| Name | Bill Evans |
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| Landscape | no |
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| Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
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| Birth name | William John Evans |
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| Born | August 16, 1929Plainfield, New Jersey, United States |
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| Died | September 15, 1980Fort Lee, New JerseyUnited States |
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| Instrument | Vocals, violin, guitar |
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| Born | August 16, 1929 |
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| Died | September 15, 1980 |
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| Instrument | Piano |
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| Genre | Jazz, modal jazz, third stream, cool jazz, post-bop |
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| Occupation | PianistComposerArranger |
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| Label | Riverside, Verve, Fantasy |
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| Associated acts | George Russell, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, Philly Joe Jones, Scott LaFaro, Paul Motian, Eddie Gomez, Marty Morell, Tony Bennett, Jim Hall |
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William John Evans, known as
Bill Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American
jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including:
Chick Corea,
Herbie Hancock,
John Taylor,
Steve Kuhn,
Don Friedman,
Marian McPartland,
Denny Zeitlin,
Bobo Stenson,
Michel Petrucciani and
Keith Jarrett, as well as many other musicians world-wide. The music of Bill Evans continues to inspire younger pianists like Marcin Wasilewski,
Fred Hersch,
Bill Charlap,
Lyle Mays,
Eliane Elias and arguably
Brad Mehldau, early in his career. He is considered by some to be the most influential post
World War II jazz pianist.
Evans is an inductee of the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.
Biography
Early life
Bill Evans was born in
Plainfield,
New Jersey,
United States, to a mother of
Rusyn ancestry and a father of
Welsh descent. He received his first musical training at his mother's church. Evans's mother was an amateur pianist with an interest in modern classical composers, and Evans began classical piano lessons at age six. He also became a proficient flautist by age 13 and could play the violin.
At age 12, Evans filled in for his older brother Harry in Buddy Valentino's band. He had already been playing dance music (and jazz) at home for some time. In the late 1940s, he played boogie woogie in various New York City clubs. He attended Southeastern Louisiana University on a music scholarship and in 1950 performed Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto on his senior recital there, graduating with a degree in piano performance and teaching. He was also among the founding members of SLU's Delta Omega Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and played quarterback for the fraternity's football team, helping them win the school's 1949 intramural tournament., he had also already developed the ostinato figure from the track "Flamenco Sketches" on the 1958 solo recording "Peace Piece" from his album Everybody Digs Bill Evans. Evans also penned the heralded liner notes for Kind of Blue comparing jazz improvisation to Japanese visual art. By the fall of 1959, he had started his own trio.
1960s
At the turn of the decade, Evans led a trio with bassist
Scott LaFaro and drummer
Paul Motian. This group was to become one of the most acclaimed piano trios—and jazz bands in general—of all time. With this group, Evans's focus settled on traditional jazz standards and original compositions, with an added emphasis on interplay among the band members that often bordered on
collective improvisation, blurring the line between soloist and accompanist. The collaboration between Evans and the young LaFaro was particularly fruitful, as the two achieved a remarkable level of musical empathy. The trio recorded four albums:
Portrait in Jazz (1959); and
Explorations,
Sunday at the Village Vanguard, and
Waltz for Debby, all recorded in 1961. The last two albums are live recordings from the same recording date, and are routinely named among the greatest jazz recordings of all time. In 2005, the full sets were collected on the three-CD set
The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961. There is also a lesser-known recording of this trio,
Live at Birdland, taken from radio broadcasts in early 1960, though the sound quality is poor.
In addition to introducing a new freedom of interplay within the piano trio, Evans began (in performances such as "My Foolish Heart" from the Vanguard sessions) to explore extremely slow ballad tempos and quiet volume levels, which had been virtually unknown in jazz. His chordal voicings became more impressionistic, reminiscent of classical composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, and Satie, and he moved away from the thick block chords he had often used with Davis. His sparse left-hand voicings supported his lyrical right-hand lines, reflecting the influence of jazz pianist Bud Powell.
