Waltz for Debby is a jazz standard composed by pianist Bill Evans. It first appeared as a brief solo piece on his 1956 debut album New Jazz Conceptions, and the tune later became best known from the Bill Evans Trio’s live Village Vanguard date on June 25, 1961—featuring Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums. Evans named the piece for his then three-year-old niece Debby, and it remained a staple of his repertoire. The famous performance was issued on the 1962 Riverside live album Waltz for Debby, recorded at the Village Vanguard and marking the last Evans–LaFaro–Motian date before LaFaro’s death ten days later. A cool jazz classic, the tune has been widely covered and later given English lyrics by Gene Lees, with a Swedish version by Monica Zetterlund released in 1964.
