KSTV: Playback Session - Bill Evans & Jim Hall - "Undercurrent"

Kit Downes (piano); Dave Archer (guitar).

(Screenshots by Ken Drew)

The bands at Smitty's are getting smaller and smaller. At this rate they'll be disappearing up their own soundholes (joke!)

However, as is often the case, less can mean more and tonight it was just that. How could it not be with musicians of the calibre of Downes and Archer paying tribute to musicians of the calibre of Evans and Hall? A win win situation. 

Like the album (the CD reissue) the show began and ended with My Funny Valentine. Not the dreamy, schmaltzy, version so beloved of the wannabes but a mid-tempo instrumental that showed that even without the lyric it is still a good tune.

I Hear a Rhapsody had the duo in - dare I say it? - rhapsodic mode. Rather beautifully played too.

Dream Gypsy is a bit of a strange one. A nice tune written by Judith Veevers who, it would appear only wrote that one tune. Who was Judith? Or was it a pseudonym? Whatever, it had a relaxed 3/4 feel about it. 

Jim Hall wrote Romain and John Lewis the better known Skating in Central Park. Both relatively true to the record whilst still retaining the individuality of tonight's duo.

Darn That Dream was followed by an original by Downes composed with Bill Evans in mind - Waltz For Eden (I think).

This delightful session drew to a close with I'm Getting Sentimental Over You and the alternative take on Funny Val.

As presenter Osei frequently says - some great live music!

By two great players ...

Lance