Portrait in Jazz

Portrait in Jazz is the fifth studio album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans as a leader, released in 1960. It is the first of only two studio albums to be recorded with his famous trio featuring bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. It was originally released in both mono and stereo editions, each featuring a different take of "Autumn Leaves." Background Eight months after his successful collaboration with Miles Davis on the album Kind of Blue , Evans recorded Portrait in Jazz with a new group, the first Bill Evans Trio, that helped change the direction of modern jazz. Most notably, LaFaro's bass is promoted from a mere accompanying instrument to one of almost equal status to the piano, although not to the extent that it would be on later albums such as Sunday at the Village Vanguard . Evans said of LaFaro, "I was astounded by his creativity. ... There was so much music in him, he had a problem controlling it. ... He certainly stimulated me to other areas, and perhaps I helped him contain some of his enthusiasm. It was a wonderful thing and worth all the effort that we made later to suppress the ego and work for a common result." Motian had recorded previously with Evans on his debut album, New Jazz Conceptions , as well as in groups led by Tony Scott , George Russell , and others. Evans biographer Keith Shadwick notes that Motian at this point tended to avoid standard bop formulas and would "react instead to what he actually heard coming from the other two musicians," which "added in no small degree to the unique quality of Evans's first working trio." Reception Reviewing the album for AllMusic , critic Scott Yanow wrote, "the influential interpretations were far from routine or predictable at the time. LaFaro and Motian were nearly equal partners with the pianist in the ensembles .... A gem." Danny Eccleston of Mojo commented, " Portrait In Jazz —Evans' fifth record as a band leader—gets you every which way. At its least great, it is merely brilliant .... But what makes Evans extra-extra-special is the way his playing drags you in and shares the vulnerability at its core. Oh, the humanity!" Evans biographer Peter Pettinger says that "the plateau attained on Portrait was high indeed, its fresh vistas possessed of a new subtlety in the execution." He also singles out the performance of " Spring Is Here " by Richard Rodgers as "a magnificent example of [Evans's] lyrical touch." Shadwick refers to the album as establishing "the blueprint for every subsequent working trio that Evans would run."