The Joy of Music Leonard Bernstein

PRACTICALLY: AND AESTHETICALLY

Practically speaking his album is of no value to someone who has a half-way decent record collection. This record to music is what the Reader’s Digest is to journalism. Bernstein has taken all of the so-called musical classics and has taken five minute exerpts from each one, ranging from the William Tell Overture to West Side Story. The listener has no time to get truly involved. For instance, someone could not tlje true value out of a symphony by just listening to the finale, but on the other hand if the listener can not tolerate a full length “classical piece of music,’’ this album is sufficient.

JUDY ADAMS

Richard Walls'

Bill Evans is an excellent jazz pianist, and this UP is Evans as good as I’ve ever heard him (except for his stunning performance/of Miles’ “Kind of Blue”); gentle, subtle, low-keyed music, music of "complex harmonies, shifting, drifting moods and melodies which occasionally remind me of the Impressionists. There’s nothing avant-garde, shocking or freaky about Evan’s music here. There is, However, a lot jof high-quality jazz, played in superb taste and with great technical facility. v ,

The bass player, Eddie GomCz, is a Virtuoso. / Unfortunately, his virtuosity sometimes overwhelms hia sense of discretion, and he mars several otherwise lovely songs this way. Vaek DeJohriette whom you are most likely to know best as Charles Lloyd’s drummer — is not a virtuoso, and isn’t the' right kind of drummer anyhow. It’s best to ignore him;

But Evans does a really good job. In fact; the pnly significant improvement, that couljd be made on thia album would have been for him to have recorded it solo,’.