I thought this would be a good place to share my views on the Resonance Records release 'Bill Evans - Live At Ronnie Scotts'. I posted it on Instagram as part of my Black Friday pick-ups earlier today and have had a few comments and messages saying the quality of this one, in particular, is really poor. I have just listened to the first LP now (about to pop the second one on) and I have to say that I think the criticism is harsh. It's clearly not a high-quality studio recording but I wouldn't say it's terrible either. It was recorded on an amateur set-up by Jack DeJohnette but each instrument is clear, without one overpowering the other and the audience claps at the end just add to the experience for me, although I know some people don't like this either.
A few of you might remember that I picked up a whole load of cassettes back in the summer, many of which were recorded live at Ronnie Scotts and some of them were recorded on an amateur set-up which was likely to be similar to that which DeJohnette used for the Evans recording (although quite a few were recorded by being plugged into a secondary port which shared the mic's). With these, there is a very similar quality BUT the Evans has certainly been cleaned up a lot and the decent mastering has definitely helped.
Overall I'm just glad a recording of this session exists at all. I think much of the 'disappointment' is a result of Resonance shooting themselves in the foot by having a lot of high-quality releases already. I think they would have benefitted by adding a note to the release which highlights the amateur recording, much in the same way that labels like Sam Records note issues with certain tracks (if there is any).
I would be interested to know what other people who bought this thinks.
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