The Resonance album is a considerable find, not only in terms of musical content but sound quality. For a live recording you've never even seen mentioned, let alone heard, a huge plus is the fact that it's not a bootleg but professionally recorded with the cooperation of the musicians (and with less audience noise than on the famous Village Vanguard sessions). This was the period when Gomez had his feet under the table more than two years already, and was furthering the developments of the Scott LaFaro period more than was the case with Chuck Israels. In melodic terms, both Gomez and Evans were heavily into sequential imitation but the input of Morell ensures this doesn't become too introverted. Two whole sets are included, with some unusual choices such as Kern's ‘Yesterdays’ and a trio version of ‘My Funny Valentine’, and all recorded two days after Evans finished his album Alone.

Having already reviewed in these pages several public-domain reissues of Evans’ first six albums for Riverside, I'm running out of stars (and superlatives) for this Proper set that includes all six and more. These sacred texts not only spell out the pianist's enormous influence but how far he travelled from his beginnings to his first peak. Their names are New Jazz Conceptions, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Portrait In Jazz, Explorations, Sunday At The Village Vanguard and Waltz For Debby, without the alternate takes released later. The additional material consists of five of the tracks broadcast live from Birdland by the 1960 trio with LaFaro and Motian, plus the whole album (The Ivory Hunters) of Brookmeyer and Evans at two pianos with Percy Heath and Connie Kay. What is there to say, except it's particularly delightful that CD1 ends with the iconic ‘Peace Piece’, and that CD4 contains all 12 tracks originally issued on the two albums from the Vanguard. Remastering isn't the greatest, but what do you want – perfection?