Everybody Digs Bill Evans

Recording history and tape provenance

In between his first two Riverside albums as a leader, Evans spent a stressful nine months as the sole white musician in Miles Davis's sextet – the only pianist Davis trusted enough to build Kind of Blue around a few months later – before leaving Davis in November 1958 to visit family in Florida and Louisiana. He returned to New York that December ready to record again, joined by two musicians he'd recently played with on a Cannonball Adderley session: Philly Joe Jones, fresh off his own stint with Davis, and Sam Jones (no relation), a Tampa transplant who'd moved to New York in 1955 and fallen in with Adderley's circle soon after.

The record includes three unaccompanied solo piano pieces – "Lucky to Be Me," "Peace Piece," and "Epilogue" – the second of which is now regarded as one of the most significant compositions in Evans's output, a modal meditation built on a two-chord vamp that predates and arguably informs the modal language Davis and Evans would develop together on Kind of Blue just months later. The album's title turned out to be more prophetic than its makers intended: the cover carries unsolicited tribute quotes from Miles Davis, George Shearing, Ahmad Jamal, and Cannonball Adderley, praising a pianist the jazz-buying public was only then getting a chance to properly hear. Despite the pedigree of the session, it's not the cleanest-sounding tape in Evans's catalog – a documented amount of piano distortion is audible at points on the original recording, present across every pressing rather than specific to any one of them, and not severe enough to seriously undercut the listening experience.

Two mastering credits on this title are worth double-checking before you buy. The Craft Recordings CR00751 (2024 Record Store Day mono reissue) is sold everywhere with promotional copy crediting Kevin Gray for cutting the lacquers from the original master tapes, and Discogs owner reviews of the pressing itself are glowing – dead quiet, well-centered, described by one reviewer as "the definitive modern mono" with rich piano tone and natural bass weight. But Discogs' own release page for this exact pressing carries a contributor note stating that the Kevin Gray credit was printed incorrectly on the hype sticker. Who actually mastered it could not be independently confirmed, so the credit in the tier table below is marked unresolved rather than asserted as fact – this doesn't seem to affect how well-regarded the pressing itself is, just who should get the credit for it.

Separately, no standalone Discogs /release/ page could be found for the Analogue Productions 45rpm pressing (catalog AJAZ 1129-45, part of Analogue Productions' larger Riverside Recordings box collecting all of Evans's Riverside-era albums at 45rpm) – only a box-set-adjacent listing that happens to include its matrix data, and the general Acoustic Sounds retail product page. Matrix runout data for this pressing does independently confirm mastering by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman at AcousTech Mastering, which is a more reliable source than promotional copy, so that credit is solid even without a standalone Discogs page to link to.

Sound quality by pressing

The true first pressing, Riverside RLP 12-291 (mono) / RLP 1129 (stereo), has deep groove, a black label carrying the "twin reels and microphone" Riverside logo and Bill Grauer Productions Inc. credit. This catalog number was reissued repeatedly through the 1960s under Orpheum Productions after Riverside's founder died, so confirm deep groove and original label details before paying original-pressing prices for what might be a later repress sharing the same catalog number.

The Analogue Productions AJAZ 1129-45, part of Analogue Productions' Riverside Recordings box, is matrix-confirmed as mastered by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman at AcousTech Mastering. Owner reports on Discogs single this title out specifically – multiple reviewers of the broader box describe this and Portrait in Jazz as sounding "more open and dynamic" than some of the trio's later, post-LaFaro albums in the same collection, attributing the character to the earlier, smaller-ensemble recording rather than any mastering shortfall.

The Craft Recordings CR00751 (2024 mono) is a modern all-analog mono cut pressed at RTI on 180-gram vinyl in a Stoughton tip-on jacket, limited to 4,500 copies for Record Store Day 2024. Reviewed enthusiastically as dead quiet, well-centered, and richly detailed – the specific mastering-engineer attribution is the only open question here, not the sound quality itself.

The Original Jazz Classics OJC-068 (1983) is the standard, widely available reissue from Fantasy's Original Jazz Classics series, mastered by George Horn. Reviewers consistently describe it as a solid, low-noise all-analog remaster – not as refined as the modern audiophile pressings above, but a legitimate and affordable way to own the album.

Buyer's guide by budget

$$: The Original Jazz Classics OJC-068 (1983) – a solid, low-surface-noise all-analog remaster.

$$$: The Craft Recordings CR00751 2024 mono RSD reissue – dead quiet, well-centered, cohesive mono presentation regardless of who mastered it.

$$$$–$$$$$: A clean Riverside RLP 12-291/1129 original, condition-dependent, or the Analogue Productions AJAZ 1129-45 45rpm reissue from the Riverside Recordings box – owner reports single this out as one of the best-sounding titles in that collection.

Pressing tier summary

References

• Discogs (master, all versions): search "Bill Evans Everybody Digs Bill Evans" on discogs.com – standalone master page ID not confirmed in this pass, flag for follow-up
• Ten-Minute Record Reviews, "Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans (Episode 434)": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIVLP5qu9ww

Related guides: Portrait in Jazz · Waltz for Debby · The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery