New Release: Very Early: Remembering Bill Evans from Jim Witzel

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New Release:  Very Early:  Remembering Bill Evans from Jim Witzel
Label:  Joplin & Sweeney Records
Release Date: August 15, 2025
Website:  https://www.jimwitzelmusic.com

Jim Witzel's 4th album, Very Early:  Remembering Bill Evans is a memorial to the works of pianist Bill Evans, performed on guitar by Witzel.  His slant on Evans's material draws out the reflective and relaxing qualities of the music.  Teaming up with pianist Phil Aaron, bass player Dan Feiszli, and drummer Jason Lewis, Witzel merges collective improvisation with introspective musings and straight-ahead jazz elements found in Evans's music.  Inspired by Evans's recording Sunday at the Village Vanguard, Witzel recreates a relaxing Sunday afternoon vibe in his recompositions of Evans's material as he, Aaron and Lewis trade motifs and choruses.  Their harmonies move like poetry in motion standing out on "Israel" with the swinging stride of the rhythm section collaborating with Witzel's guitar improvising on the melody.  The bluesy musings of Aaron's keys strolling languidly along "Some Other Time," a piece made by Leonard Bernstein and re-recorded by Evans, produce a pensive mood.  The pace is stirred up in"Nardis," an original by Miles Davis and reinterpretated by Evans, and now Witzel, who captures the multi-tiered voicing of bebop.  Similarly in the way a singer conveys a song’s meaning through the lyrics, Witzel tells stories with expressive playing and a sensitive touch.  His reimagination of Evans's works portrays the calm desired on a stress-free Sunday afternoon.

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