Bill Evans And Camera Three

Last month’s Rifftides post titled “Evans After LaFaro” included video of the Bill Evans Trio in a 1962 performance that I credited to Italian television because of its imprint RAIDUE, the name of an Italian broadcast company. Reader Peter Levin’s detective work turned up the true source of the clip. He wrote,

Here is my two cents worth on the origin of the video. I think it’s from Robert Herridge’s half-hour Sunday morning CBS-TV show Camera Three, filmed in 1962 (probably at Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center). It is noted in David Meeker’s filmography Jazz on Screen.

Many thanks to Mr. Levin. Evidently, the Italians added their logo to a dub of the Camera Three program. Meeker identifies Paul Motian as the drummer with Evans and bassist Chuck Israels. The Meeker catalog listing shows that the trio played “Nardis,” “Time Remembered,” “Waltz For Debby,” “Re: Person I Knew” and “Blue In Green” in addition to the version of “In Your Own Sweet Way” posted here in January. I have been able to find no indication that CBS-TV archived the entire program. The only video evidence is in the clip we showed you a month ago, a fragment of “Nardis,” and a clip of “Blue In Green” so badly rendered that it would be unuseable except that the audio is acceptable and the playing is superb. The black and white camera-card notice before the music starts is annoying, but nothing can be done about it. What the heck, here are the two complete Camera Three performances. We’re lucky to have them.