The surprise discovery of a studio session by this unique trio means that, instead of just the famous live album at Montreux, their available output has more than doubled. To be sure, it has all the hallmarks of any Evans trio between 1959 and 1980, in particular the combined delicacy and resilience of the piano work. But Gomez, two years into his 11 -year stint with Bill, was so full of youthful virtuosity that, when heard live three weeks after this recording, he eclipsed the inspiration of Scott LaFaro. Similarly DeJohnette, previously associated with the hippie populism of Charles Lloyd and thus an unexpected choice, was able to play ‘for the group’ but also inject extra energy. He is less in evidence here than you might hope, due to the seemingly casual approach of the session, which includes a few solo piano tracks and duos without drums, some of them being obvious out– takes if an LP had been produced at the time. The long-forgotten circumstances of the date are discussed in our feature article (see p32), as is the sometimes surprising repertoire – all except ‘Very Early’ and ‘Walking Up’ are from the American Songbook, but many of them tunes Evans seldom played. Meanwhile, I hadn't remembered how breathtakingly inventive were Gomez's bass solos, and DeJohnette's playing (though often with brushes) is very much to the point. So, while this collection is not ‘Montreux times two’, it's a different insight into Evans and this particular line-up.