I had great expectations for this Record Store Day release by Bill Evans and his mid 60s trio featuring Chuck Israels on bass and Larry Bunker on drums. This, especially given upbeat press materials which were issued in advance on this from its publisher Elemental Music:
“2-LP set featuring spellbinding, intimate music from a 1965 performance showcasing the legendary pianist’s trio with bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker which aired on the British TV program Jazz 625, hosted by English trumpet player Humphrey Lyttelton. The comprehensive package includes notes by Evans scholar Marc Myers, appreciations by Jamie Cullum and James Pearson, and an interview with Israels who told Marc Myers, “Yes, we were damn near perfect at the BBC.”
That quote is not inaccurate. Bill Evans’ At the BBC collects the complete 1965 recordings of this particular trio’s performances there in March of 1965. The band is playing very well and the tracklisting is super enjoyable. The recordings were reportedly transferred from the original tape reels at the BBC. They were then restored and mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab, which leads me to suspect that there was some inevitable digital stage in the remastering process.
The key in enjoying this release is go in with realistic expectations. I was hopeful that the sound quality on Bill Evans’ At the BBC was going to be at least really good, if not exemplary. Unfortunately, the monaural fidelity is far from perfect, displaying quite a bit of significant distortion particularly noticeable on Evans’ unfortunately also very boxy sounding piano. I’ve poked around the web and spot checked video of these performances on YouTube and those anomalies sound like they are simply part of the original recording (or at least this particular source for the recordings). The bass and drums are quite clear and full, especially Larry Bunker’s cymbals.
Frankly, none of these sonic problems are the problem for me. As a lifelong DeadHead, I love archival recordings and can listen around the anomalies. What is an issue is simply that as far as I can tell there is zero mention of this issue anywhere on the album or promotional materials. So if you were to score this on Record Store day anticipating a great sounding release, you may well be quite disappointed.
Again, the underlying performances are wonderful. It is great to hear Evans and his band in the BBC studio environment. Some favorites from the album thus far include “My Foolish Heart” and classics like “Nardis” and towards the end of the set a swingin’ “Someday My Prince Will Come” and a lovely “Waltz For Debby.” The music and performances are terrific. I just wish the producers would acknowledge that the sound was compromised.
If you are considering spending probably upwards of $40-50 for a 2LP Record Store Day vinyl release like Bill Evans’ At the BBC, you may want to really consider it closely especially if you already have earlier bootlegs or DVD versions (it was issued on Laserdisc in Japan around 1994, shown above). For a much smaller investment the compact disc version may be just as enjoyable. You can pre-order the CD edition for $15.95 at Amazon.
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
Related Reading:
- Craft Recordings Kicks Off 2026 With Landmark Original Jazz Classics Reissues From Vince Guaraldi, Thelonious Monk, And Wes Montgomery
- Craft Recordings Unveils Record Store Day 2026 Lineup: Nine Limited-Edition LPs Head To Indie Shelves
- Culture Wars At The Super Bowl, Meze STRADA’s Curious Tuning, Record Store Day 2026, Hi-Fi Show Overload?: Editor’s Round-Up
- Turntables & Tulips: Hunting For Vinyl In Amsterdam On Record Store Day 2025
Andy the Record Man
April 15, 2026 at 12:30 pm
Imagine that.
Honesty in regard to Record Store Day.
And I thought every release was absolute gold.
Kudos for having the balls to tell it like it is.
Ian White
April 15, 2026 at 2:12 pm
Andy,
So I’m not participating this year because I’m not overly impressed with that I’m seeing and hearing so far.
I have a lot of faith in Craft Recordings and what they are putting out, but Mark’s review of this album gives me pause.
IW
DWilson
May 7, 2026 at 2:35 pm
I appreciate the honesty in this review about the problematic audio quality of these discs. I’ve purchased too many live performances which are nowhere near the quality of recording studio performances. A few of these I might have purchased regardless, but I would have passed on many others which had glowing reviews of the performance with no mention of the recording quality isssues. Later reviews of these recordings mentioned this, but for early purchasers, it was disappointgly late.
For some labels I’ve learned that is absolutely essential to wait for later reviews to decide. If I want a particular performance, I’ll take the plunge regardless.
Ian White
May 8, 2026 at 4:31 pm
David,
100% agree. I’ve been burned too many times on RSD to care anymore unless Mark tells me otherwise.
And he was dead on about the Mal Waldron.
IW