Loose Blues

History

Loose Blues was recorded for the Riverside label, but eventually dropped mostly because of Riverside forthcoming bankruptcy and the pressures of Verve producer Creed Taylor - he wanted Evans on his Verve label. So the project was shelved, and released posthumously only in 1982 as MCD-9200-2, after having been rediscovered in the Fantasy Records vaults. This was, in fact, believed to be a lost album since Keepnews couldn't find the master reels of the session dates, except for a take of "Loose Bloose". However, after a thorough research, he did succeed in finding the reels "stored in poorly marked tape boxes". The material was then assembled by Keepnews and Ed Michel. "Fudgesickle Built for Four" was named by Evans himself (reflecting his love of puns) and was a reference to "a bicycle built for two", a line from the popular song "Daisy Bell". Keepnews, recalling the sessions, stated that "My Bells", which is characterized by difficult tempo changes, took 25 takes to be recorded properly.

Of the seven originals from this session, Evans would only revisit "Time Remembered," "My Bells" and "Funkallero" for later recordings.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow states "Due to some difficulties during the recording process (none of the sidemen were familiar with the often complex numbers), the results were originally shelved and lost for a couple of decades. This CD reissue shows that the music was actually much better than originally thought... It is a pity that Evans and Sims (a logical combination) never did record together again".

Track listing

All compositions by Bill Evans

1. "Loose Bloose" - 7:07
2. "Loose Bloose" [alternate take] - 5:34
3. "Time Remembered" - 6:02
4. "Funkallero" - 6:13
5. "My Bells" - 5:24
6. "There Came You" - 5:52
7. "Fudgesickle Built for Four" - 4:31
8. "Fun Ride" - 5:15

Tracks 1-4 and 7 recorded on August 21, 1962; tracks 5, 6, 8 recorded on August 22, 1962.

Personnel