Like Davis, Evans was a pioneer of modal jazz, favoring harmonies that helped avoid some of the idioms of bebop and other earlier jazz. In tunes like Time Remembered, the chord changes more or less absorbed the derivative styles of bebop and instead relied on unexpected shifts in color. It was still possible (and desirable) to make these changes swing, and a certain spontaneity appeared in expert solos that were played over the new sound. Most composers refer to the style of Time Remembered as "plateau modal," because of its frequent juxtaposition of harmony.
LaFaro's death at age 25 in a car accident, ten days after the Vanguard performances, devastated Evans. He did not record or perform in public again for several months. His first recording after LaFaro's death was the duet album Undercurrent, with guitarist Jim Hall, released on United Artist Jazz records in 1963. Recorded in two sessions on April 24 and May 14, 1962, it is now widely regarded as a classic jazz piano-guitar duet recording. The album is also notable for its striking cover image, "Weeki Wachee Spring, Florida" by photographer Toni Frissell. The original LP and the first CD reissue featured a cropped, blue-tinted version, overlaid with the title and the Blue Note logo; but for the most recent (24-bit remastered) CD reissue, the image has been restored to its original black-and-white coloration and size, without lettering.
When he re-formed his trio in 1962, Evans replaced LaFaro with bassist Chuck Israels, initially keeping Motian on the drums. Two albums, Moonbeams and How My Heart Sings!, resulted. In 1963, after having switched from Riverside to the much more widely distributed Verve, he recorded Conversations With Myself, an innovative album on which he employed overdubbing, layering up to three individual tracks of piano for each song. The album won him his first Grammy award, for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance — Soloist or Small Group.
Though his time with Verve was prolific in terms of recording, his artistic output was uneven. Despite Israels's fast development and the creativity of new drummer Grady Tate, they were ill-represented by the rather perfunctory album Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra, with the piece Pavane by Gabriel Fauré remarkably reinvented with improvisations by Evans. Some unique contexts were attempted, such as a big-band live album at Town Hall, recorded but never issued due to Evans's dissatisfaction with it (although the jazz trio portion of the Pavane concert was made into its own somewhat successful release), and an album with a symphony orchestra, not warmly received by critics.
During this time, Helen Keane, Evans's manager, began having an important influence. One of the first women in her field, she significantly helped to maintain the progress (or prevent the deterioration) of Evans's career in spite of his self-destructive lifestyle.
In 1966, Evans discovered the remarkable young Puerto Rican bass player Eddie Gomez. In what turned out to be an eleven-year stay, the sensitive and creative Gomez sparked new developments in both Evans's playing and his trio conception. One of the most significant releases during this period is Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival, from 1968. Although it was the only album Evans made with drummer Jack DeJohnette, it has remained a critical and fan favorite, due to the trio's remarkable energy and interplay.
Other highlights from this period include "Solo—In Memory of His Father" from Bill Evans at Town Hall (1966), which introduced the famous theme "Turn Out the Stars," a second successful pairing with guitarist Jim Hall; Intermodulation (1966); and the subdued, crystalline solo album Alone (1968), featuring a 14-minute-plus version of "Never Let Me Go."
1970s
In 1968,
Marty Morell joined the trio on drums and remained until 1975, when he retired to family life. This was Evans's most stable, longest-lasting group. Evans had kicked his heroin habit and was entering a period of personal stability as well. The group made several albums, including
From Left to Right (1970), which features Evans's first use of electric piano;
The Bill Evans Album (1971), which won two Grammies;
The Tokyo Concert (1973);
Since We Met (1974); and
But Beautiful (1974), featuring the trio plus legendary tenor saxophonist
Stan Getz in live performances from Holland and Belgium, released posthumously in 1996. Morell was an energetic, straight-ahead drummer, unlike many of the trio's former percussionists, and many critics feel that this was a period of little growth for Evans. After Morell left, Evans and Gomez recorded two duo albums,
Intuition and
Montreux III.
