Bill Evans - Village Vanguard Question

I believe it's because they were recording for their albums Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby and they did repeat takes of their songs until they felt they played it well enough that it was good enough for the albums. If you look, one or two of the songs were one take only because they must have felt they nailed the song on the first take and, therefore, didn't need to do it again.

Wikipedia says "Sunday at the Village Vanguard, and Waltz for Debby (all recorded in 1961)... albums are live recordings, both drawn from the same recording date. In 2005, the full sets were collected on the three-CD set The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961."

Yes, many would agree that this is the best jazz piano recording ever made. Why was that level of playing not repeated much if ever by Evans? Bassist Scott Lafaro was killed only ten days after the last Vangaurd session in a car accident.

The VV 1961 recordings are tops on my list of recordings too.

I believe that the takes refer to the order of presentation during the 5 VV sets.

"Gloria's Step" was played at the first set, but the second time it was played (third set) was issued on Sunday at the Village Vanguard.

Happy listening,

Jeff