Skating in Central Park

John Lewis wrote "Skating in Central Park" for the 1959 film Odds Against Tomorrow, directed by Robert Wise; he composed, arranged and conducted a 22-piece orchestra that included the Modern Jazz Quartet's Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Connie Kay, with Bill Evans on piano and Jim Hall on guitar, recorded in New York in July 1959 and released on United Artists (UAL 4061). The MJQ recorded its own version on Music from Odds Against Tomorrow on October 9 and 10, 1959 at Olmsted Sound Studios, where it opens the album at 6:07, and it became a permanent part of the quartet's repertoire; it is also on Pyramid, and the piece was reused in the 1971 film Little Murders.

The duo version is 5:19 on the LP, 5:23 on MusicBrainz, recorded on April 24 or May 14, 1962 at Sound Makers, with the exact date not established; Evans and Hall had both played the original soundtrack. NPR's Basic Jazz Record Library notes that Evans's piano on Undercurrent reminds one of John Lewis. Hall said the duo began at the Lenox School of Jazz, where Lewis was director. A reviewer quoted in search results says the track, sequenced next to "Darn That Dream", has some of the album's strongest interplay, but the source was not identified. Nothing from Hall about this song, no chart history and no covers were verified, and our upload is presumably the Undercurrent version.