Undercurrent

Product Information

Here, as elsewhere on the album, it is often difficult to believe there are only two musicians at work. And maybe I'm totally wrong here but, wasn't this record released on the United Artists Jazz label in 1962 - and not on Blue Note as stated on the jacket and mofi labels? Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has been the undisputed pioneer and leader in audiophile recordings since the company's inception in 1977. Neither musician is trying to dominate the conversation but just attempting to enhance each others playing in a quiet sensitive way. Throughout its history, Mobile Fidelity has remained true to this goal, pioneering state-of-the-art technologies and setting audiophile standards that remain in place today.

I Hear a Rhapsody is an extraordinary exercise in leisurely poise, forming a seamless musical statement.If there is a certificate we’ve missed out on then it’s probably for a 50 metre swim badge at the local swimming baths. Indeed, even the album’s cover – an iconic photograph by Toni Frissell – exhibits the surreal, almost-hallucinogenic properties of the fare contained within. I assume that there are shortcomings in the original recording, but I can't help but feel that more could be gotten out of this record.

For Evans, the duet clearly functions as therapy, a healing episode in which his partner patiently lays back, shadowing moves and suggesting others, neither musician interested in the spotlight but each striving for (and achieving) transcendent beauty. The execution of these tunes couldn't be more minimal - just Evans' piano and Hall's guitar vibing off each other.

The record is noise free, but does an impressive job of capturing musical nuance and delivering a deep emotional experience. As Hall's solo gets under way Evans provides a pointillistic background that grows in intensity, urging on the guitarist, who replies with increasing heat before passing things off to Evans and getting into some spirited comping of his own. I think I can safely say, though, that UNDERCURRENT is the current "hot ticket" out of all my jazz discs.

I've wanted this record for a long time, but it's not easy to find in the used bins in clean condition, and this is a reasonably quiet pressing (although by no means silent). I am slowly building up my jazz collection, which includes classics from Coltrane, Miles Davis, Mingus, Adderley and others. The first of two meetings on record in a duo format with guitarist Jim Hall, the collaborations are often exquisite. While Evans managed to sit down for a few one-off takes between LaFaro’s passing and these April-May 1962 dates, he largely remained on hiatus and abstained from recording.There have been a fair number of releases of Undercurrent on vinyl over the years, but Pure Pleasure’s 180 gram audiophile incarnation is the first to combine notably high quality sound with packaging that does justice to the eerie, enigmatic beauty of the original. At the time it was as distinctive as the record it contained, indicating — as far as jazz was concerned — we really were no longer in Kansas. These cookies are strictly necessary for the operation of the site, you can disable them by changing the settings of your browser but you will not be able to use the site normally. My favourite pieces at the moment are Evans' own composition "Romain", which is an extraordinarily melancholy piece of NY bedsit music. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.