Too Much Music, or Please Ignore the Picture of the Cute Kid:
Last time it was about where to draw the line when it comes to music you consider to be your own.
Now I'm wondering about the box sets/compilations/anthologies that will overwhelm you with the sheer volume of music they contain. I've definitely dipped my toe in here with Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (7 CDs) and Beethoven's Nine Symphonies (5 CDs).
And I have some friends - yeah you, Nutboy - who think nothing of having every Dylan Bootleg release in existence, and who somehow emerge unscathed and have enough time and brain cells left for other music!
Because time is the issue here, not money. Not anymore.
I've been stuck on a WHP post on the Beethoven Symphonies for months, and I've had that record for forty fucking years.
It doesn't help that my buying habits have led Amazon to make the following suggestions to me:
Eight Classic Albums by Lee Morgan for $13.54
5 Original Albums by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers for $16.90
8 Classic Albums by Thelonious Monk for $10.28
Classic Collaborations 1957-1963 by John Coltrane for $13.39
Essential Original Albums by Chet Baker $21.08
And me, like a dog seeing a squirrel, can't help but add them to my Shopping Cart (in the Saved for Later section, thank god).
But note the very reasonable prices for these collections. The prices on the individual albums are pretty good, too, and if I focused on them, one at a time, I'd end up with less music but more I can actually absorb.
But I didn't. Instead, I succumbed to the temptation of the six-CD 12 Classic Albums by Bill Evans thus diving into the deep end of the pool again.
And if I make any more such purchases, does the concept of the single album that has played a central role in my musical life has begun to fade away? And will all of these artists end up getting short-shrift because I can't really listen to any one of them for very long?
Back in 2016, I joked about getting so sucked into the WHP that it might seem I was reading every book ever written and every record ever recorded. As that idiot Morrissey would say, that joke isn't funny anymore.
But Back to Bill Evans, Remember Him?:
Some other important concepts pertaining to this collection:
- Time: A ridiculous 7 hours. Not for him. For me!
- Space: Not terrible, about an inch wide. But it's still an open question if he warrants it.
- Number of Albums: I have this query in Access called "Summary by Artist" which is a quick way of determining who's in my pantheon. It looks something like this:
| # Albums | Artist |
|---|---|
| 22 | The Beatles |
| 16 | Bob Dylan |
| 16 | Neil Young |
| 14 | The Who |
| 13 | Rolling Stones |
| 11 | Miles Davis |
| 11 | R.E.M. |
| 11 | The Kinks |
| 10 | Bruce Springsteen |
| 10 | Elvis Costello |
| 9 | Little Feat |
Now, I ask you, is it fair that this young whippersnapper Bill Evans (who I feel I should mention has been dead for forty years) - an artist I don't even know if I like yet - suddenly vaults to the number six spot in one purchase - past other artists like Miles Davis(!), whose albums I purchased one at a time over the course of decades, thus proving their value to me every step of the way?
Uh, what was the question Jaybee?
Never mind! You get my point.
But Jaybee, What About the, um, Music?
Good Question!
Aside from his work on Kind of Blue, I'm not really familiar with his work. And you know by now not to ask the obvious question: So, why would you then buy 12 fucking albums by him? And all I can say is, I'm the scorpion.
So I will probably NEVER get to the bottom of this small pile of six CDs, so I'll just focus on the first one for now which comprises his first two albums.
New Jazz Conceptions (1956)
Nice, fine technique. Melodic. He doesn't overdo it. But he does mellow out a bit too much on side two.
B+
Everybody Digs Bill Evans (1959)
A bit more "sophisticated". What, with all those quotes on the cover he better be. Smooth. Cool. But not much fire. (I just said cool, didn't I??)
He does finish strong with some lyrical tunes, though.
B+
And I'll eventually get to the rest. But based on what I've heard thus far, here is my updated list of favorite jazz pianists:
1. Bud Powell: A great combination of technical mastery and imagination.
2. Thelonious Monk: A bit twisted, technique-wise, but man, what a mind!
3. Errol Garner: Bud Powell for the middle class, in the best possible way.
4. Bill Evans: Technique-wise better than all of the above, but impact-wise less than expected.
5. Art Tatum: Brilliant technique, but too slick by half (whatever that means).
In a word, it's about fun.
And Bill, sorry to say - especially with those forbidding glasses - is not a whole lot of fun.
The Long View, If I Ever Get To It:
Bill Evans died right around the time John Lennon did, and I remember being in a bookstore overhearing the manager bemoaning the fact that Lennon's death was far more widely known and mourned than Evans, who he considered just as great a talent.
Thems would normally be fighting words but I'm younger than that now. And who knows how I'll feel after immersing myself further? Perhaps my opinion of Bill Evans will eventually be similar.
The trouble is by then I don't know if I'll have a worthwhile opinion about anything else.
