Loose Blues was recorded for the Riverside label, but eventually dropped mostly because of Riverside's forthcoming bankruptcy and the pressures of Verve producer Creed Taylor – who wanted Evans on his Verve label.[2] So the project was shelved, and released posthumously only in 1982 as MCD-9200-2, after having been rediscovered in the Fantasy Records vaults. This was, in fact, believed to be a lost album since producer Orrin Keepnews could not find the master reels of the session dates, except for a take of "Loose Bloose". However, after a thorough research, he did succeed in finding the reels "stored in poorly marked tape boxes".[2] The material was then assembled by Keepnews and Ed Michel. "Fudgesickle Built for Four" was named by Evans himself (reflecting his love of puns) and was a reference to "a bicycle built for two", a line from the popular song "Daisy Bell". Keepnews, recalling the sessions, stated that "My Bells", which is characterized by difficult tempo changes, took 25 takes to be recorded properly.[2] Evans would only revisit "Time Remembered", "My Bells" and "Funkallero" for later recordings.
Reception
The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow states: "Due to some difficulties during the recording process (none of the sidemen were familiar with the often complex numbers), the results were originally shelved and lost for a couple of decades. This CD reissue shows that the music was actually much better than originally thought..., It is a pity that Evans and Sims (a logical combination) never did record together again."[3]