The latest in the Zev Feldman produced line of Bill Evans’ European concert recordings, In Norway: The Kongsberg Concert exhibits a show from the 1970 Kongsberg Jazz Festival in the eponymous Norwegian town. Joined by bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell, who made up his longest lasting trio and with whom he’d just performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Evans sounds relaxed and free-spirited here. Minus the high pressure of playing one of the world’s most prestigious festivals, the pianist simply follows his whims, whether it’s waltzing gently with Denny Zeitlin’s “Quiet Now,” swinging across Joe Zawinul’s “Midnight Mood,” giving a caffeinated kick to his former employer Miles Davis’ “So What” (on whose original recording he played, of course), or clattering happily through his own “34 Skidoo.” The trio brings the set – and the disk – to a close with a sensational take on the Evans standard “Nardis,” a Davis track that the pianist made his own to such a degree that it’s more associated with him than its composer. Thus far Feldman’s endless quest for gold in the live Evans archives hasn’t failed yet, and In Norway: The Kongsberg Concert is no exception to that rule.
