Jazz Pioneer Bill Evans Is Celebrated With Expansive Career-Retrospective Box Set

Craft Recordings has announced two new titles that pay tribute to the pioneering jazz artist Bill Evans and his enduring musical contributions.

The first project is a five-CD box set and digital album, titled Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956–1980). It marks the first-ever career-spanning collection of music from the pianist, featuring over 60 tracks that spotlight Evans’ unique perspective on the piano both as a leader and co-leader.

The expansive set also includes a previously unreleased live performance of “Up with the Lark (Live)” from 1975, captured at Oil Can Harry’s in Vancouver, B.C. This recently unearthed concert recording will also be issued as a standalone album, titled On a Friday Evening, which will be available on 2-LP, CD, and digital formats.

Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956–1980) spans the pianist’s Riverside, Milestone, Fantasy, Verve, Warner Bros., and Elektra/Musician catalogs, and features Evans’ work with Tony Bennett, Cannonball Adderley, Kenny Burrell, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Eddie Gomez, Shelly Manne, and Lee Konitz, among many others.

Produced by Nick Phillips, the five-CD collection comes housed in a fabric-wrapped, hard-cover book, containing 48 pages of photos and ephemera, as well as new liner notes from the Grammy Award-winning writer, radio host, and music journalist, Neil Tesser.

One of the most influential artists in the history of jazz, Bill Evans (1929–1980) was known for his conversational interplay within his trios, his lyrical compositions, and his matchless approach to the piano.

In less than three decades, the prolific artist released over 50 albums as a leader, garnering seven Grammy Awards, 31 Grammy nominations, and two inductions into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1994, he was honored posthumously with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bill Evans’ Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956–1980) and On a Friday Evening are out June 25. 

Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956–1980) Track List:

Disc One: Trialogues, Vol. 1
1. Five
2. Woody’N You [take 2]
3. Young and Foolish
4. Autumn Leaves
5. How Deep Is the Ocean
6. Sweet and Lovely
7. Blue in Green
8. How My Heart Sings
9. Re: Person I Knew
10. My Foolish Heart (live)
11. Waltz for Debby (live)
12. Gloria’s Step (live)
13. My Man’s Gone Now (live)
14. Swedish Pastry (live)

Disc Two: Trialogues, Vol. 2
1. Israel
2. The Peacocks
3. I Believe in You
4. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
5. I Will Say Goodbye
6. Turn Out the Stars (live)
7. Walkin’ Up (live)
8. Very Early (live)
9. Minha (All Mine) (live)
10. My Romance (live)
11. Days of Wine and Roses (live)
12. The Touch of Your Lips (live)
13. Someday My Prince Will Come (live)

Disc Three: Monologues
1. Peace Piece
2. Danny Boy
3. Make Someone Happy
4. A Time for Love
5. Waltz for Debby
6. The Bad and the Beautiful
7. N.Y.C.’s No Lark
8. Emily
9. Remembering the Rain
10. I Loves You Porgy (live)
11. Letter to Evan (live)
12. Nardis (live)

Disc Four: Dialogues & Confluences
1. My Funny Valentine
2. A Face Without a Name
3. The Touch of Your Lips (Vocal Version)
4. I Love You
5. Up with the Lark (live)
6. Funkallero (live)
7. Who Cares?
8. Body and Soul
9. You and the Night and the Music
10. Time Remembered
11. Night and Day
12. A Child is Born
13. Peri’s Scope

Disc Five: Epilogue
1. Sareen Jurer (live)
2. Sugar Plum (live)
3. The Two Lonely People (live)
4. T. T. T. (Twelve Tone Tune) (live)
5. Quiet Now (live)
6. Up with the Lark (live)
7. How Deep Is the Ocean (live)
8. Blue Serge (live)
9. Nardis (live)

Tracklist – On a Friday Evening (LP-edition):

Side A
1. Sareen Jurer (live)
2. Sugar Plum (live)

Side B
1. The Two Lonely People (live)
2. T. T. T. (Twelve Tone Tune) (live)
3. Quiet Now (live)

Side C
1. Up with the Lark (live)
2. How Deep Is the Ocean (live)

Side D
1. Blue Serge (live)
2. Nardis (live)

* Tracklist for CD and digital editions mirror vinyl.