In 1974, Bill Evans recorded a multimovement jazz concerto specifically written for him by Claus Ogerman entitled Symbiosis, originally released on the MPS Records label. The 1970s also saw Evans collaborate with the singer Tony Bennett on 1975's The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album and 1977's Together Again.
On September 13, 1975, Evans's son, Evan, was born. Evan Evans did not often see his always-touring father. A child prodigy, he embarked on a career in film scoring, ambitiously attending college courses in 20th-century composition, instrumentation, and electronic composition at the age of ten. He also studied with many of his father's contemporaries, including Lalo Schifrin and harmony specialist Bernard Maury.
In 1976, Marty Morell was replaced on drums by Eliot Zigmund. Several interesting collaborations followed, and it was not until 1977 that the trio was able to record an album together. Both I Will Say Goodbye (Evans's last album for Fantasy Records) and You Must Believe in Spring (for Warner Bros., released posthumously) highlighted changes that would become significant in the last stage of Evans's career. A greater emphasis was placed on group improvisation and interaction, Evans was reaching new expressive heights in his soloing, and new experiments with harmony and keys were attempted.
Gomez and Zigmund left Evans in 1978. Evans then asked Philly Joe Jones, the drummer he considered his "all-time favorite drummer" and with whom he had recorded his second album in 1957, to fill in. Several bassists were tried, with the remarkable Michael Moore staying the longest. Evans finally settled on Marc Johnson on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums. This trio was Evans's last. Although they released only one record before Evans's death in 1980 (The Paris Concert, Edition One and Edition Two, 1979), they rivaled (and arguably exceeded) the first trio in their powerful group interactions. Evans stated that this was possibly his best trio, a claim supported by the many recordings that have since surfaced, each documenting the remarkable musical journey of his final year. The Debussylike impressionism of the first trio had given way to a dark and urgent yet undeniably compelling, deeply moving (if not mesmerizing) romantic expressionism.
Evans's Rusyn ancestry is sometimes confused with a "Russian" ethnic background. His music reflects Russian titans like the Rachmaninoffesque pianism of his brooding constructions and the Shostakovich-like "Danse Macabre" modal explorations of "Nardis", the piece he reworked each time it served as the finale of his performances. But the "anticipatory meter" that Evans deliberately perfected with his last trio reflects late Ravel, especially the controversial second half of the French composer's dark and turbulent La Valse. The recording documenting Evans's playing during the week preceding his death is the valedictory "The Last Waltz." Many albums and compilations have been released in recent years, including three multidisc boxed sets: Turn Out the Stars (Warner Bros.), The Last Waltz, and Consecration. The Warner Bros. set is a selection of material from Evans's final residency at New York's Village Vanguard club, nearly two decades after his classic performances there with the La Faro/Motian trio; the other two are drawn from his performances at San Francisco's Keystone Korner the week before his death. A particularly revealing comparison of early and late Evans (1966, 1980) is a 2007 DVD of two previously unreleased telecasts, The Oslo Concerts.
Death
Evans's drug addiction most likely began during his stint with
Miles Davis in the late
1950s. A
heroin addict for much of his career, his health was generally poor, and his financial situation worse, for most of the 1960s. By the end of that decade, he appeared to have succeeded in overcoming his addiction to heroin. However, during the 1970s,
cocaine use became a serious and ultimately fatal problem for Evans. His body finally gave out in September 1980, when—ravaged by psychoactive drugs, a perforated liver, and a lifelong battle with hepatitis—he died in New York City of a
bleeding ulcer,
cirrhosis of the liver, and bronchial
pneumonia. Evans's friend
Gene Lees bleakly summarized Evans's struggle with drugs to Peter Pettinger as "the longest suicide in history". Bill Evans's musicianship has been a model for many pianists in various genres. His music displayed a creative mastery of harmony, rhythm, and interpretive jazz conception, fusing elements from jazz, classical, and ethnic music. In his duos and trios, Evans developed in unprecedented ways a unique conception of ensemble performance and a classical sense of form and conceptual scale. His '60s recordings
Conversations with Myself and
Further Conversations with Myself were innovative solo performances involving multiple layers of overdubs recorded in the studio by Evans himself.
