Bill Evans (pianist)

William John Evans (Plainfield, New Jersey, August 16, 1929 - New York, September 15, 1980), better known as Bill Evans, was a American jazz pianist and composer. His work spans cool, post-bop, and modal music. He is considered one of the most important jazz pianists in history. His influence can be seen in numerous pianists such as Brad Mehldau, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock.

Features

Evans starts from the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel and brings to jazz a classical European influence, full of lyricism, relaxation and introversion. The writer Gene Less dubbed Bill Evans the poet of the piano, due to the beautiful melodic constructions that he improvised, and which came from musical impressionism. Although he was born and worked for a good part of his life in New York His style is representative of the so-called West Coast jazz, where mostly white musicians from the Californian region opened new modes of expression to the genre, which until then was characterized by racial and economic conflicts. He achieved the integration of musicians of different social, cultural and racial origins, such as Oscar Peterson, John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck or Milt Jackson, and whose maximum expression could be seen in the first editions of the Newport Jazz Festival in the 50s. El paso De Evans for jazz marks the birth of cool, a jazz genre that succeeded bebop and of which he was one of the main representatives. Cool jazz proposed harmonic structures different from those of bebop, freer and less complex, and opened up broad perspectives of expression and development to the subsequent jazz movement. His historic collaboration with Miles Davis and the group of musicians around him in 1958 was part of the redefinition of jazz as a musical genre, which took place at the end of the 50s and which started from the swing when the great dance bands of the 40s split up and jazz was conceived as a more intellectual and abstract genre. Bill Evans is accused of straying too far from the African roots of jazz. On the other hand, he has also been attributed a certain monotonous effect when considering a global audition of his work, due to his rigorous adherence to his stylistic norm. One of his main contributions to jazz is the structuring of jazz trios in which the piano maintains a deep dialogue with the drums and bass, within the norm of improvisation on common melodic lines.

He once had to accept a contract with the Village Vanguard club in New York. By that time his right arm was immobilized, so he had to play for several weeks with his left arm and helping himself with the pedal.

Biographical review

Born and raised in New Jersey, Evans attended Southeastern Louisiana University on a flute scholarship. There he received theory classes, played in the music band and played football. He graduated in piano in 1950, began touring with the Herbie Fields band , but was soon called up and ended up playing in the Fifth Army Band near Chicago. After three years of service, he arrived in New York in 1954, playing in Tony Scott's quartet and with guitarist Mundell Lowe. Around this time he began postgraduate studies at Mannes College , where he met composer George Russell and his theories on modal jazz. By 1956, he had already recorded his first album as a leader for the Riverside company, New Jazz Conceptions, still dominated by the bebop style of master pianist Bud Powell, but already featuring what was to be his best-known composition, "Waltz for Debby," which he had written while in the Army. His first album as a leader and the first work in the trio format that was to be associated with his name: piano, double bass and drums. It was released on the market in January 1957 and despite good reviews it only sold eight hundred copies during the first year.

In a short time he played with Charles Mingus, Art Farmer, Lee Konitz and Oliver Nelson and later, in 1958, he received the "Revelation Pianist Award". Of all his collaborations, the most significant were with George Russell (arranger), Art Farmer and Hal McKusick on Concerto for Billy The Kid.

In the spring of 1958, Evans began an eight-month collaboration with the Miles Davis Sextet, exerting a powerful influence on Davis. Although he left the trumpeter in the fall, exhausted by the pressures and eager to form his own group, he was deeply involved in the planning and execution of the Kind of Blue record (released in 1959), contributing ideas on style, structure and modal improvisation, and collaborating on several of the compositions. Kind of Blue—the biggest selling hit ever for an acoustic jazz record—contains what are perhaps the most moving performances of Evans' career. Miles Davis said that the entire work had been organized around the piano of Bill Evans.

Bill Evans is also recognized for having balanced the format of the jazz piano trio, giving it a revolutionary new line-up in which all the components share the sound prominence in the performance as a whole. During this period he also recorded two albums with Cannonball Adderley, also a member of the Davis band around this time.

Evans returned to the scene as a leader in December 1958 with the album Everybody Digs Bill Evans, which included the famous track "Peace Piece". His image was fully defined when he worked together with Paul Motian (drums) and Scott La Faro (double bassist). This trio reinvented the concept of pairs, giving both double bass and piano prominence, breaking the concepts of solo instrument and accompanist. The double bass almost completely loses its metronomic functions. With this group, Evans became a star. On June 25, 1961, Evans, along with Motian and La Faro, recorded their first live album at the Village Vanguard, Sunday at the Village Vanguard, which became a benchmark for the modern jazz trio and a source of inspiration for jazz pianists.

Unfortunately, La Faro died prematurely at the age of 25. Ten days after filming Sunday at the Village Vanguard, the car La Faro was driving left the road and she died instantly. Evans stopped playing for a year. Some claimed to have seen him on the streets of New York wearing La Faro's clothing.

He returned the following spring with Chuck Israels on bass; he played in a duet with guitarist Jim Hall and in a swing quintet session, Interplay , with Hall and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard.

