “Conversations With Myself” LP

2023 Verve/Elemental Reissue

Conversations with Myself is a 1963 album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans recorded for Verve Records, overdubbing three piano tracks for each track.

Background
During studio sessions on February 6 and 9 and May 20, 1963, Evans recorded on Steinway piano CD 318—the “cherished” instrument of classical pianist Glenn Gould, who was “a connoisseur of Evans’s work”—using a method of overdubbing three different yet corresponding piano tracks for each song. The project posed significant “technical and musical challenges” for both Evans and his producer, Creed Taylor.

Because the method was considered controversial in jazz circles at the time, Evans included “A Statement” in the liner notes to the original LP (reprinted in the 1997 CD reissue), in which he wrote:

There is a viewpoint which holds that any recorded music which cannot also be produced in natural live performance is a “gimmick” and therefore should not be considered as a pure musical effort. Because the performance and recording procedure used in this recording might stimulate this issue to a question in some minds, I requested the opportunity to state my firm belief in the integrity of the idea upon which this album was conceived and some supporting reasons.

To the person who uses music as a medium for the expression of ideas, feelings, images, or what have you; anything which facilitates this expression is properly his instrument. … I remember that in recording the selections, as I listened to the first track while playing the second, and the first two while playing the third, the process involved was an artificial duplication of simultaneous performance in that each track represented a musical mind responding to another musical mind or minds.

The argument that the same mind was involved in all three performances could be advanced, but I feel that this is not quite true. The functions of each track are different, and as one in speech feels a different state of mind making statements than in responding to statements or commenting on the exchange involved in the first two; so I feel that the music here has more the quality of a “trio” than a solo effort.

Another condition to be considered is the fact that I know my musical techniques more thoroughly than any other person, so that, it seems to me, I am equipped to respond to my previous musician statements with the most accuracy and clarity.

Evans followed Conversations with Myself with Further Conversations with Myself (1967) and New Conversations (1978), both also recorded with overdubbed piano tracks.