Sunday at the Village Vanguard

The album was drawn from 25 June 1961 at the Village Vanguard, where the trio played five sets, two in the afternoon and three in the evening. Riverside had been looking for only one album from the date. After LaFaro's death on 6 July 1961 it was subtitled Featuring Scott LaFaro and rushed out by September, three months after the recording. Dave Jones engineered it, and Ira Gitler and Keepnews wrote the liner notes. Steve Schapiro's back-cover photograph shows the trio between sets in the back room at the Vanguard.

Evans and Keepnews reportedly picked takes to show LaFaro at his best. The record begins and ends with two LaFaro compositions, Gloria's Step and Jade Visions, and every other track includes a solo by him. The set also holds Gershwin's My Man's Gone Now, Miles Davis's Solar, and the standards Alice in Wonderland and All of You. Evans said in interviews that he was thankful the day had been recorded, since it was the last time he saw LaFaro and the last time they would play together.

Reception and reissues

Thom Jurek wrote at AllMusic that this trio was still widely regarded as Evans's finest. C. Michael Bailey said Evans perfected his democratic vision of trio cooperation, and ranked this album and Waltz for Debby together as the best live jazz recording in his series. The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded it a crown in all nine editions from 1992. Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums placed it at number 946 in 2000, and it appears in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

A 1984 LP, More From the Vanguard, collected further takes. In 2005 Riverside issued The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961, a three-CD set with nearly all of the day's music, with one number lost, plus introductions, on-stage conversation and audience sound.