Bill Evans - You Must Believe In Spring [2LP UK Import]

You Must Believe In Spring is Bill Evans at his most tender, a trio session from 1977 that only surfaced after his death, presented here as a 2LP UK import.

Recorded in Hollywood with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Eliot Zigmund, the album sat on the shelf until 1981, the year after Evans passed. Heard now, it feels like a farewell he never meant to make: unhurried, intimate and full of the harmonic shading that made him one of the most influential pianists in jazz.

B Minor Waltz opens with a delicate, almost classical grace, a lullaby that seems to hold its breath. The title track, written by Michel Legrand, unfolds like a slow sunrise, while The Peacocks, a Jimmy Rowles composition, drifts on shadowy, suspended chords. Gary's Theme offers a gentle melody that Evans turns over and over like a smooth stone.

Gomez's bass sings almost as a second voice, and Zigmund's brushwork keeps everything floating. There is grief here, but also extraordinary warmth, and the interplay between the three players is as close to conversation as recorded jazz gets.

For anyone who loves late-night piano or the quieter corners of the Evans catalogue, this is an essential record, the sound of a master playing with nothing left to prove.