How My Heart Sings

Bill Evans' return to full activity in 1962 came almost a year after his celebrated trio recordings at the Village Vanguard. Just 10 days after that classic live session, bassist Scott LaFaro had died in a highway accident. Evans, deeply shaken, eventually re-formed his trio with the same drummer (Paul Motian) and Chuck Israels on bass. Their first visit to a studio was for a dual purpose: To make an all-ballad-tempo album, Moonbeams, and this normal set at the same time. It was producer Orrin Keepnews' thought that recording eight slow numbers in a row might prove unduly enervating; accordingly, the total two-album repertoire was interspersed over three days of recording and the net result was two excellent additions to the Evans catalog. In this Original Jazz Classics Re-masters edition, three bonus tracks round out the program two of which are previously unreleased.