Portrait in Jazz

Recording history and tape provenance

Evans had spent nine months of 1958 as the pianist in Miles Davis's sextet, an association that led to Kind of Blue. This record marks his return to leading his own group. The new rhythm section came with a different idea of what a piano trio could be.

LaFaro's bass is promoted from accompaniment to something closer to equal partnership with the piano, years before that became a common approach.

What the stereo image sounds like

The stereo imaging on this record reflects 1959 and 1960 practice rather than any reissue's shortcoming. Stereophile describes it as open and dynamic with vague imaging.

That review attributes the vagueness to channel bleeding and the era's habit of spreading instruments hard across a still-new format. No modern cut fixes it, because it is in the tape.

Two different takes of "Autumn Leaves"

The mono and stereo pressings of this album carry different takes of "Autumn Leaves." This is a separate performance, not a remix.

No single pressing therefore gives the complete picture of what was recorded that day. A collector who wants both takes needs both a mono and a stereo copy, in whatever era.

The Electric Recording Company issued a mono-only pressing, catalogue ERC052M, limited to 300 copies, which uses the mono take. No sound account of that pressing could be verified, so it is not rated here.

Where the reviewers disagree

Three modern cuts compete, and the published accounts conflict. No source settles it, so both sides are set out here.

45 RPM Audiophile compared all three in one sitting. That review rated the Mobile Fidelity One-Step the noisiest of the three, despite its low-noise SuperVinyl formulation. It found Evans's piano disconnected from the trio and short of fine detail.

That same review speculated the One-Step's DSD256 digital step might explain it, without confirming a cause. It called the Analogue Productions 45rpm cut the clear winner for soundstage and detail. It described the Electric Recording Company pressing as warmer and more subtle, without choosing between those two.

Owners disagree about the One-Step on its Discogs page. Several describe it as dead quiet with exceptional detail and wide stereo separation. A separate owner review of the ERC stereo pressing rates it above the original Riverside stereo cut.

The One-Step was limited to 6,000 individually numbered copies, where consistency across a run is harder to hold than on a standard pressing. Treat the noise complaint as one credible account rather than a settled verdict.

Original Riverside pressings (1960)

RLP 12-315 in mono and RLP 1162 in stereo are the first pressings, with deep-groove blue labels reading "Bill Grauer Productions" and no "Inc." suffix.

A slightly later repress adds "Inc." to that same text. Discogs' own version history for this release flags the "Inc." copy as the repress, which makes the distinction checkable rather than folklore.

Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step (2019)

The One-Step edition, catalogue UD1S 2-009, was mastered by Krieg Wunderlich and Shawn R. Britton, limited to 6,000 hand-numbered copies.

It uses Mobile Fidelity's one-step lacquer process, with fewer plating generations between master lacquer and pressed disc than a standard three-step process. The source is the original 1/4-inch 15ips analog master, transferred to DSD256 for the digital step in mastering.

Analogue Productions 45rpm

The Analogue Productions cut, catalogue APJ-1162, is part of a larger box collecting Evans's Riverside albums at 45rpm.

Matrix runout data confirms mastering by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman at AcousTech, which is a more reliable source for that credit than promotional copy.

Electric Recording Company stereo (2021)

The ERC stereo pressing is an all-analog cut from the original stereo master tapes.

One owner rates it above the original Riverside stereo pressing. 45 RPM Audiophile describes it as warmer and more subtle in character than either the Mobile Fidelity or Analogue Productions cuts.

Orpheum reissue (c. 1966–68)

This was the first US reissue after Bill Grauer's death, when Orpheum Productions acquired the Riverside catalogue. The label reads "Orpheum Productions NYC" in place of the original twin-reels Riverside logo.

LondonJazzCollector compared an Orpheum copy directly against an original Riverside pressing and found it very close in overall quality, a touch less bright. That makes it a reasonable way in when a clean original is unavailable or priced out of reach.

No standalone Discogs release ID for this reissue could be confirmed, only prose descriptions from collector sources. Its tier row carries no link rather than a guessed release number.

Buyer's guide by budget

$$: The Orpheum reissue, close to the original by collector accounts.

$$$$: A clean Riverside RLP 12-315 or RLP 1162 original, which needs real hunting or a pre-graded source.

$$$$$: The Mobile Fidelity One-Step, the Analogue Productions 45rpm cut or the ERC stereo pressing, where the published verdicts conflict.

Pressing tier summary

References

• Discogs (master, all versions): https://www.discogs.com/master/104371
• 45 RPM Audiophile, "How Good Is The Bill Evans Riverside Box? Portrait In Jazz vs. MoFi vs. ERC": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0ddq8rSWU

Related guides: Everybody Digs Bill Evans · Waltz for Debby · The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery