Bill Evans

THE STEREO & MONO VERSIONS

Included here in its entirety in both its Stereo and Mono versions (the Mono version appears here on CD for the first time ever), Undercurrent was Bill Evans’ first duet collaboration with Jim Hall, with whom he had already recorded as a sideman on previous albums by John Lewis and Gunther Schuller.

In addition to the tracks from the original LP, this release contains all other known music recorded during the sessions, as well as three complete dates from Evans and Hall’s next collaborations (taped in a quintet format and featuring either Freddie Hubbard or Zoot Sims on the front line). The Hubbard sides were issued on Interplay (Riverside RM 445), whose contents are presented here in their entireties.

In the late 1950s, it was common for big labels to record performances simultaneously in Mono and Stereo, and then releases both versions at the same time, with different reference numbers. This was explained at the time by the fact that Stereo was still a very recent innovation, and not everyone had sound systems capable of reproducing the new technology. The Stereo albums, thus, were slightly more expensive than their Mono counterparts. Over time, the Mono versions were condemned to oblivion, and only recently some music fans have begun to value these long forgotten masters, which capture classic performances from a different aural point of view. On the present release, both versions of this masterpiece can be compared.

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