Jan Stevens, the proprietor of the Bill Evans Web Pages, wrote:
I enjoyed Marc Myers’s observations regarding the rare video of the late Danish vocalist Monica Zetterlund with Bill Evans, performing “Waltz for Debby”. Some clarifications: about two weeks after the October 1966 recording sessions for his Verve album, A Simple Matter of Conviction (the first one with Eddie Gomez on bass), Bill and Eddie departed for Scandanavia for several dates. Arnie Wise was on drums for Bill at the time, but he did not make the trip, so Alex Riel, a well-known Danish drummer, played. Riel had worked a few gigs with Bill before, and was then working in a most notable trio with pianist Kenny Drew and bassist Neils-Henning Orsted Pedrson. (There is another Evans trio video with Riel from this same tour, circulating on the Web.)
This rehearsal we see on the video was done on October 25, 1966, while preparing for the televised concert, a charity event at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen. As far as the late Ms. Zetterlund (who died in a fire on May 12, 2005 — see my page), Bill enjoyed her work very much, and was first impressed when he heard her own “Debby” version in 1964, entitled “Monica’s Vals”. When he subsequently did his first European in late summer of that year, his manager Helen Keane arranged for them to meet and they recorded the Waltz for Debby” album for the Phillips record label.
Bill always smoked Camels, but this is the only time I have ever seen him shown smoking a cigar!
Jan Stevens
Please note that a Bill Evans Web Pages link is now in the Other Places section of the right-hand column.