Editing Bill Evans (section)

==== Trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian ====
{{Quote box |width=380px |align=right |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
|quote = We needed people that were interested in each other, so that we could spend a year or two just growing, without ambitions, just allowing the music to grow. And allowing our talents to merge in a very natural way.|source = Evans in interview with George Clabin, 1966<ref name="interv lafaro" />}}

In mid-1959, Evans was performing at [[Basin Street East]], and was visited by bassist [[Scott LaFaro]], who was playing with singer and pianist [[Bobby Scott (musician)|Bobby Scott]] at a club around the corner.<ref>{{cite book |last=LaFaro-Fernández |first=Helene |title=Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro |publisher=University of North Texas Press |year=2009 |pages=102 }}</ref> LaFaro expressed interest in forming a trio, and suggested [[Paul Motian]], who had appeared on Evans's album [[New Jazz Conceptions]], as the drummer for the new group.<ref name="interv lafaro" /> The trio with LaFaro and Motian became one of the most celebrated piano trios in jazz{{Example needed|date=August 2022}}. With this group Evans's focus settled on traditional jazz standards and original compositions, with an added emphasis on interplay among band members. Evans and LaFaro would achieve a high level of musical empathy{{Explain|date=August 2022}}. In December 1959 the band recorded its first album, ''[[Portrait in Jazz]]'' for [[Riverside Records]].

In early 1960, the trio began a tour that brought them to Boston, San Francisco (at [[Jazz Workshop]]), and Chicago (at the [[Sutherland Hotel|Sutherland Lounge]]). After returning to New York in February, the band performed at [[The Town Hall (New York City)|Town Hall]] on a multi-artist bill, and then began a residency at [[Birdland (New York jazz club)|Birdland]]. While the trio did not produce any studio records in 1960, two bootleg recordings from radio broadcasts from April and May were illegally released in the early 1970s, which infuriated Evans.{{sfn|Pettinger|2002|pp=98–99}} Later, they would be posthumously issued as ''The 1960 Birdland Sessions''.<ref name="pettinger" />

In parallel with his trio work, Evans kept working as a backing musician for other bandleaders. In 1960, he performed on singer [[Frank Minion]]'s album ''The Soft Land of Make Believe'', featuring versions of the ''Kind of Blue'' compositions "Flamenco Sketches" and "So What" with added lyrics. That year, he also recorded ''The Soul of Jazz Percussion'', with Philly Joe Jones and Chambers.<ref name="pettinger" />

In May 1960, the trio performed at one of the Jazz Profiles concerts, a series organized by Charles Schwartz. Around this time, Evans hired [[Monte Kay]] as his manager. During one of his concerts at the Jazz Gallery, Evans contracted [[hepatitis]], and went to his parents' house in Florida to recuperate. During this time period, Evans also participated in the recordings ''[[The Great Kai & J. J.]]'' and ''[[The Incredible Kai Winding Trombones]]'' for [[Impulse! Records]]. In May and August 1960, Evans appeared on George Russell's album ''[[Jazz in the Space Age]].'' In late 1960, he performed on ''Jazz Abstractions'', an album recorded under the leadership of [[Gunther Schuller]] and [[John Lewis (pianist)|John Lewis]].<ref name="pettinger" />

Evans' trio with Motian and LaFaro recorded ''[[Explorations (Bill Evans album)|Explorations]]'' in February 1961, the group's second and final studio album. According to Orrin Keepnews, the atmosphere during the recording sessions was tense, Evans and LaFaro having had an argument over extra-musical matters. Additionally, Evans was suffering at the session from headaches, and LaFaro was playing with a loaned bass.<ref name="pettinger" /> The disc features the Evans' first trio version of "Nardis", the Miles Davis piece Evans had recorded with Cannonball Adderley for Adderley's [[Portrait of Cannonball]] album in 1958. Apart from "Nardis" and "Elsa", the album consisted of jazz standards. After the recording sessions, Evans was initially unwilling to release the album, believing the trio had played badly. However, upon hearing the recording, he changed his mind, and later thought of it in very positive terms.<ref name="interv lafaro" /> In February 1961, shortly after the ''Explorations'' sessions, he appeared as a sideman in [[Oliver Nelson]]'s ''[[The Blues and the Abstract Truth]]''.

In late June 1961, Riverside recorded Evans' trio live at the Village Vanguard, which resulted in the albums ''[[Sunday at the Village Vanguard]]'', and ''[[Waltz for Debby (1961 album)|Waltz for Debby]].'' (Further recordings from this performance were issued in 1984 as ''More From The Vanguard.'')<ref>{{cite magazine| magazine=[[All About Jazz]] |last=Bailey |first=C. Michael | access-date =July 27, 2008|title=Best Live Jazz Recordings (1953–65) |url = http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18619}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Penguin Guide To Jazz: "Five Star" Recordings |url=http://www.counterpoint-music.com/5star.html |publisher=Counterpoint |access-date=June 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708194317/http://www.counterpoint-music.com/5star.html |archive-date=July 8, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Evans later showed special satisfaction with these recordings, seeing them as the culmination of the musical interplay of his trio.<ref name="interv lafaro" />