Pat Hall: Time Remembered — The Music of Bill Evans

Unseen Rain Records
By Ric Bang
Buy CD: Time Remembered: The Music of Bill Evans

Every jazz fan remembers pianist Bill Evans; not nearly as many know about Pat Hall. Well, Hall is something of an anachronism: He didn’t grow up in a musical family, although his father — who worked for GM in Flint, Michigan — had an 8-track player in his car, on which he played a lot of Pink Floyd, which young Pat grew to love. He also was lucky enough to attend a relatively advanced public school system, which made it possible for kids to learn to play musical instruments; his choice was a trombone.

At age 16, Hall attended a summer session at Boston’s famed Berklee School of Music, where he was exposed to records by J.J. Johnson. That set his future course.

Ornette Coleman was another huge influence, and Hall’s initial recording session was a tribute to that icon. This new album, as the title makes clear, is a remembrance of Evans and his music. The quartet is somewhat unusual, in that the usual piano and acoustic bass have been replaced by Greg Lewis’ Hammond B3 organ and Marvin Sewell’s guitar. They’re joined by drummer Mike Campenni, with Hall on trombone. 

All seven tracks are tunes that Evans and his groups made famous, and four were composed by Evans: “Waltz for Debby,” “Know What I Mean?,” “Time Remembered” and “Peri’s Scope.” Evans’ famous bassist, Scott LaFaro, contributed “Gloria’s Step,” and the musical menus is completed with Rogers and Hart’s “Spring Is Here,” and Earl Zindars’ “Elsa.”

The instrumentation may be different, but the quality of the music — and the chops displayed by the musicians themselves — make this an excellent release. We all miss Evans and his groups, and it’s nice that releases like this are keeping his work alive.