Four Hands Talking, No Rush
Bill Evans in a room with Jim Hall, Freddie Hubbard and Philly Joe Jones, letting the conversation run long.
Interplay was recorded in July 1962 in New York City for Riverside Records, with Bill Evans at the piano alongside Jim Hall on guitar, Percy Heath on double bass, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Philly Joe Jones on drums. The lineup matters. Evans had spent years building a trio approach that treated the group as a conversation rather than a piano with support, and bringing in Hall and Hubbard widened that conversation into something looser and more collective.
What you hear is a band that trusts its own ears. The playing is unhurried, with lines passing between Evans and Hall in a way that feels improvised in the moment rather than arranged. Hubbard brings a bright, assertive edge that pushes against the more contemplative pieces, and Jones keeps the pulse moving without ever getting in the way. It is not the most intimate Evans record, but it is one of the most social.
Where it sits in his catalog: this is a strong mid-period record, not the place most listeners will start. If you want the trio work that defined his reputation, begin with Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961) or Waltz for Debby (1961). Interplay is for the listener who already knows Evans and wants to hear him in a more open, interactive setting. Its reissue added a bonus take of "I'll Never Smile Again," and Orrin Keepnews's liner notes for that reissue won a Grammy in 1984, a small recognition of how well the album was documented.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Bill Evans
Portrait in Jazz 1960
Everybody Digs Bill Evans 1959
You Must Believe in Spring 1981
New Jazz Conceptions 1957
The musicians on this record
To Sweden With Love 1964
Jim Hall
plays guitar here
plays guitar here
Open Sesame (The Rudy Van Gelder Edition) 1960
Freddie Hubbard
plays trumpet here
plays trumpet here
♫
The Two Sides of Jack Wilson 1964
Philly Joe Jones
plays drums (drum set) here
plays drums (drum set) here
