Nardis

Davis wrote Nardis in 1958 for Cannonball Adderley's album Portrait of Cannonball, with Evans on piano. Davis was not very satisfied with the performance, but said Evans was the only one to play it the way he wanted. He never recorded it himself, and Adderley recorded it only on that occasion.

Evans's first trio version is on Explorations (1961), at 5:49. He kept it for the rest of his career, and by the late 1960s his performances sometimes ran to twenty minutes. Ted Gioia wrote that you could trace Evans's entire career by studying his interpretations of the piece, which exist in more than 30 recordings. Evans said no one but him picked up the tune after it was written.