Bill Evans / David Schollmeyer - On the Organ

Jazz on the organ? And on the basis of the originals? This comes over marvelously well with the music of the legendary Bill Evans - as this new recording by David Schollmeyer impressively demonstrates. Schollmeyer has selected pieces from all the creative periods of this unique jazz pianist. Along with an illuminating overview of Evan's oeuvre, the result is an engaging organ portrait on Schollmeyer's "home organ" in Bremerhaven. Evans's outstanding skills as a pianist often inspired admiration; they were expressed not so much in artistic virtuosity as in his extremely fine sense of sound. His magnificent solos were mostly limited to one part, and here the saxophonist Lee Konitz was his great model. The organ restores the wind character to these improvisations - for many a jazz fan, with pleasant listening surprises in store! Evans was a great fan of the jazz waltz, and Schollmeyer's collection includes five such gems. Already in the original version the incomparable "Peace Piece," a free improvisation on a single ostinato measure, evokes the organ. Like a concentrated passacaglia or an English ground, this famous piece develops an uncommonly suggestive effect on the organ. The bass foundation is mostly formed by the extremely precise speaking of the Prinzipal stop on the Beckerath organ in the Große Kirche in Bremerhaven. The electric couplers also guarantee absolute rhythmic cogency even in a full registration - an essential prerequisite for the groove that Schollmeyer so marvelously maintains.