After recording with Verve in 1962, Evans was encouraged by producer Creed Taylor to continue recording in a variety of formats: with Gary McFarland's big band, with an orchestra arranged by Claus Ogerman, with Stan Getz, etc. In 1975 and 1976 he recorded a pair of duet albums with Tony Bennett, for which he won a Grammy. The most notable experiment was Conversations With Myself, a session in which Evans played a second and third piano over the first. His only concession to emerging jazz-rock was eventually playing the Fender Rhodes electric piano during the 1970s. Since then, his career is linked to numerous trios. After going through Verve, Evans would record for Columbia (1971-1972), Fantasy (1973-1977) and Warner Bros (1977-1980). His last trio with Marc Johnson and Joe La Barbera has been considered the best since the one he formed with Scott La Faro and Paul Motian.

He died in New York of liver failure and internal bleeding caused by heroin and cocaine addiction. She arrived at the Mount Sinai hospital with a picture of pneumonia and malnutrition; he was accompanied by his drummer Joe LaBarbera and his girlfriend Laurie Verchomin and passed away the same day he was admitted. He was 51 years old.

According to his biographers, at the end of his life, sunk by the suicide of his brother, the pianist wanted to dedicate himself exclusively to music, accepting all the invitations that came his way to play in clubs, theaters or festivals (on a tour European 24-day tour, his trio with Johnson and La Barbera had 21 performances).

Style

Bill Evans' style was characterized by his syncopated, polyrhythmic melodic lines and by his irregular and original lyrical improvisations.

But with his playing he created an aesthetic more than a style. Evans worked on harmony, phrasing and rhythm. He possessed great sensitivity, an introspective vision, a calm lyricism, an emotional "feeling" and a touch of great subtlety. Evans transforms the songs he plays by arranging the notes into arpeggio chords and underlining the melodies with his left hand. that touches with the right

Discography

As a leader or co-leader

Compilations

As a companion

With Pepper Adams

• The Soul of Jazz Percussion (1960) includes 3 topics with Donald Byrd-Pepper Adams Sextet with Evans, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones and Earl Zindars

With Cannonball Adderley

• Portrait of Cannonball (1958)
• Jump for Joy (1958)
• Know What I Mean? (1961)

With Manny Albam/Teo Macero

• Something New, Something Blue (1959)

Featuring Chet Baker

• Chet Baker Introduces Johnny Pace (Riverside, 1958) [not credited]
• Chet (Riverside, 1959)
• Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe (Riverside, 1959)

With Eddie Costa

• Guys and Dolls Like Vibes (1958)

With Tadd Dameron

• The Magic Touch (Tadd Dameron album) (Riverside, 1961)

With Miles Davis

• 1958 (1958)
• Kind of Blue (1959)

With Don Elliot

• Tenderly: An Informal Session (Milestone, 1956-7 [2001])
• Eddie Costa, Mat Mathews & Don Elliott at Newport (Verve, 1957)
• The Mello Sound of Don Elliot (Decree, 1958)

With Art Farmer

• Modern Art (United Artists, 1958)

With Dick Garcia

• A Message from Garcia (1955)

With Benny Golson

• Pop + Jazz = Swing (Audio Fidelity, 1961) - also published as Just Jazz!

With Jimmy Knepper

• A Swinging Introduction to Jimmy Knepper (1957)

With Lee Konitz

• Live at the Half Note (Verve, 1959)
• Lee Konitz Meets Jimmy Giuffre (Verve, 1959) with Jimmy Giuffre
• You and Lee (Verve, 1959)

With Michel Legrand

• Legrand Jazz (1958)

With John Lewis

• Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)
• Jazz Abstractions (1960) with Gunther Schuller & Jim Hall

With Warne Marsh

• The Art of Improvising (1959)

With Hal McKusick

• Cross Section Saxes (1958)

With Helen Merrill

• The Nearness of You (1958)

With Charles Mingus

• East Coasting (1957)

Featuring Frank Minion

• The Soft Land of Make Believe (1960)

With Mark Murphy

• Rah! (1961)

With Oliver Nelson

• The Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!, 1961)

With Dave Pike

• Pike's Peak (Epic, 1962)

With Bill Potts

• The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess (1959)

With Joe Puma

• Joe Puma Trio and Quartet (1957)

With Lucy Reed

• The Singing Reed (1955)

With George Russell

• The Jazz Workshop (1956)
• Brandeis Jazz Festival (1957)
• New York, N.Y. (1959)
• Jazz in the Space Age (1960)

With Tony Scott

• The Touch of Tony Scott (1956)
• The Complete Tony Scott (1956)
• The Modern Art of Jazz (1957)
• Free Blown Jazz (1957)
• My Kind of Jazz (1957)
• Golden Moments (1959)
• I'll Remember (1959)
• Sung Heroes (1959)

With Sahib Shihab

• Jazz Sahib (Savoy, 1957)

With Idrees Sulieman

• Roots (New Jazz, 1957) with the Prestige All Stars

With Jerry Wald

• Jerry Wald and his Orchestra (1953)
• Listen to the Music of Jerry Wald (1955)

With Kai Winding

• The Great Kai & J. J. (1960) with J. J. Johnson
• The Incredible Kai Winding Trombones (1960)