Interplay

Bill Evans had recorded only sparsely with horn players when this session was cut in 1962. His performance on Miles Davis's Kind of Blue had portended a certain minimal presence when playing with horns, but Interplay defies the earlier recording's hints with particularly strong playing. He's perhaps egged on by Philly Joe Jones, who seemed always able to throw Evans into overdrive (just listen to the Secret Sessions for plentiful confirmation of this). Here, you have Jones pushing Evans, and guitarist Jim Hall adding harmonic depth and brittle latticework around the edges while trumpeter Freddie Hubbard joins in the fray. The instrument mix is odd, but Hubbard plays lyrically enough that he sounds snug in Evans's ever-surprising chord voicings. As for Hall, he sounds genteel and then engaged and then snapping as the band pushes hard on several standards.