| Symbiosis | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1974 | |||
| Recorded | February 11, 12 & 14, 1974 | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 40:53 | |||
| Label | MPS | |||
| Producer | Helen Keane | |||
| Bill Evans chronology | ||||
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Symbiosis is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans with an orchestra playing a two-movement work composed by conductor Claus Ogerman, recorded in February 1974 and originally released on the German MPS label.[1]
It was the third orchestral album by Evans and Ogerman, following Plays the Theme from The V.I.P.s and Other Great Songs (1963) and Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra (1966), which mostly consisted of relatively brief arrangements of works by other composers, modern and classical.
Ogerman said that his composition is divided into two "entirely opposed night pieces." He described them as follows:[2]
The tranquillo of the second movement (largo) releases the inner tension of the first. However, both movements share one joint foundation. The second movement is almost in its entirety a (slowed-down) repeat of a fast 41-bar 16th-note woodwind/saxophone passage of the first movement. ... This transfiguration is preceded by two new largo themes for piano and accompanying orchestra. The piano concludes the piece by establishing once more the D-Major theme of the first largo.
The work's two movements are divided into subsections (a, b, and c for the first movement and a and b for the second). Evans plays a Steinway grand piano on the first part of the first movement and the whole second movement but switches to a Fender-Rhodes electric piano for the last two sections of the first movement.[3]
Ogerman praised Evans's performance of his work, saying that the pianist "is—as no other player—able to create within any degree of musical tension. His elimination of everything unnecessary and a rare sensitivity confirm again that he's with no doubt the most distinguished jazz pianist of our time. ... I am unable to envision the piece being played by anyone else but Bill."[4]
Evans recorded the composition with his regular trio at the time, consisting of Eddie Gómez on bass and Marty Morell on drums. The orchestra included some notable jazz players such as Phil Woods and Jerry Dodgion on alto saxophones.
- ^ Bill Evans discography, Accessed 5 June 2024.
- ^ "Claus Ogerman on 'Symbiosis' and Bill Evans," liner notes, Verve 314 523 381-2 (1994), p. 1.
- ^ Symbiosis, liner notes, Verve 314 523 381-2 (1994), p. 5.
- ^ "Claus Ogerman on 'Symbiosis' and Bill Evans," p. 1.