I have selected the repertoire for this compilation by keeping in mind both variety and what I think of as "continuity." Bill added a vast number of songs to his personal play list over the years, made you consider many of them his special property, and then eventually grew somewhat tired of them, which meant they were played more rarely, although usually not completely abandoned.
And there is something wonderfully revealing about hearing, in several instances, the same repertoire under varied circumstances - the approach changing over the years, the familiar song sounding not at all the same with a different drummer. But there truly is a great deal here that none of us had previously encountered on records, a relaxation and spontaneity, an ability (indeed an eagerness) to improvise himself into and out of a variety of unrehearsed or unlooked-for situations in relation to his bass player (except for the very first night it is Eddie Gomez) and each of several drummers. Bill in the recording studio was not exactly a loser, and this material is not wildly different in nature. I find myself inventing only mildly exaggerated advertising copy: Now you can possess permanently the kind of unselfconscious Evans performances that club audiences fleetingly held in their heads, but until now had been totally unavailable to mere record-buyers! Actually, you will find the reality slightly less melodramatic. It is a particularly intriguing concept if you keep in mind Bill's lifelong reluctance to go into the studio.
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