Evans's work continues to influence pianists, guitarists, composers, and interpreters of jazz music around the world. Many of his tunes, such as "Waltz for Debby", "Turn Out the Stars," "Very Early," and "Funkallero," have become often-recorded jazz standards.
Many tribute recordings featuring his compositions and favorite tunes have been released in the years following his passing (see below) as well as tribute compositions. Pat Metheny's "September 15th" is one such recording.
During his lifetime, Evans was honored with 31 Grammy nominations and seven Awards. In 1994, he was posthumously honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Tribute albums
1981: Elegy For Bill Evans by Richie Beirach
1986: Music of Bill Evans by the Kronos Quartet with Eddie Gomez and Jim Hall.
1990: Bill Evans by Paul Motian
1991: Bill Evans: A Tribute by Jimmy Rowles, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, John Lewis, and Dave McKenna (Palo Alto Records)
1992: Then Along Came Bill: A Tribute to Bill Evans by Sylvia Syms
1993: Time Remembered: John Mclaughlin Plays Bill Evans by John Mclaughlin
1994: Now & Then: A Tribute to Bill Evans by Mitchel Forman
1994: Your Story: The Music of Bill Evans by Howard Alden
1996: Turn Out The Stars - The Songs Of Bill Evans by Dominic Alldis
1997: Conversations with Bill Evans by Jean-Yves Thibaudet
1998: Evanessence: Tribute to Bill Evans by Fred Hersch
1998: I Remember Bill: A Tribute to Bill Evans by Don Sebesky and Larry Coryell
2000: Conviction: Thoughts Of Bill Evans by Roseanna Vitro
2000: Remembering Bill Evans - A Vocal Tribute by Karen Gallinger
2002: Homage To Bill Evans And Jim Hall by Luigi Tessarollo with Stefano Bollani
2002: Play Bill Evans by The Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra & Jim McNeely
2003: Bill Evans: Tribute to the Great Post-Bop Pianist by Paul Motian
2006: Paz - Niño Josele and the music of Bill Evans by Niño Josele
2006: Remembering the Rain: The Music of Bill Evans by Stephen D. Anderson
2007: Playsong - The Music Of Bill Evans by Hilde Hefte
2008: Bill Evans Project by Riccardo Fioravanti Trio
2008: Something for you - Eliane Elias Sings and Plays Bill Evans by Eliane Elias
2008: We Sing Bill Evans by Joan Diaz Trio
2009: Bill Evans Compositions Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 by Stefano Battaglia
Discography
References
Further reading
*
External links
billevans.net Detailed Discography
Bill Evans entry — Jazz Discography Project
The Bill Evans Webpages
Bill Evans: Time Remembered
The Work of Claus Ogerman — Bill Evans' work with composer/arranger/conductor Claus Ogerman is documented here in a pictorial discography of original albums and compilations, many with explanatory liner notes.
"Remembering Bill Evans" by Ted Gioia, Jazz.com, January, 2008.
Letter From Evans edited by Win Hinkle — newsletter dedicated solely to the music and the life of Bill Evans, published 1989–94. Link is to all issues.
"Bill Evans: Twelve Essential Recordings by Ted Gioia"
Bill Evans A Complete Blog Discography Project
The Bill Evans Memorial Library
Category:Third Stream pianists
Category:1929 births
Category:1980 deaths
Category:Post-bop pianists
Category:American jazz pianists
Category:Deaths from cirrhosis
Category:Cool jazz pianists
Category:Hard bop pianists
Category:Jazz bandleaders
Category:Jazz composers
Category:Miles Davis
Category:Musicians from New Jersey
Category:People from Fort Lee, New Jersey
Category:People from North Plainfield, New Jersey
Category:People from Plainfield, New Jersey
Category:American people of Welsh descent
Category:American people of Rusyn descent
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Category:Verve Records artists
Category:Riverside Records artists
Category:Milestone Records artists
Category:Concord Records artists
Category:Fantasy Records artists
Category:Warner Bros. Records artists
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