Bill Evans Listener’s Guide
Bill Evans is the fine wine of jazz pianists: smooth yet potent, dry yet detailed, subtle yet profoundly nuanced. Classically trained and naturally gifted, Evans was known for introducing new shades of harmony into the jazz chordal palette. - Brian Zimmerman, Jazziz Magazine
My goal in these listener’s guides to jazz greats is to provide a short, concise guide to the artist and their major recordings. It’s intended to provide new listeners to the artist with a framework and context to start listening to and enjoying their work. I will start my guide with a quick list summarizing the individual pieces and the albums that are generally regarded as the highlights of his musical career (influenced, of course, by my personal favorites).
Top Pieces
- Peace Piece.
- Blue in Green.
- Waltz for Debby.
- Yardis.
- Letter to Evan.
- Someday My Prince Will Come
- My Foolish Heart
Top Albums
- The Early Years
- Everybody Digs Bill Evans (1959)
- Kind of Blue (1959)
- The First Trio 1959-1961 (Scott LaFaro, Paul Motian)
- Explorations (1961)
- Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961)/Waltz for Debbie (Recorded 1961, Released 1962)
- The Second Trio 1966-1977 (Eddie Gomez, Marty Morell)
- At the Montreux Jazz Festival* (1968)
- The Bill Evans Album* (1971)
- The Tokyo Concert (1973)
- I Will Say Goodbye* (Recorded 1977, Released 1980)
- The Final Trio 1977-1980 (Marc Johnson, Joe La Barbara)
- We Will Meet Again* (1979)
- The Paris Concert: Edition Two* (1980)
- Solo Works
- Alone
- Conversations With Myself* (1963)
- Alone Again
- More Conversations With Myself
The Early Years
At age 28, Evans stepped up to the big time with a call from Miles Davis in April 1958. Miles was the clearly preeminent jazz artist of the time, with the "first generation" greats having died or otherwise faded and Miles' quintet/sextet that he formed in 1955 and continued through numerous personnel changes until 1969 was the premier small jazz band of the time. Red Garland had been the piano player with the group since its founding but by 1958, Miles was looking to change the style of the band and needed a different style of piano player to accomplish that.
Davis asked his frequent partner and collaborator the composer George Russell (who literally "wrote the book" on the modal approach to harmony - Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization) for a recommendation for a piano player. Russell recommended Evans and Davis, having heard Evans play at Birdland, invited him to set in for a set at a gig the sextet was playing at the Colony in Brooklyn and immediately hired Evans for what turned out to be a short (seven-month) but highly consequential partnering that was a primary impetus in the migration of jazz from a harmonic to a modal approach that was characteristic of a significant portion of the "second generation" (after Bebop) of modern post-war Jazz.
During the seven months that Evans was part of the Davis sextet that included John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly, there were four recordings made that survived:
At age 28, Evans stepped up to the big time with a call from Miles Davis in April 1958. Miles was the clearly preeminent jazz artist of the time, with the "first generation" greats having died or otherwise faded and Miles' quintet/sextet that he formed in 1955 and continued through numerous personnel changes until 1969 was the premier small jazz band of the time. Red Garland had been the piano player with the group since its founding but by 1958, Miles was looking to change the style of the band and needed a different style of piano player to accomplish that.
Davis asked his frequent partner and collaborator the composer George Russell (who literally "wrote the book" on the modal approach to harmony - Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization) for a recommendation for a piano player. Russell recommended Evans and Davis, having heard Evans play at Birdland, invited him to set in for a set at a gig the sextet was playing at the Colony in Brooklyn and immediately hired Evans for what turned out to be a short (seven-month) but highly consequential partnering that was a primary impetus in the migration of jazz from a harmonic to a modal approach that was characteristic of a significant portion of the "second generation" (after Bebop) of modern post-war Jazz.
During the seven months that Evans was part of the Davis sextet that included John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly, there were four recordings made that survived:
The first known recording with Davis and Evans together is from a bootlegged May 17, 1958 radio broadcast Bandstand USA at the Cafe Bohemia in New York. According to this discography, it contained four pieces (Four, Bye Bye Blackbird, Walkin, and Two Base Hit) which were later released on the Davis compilation album "Making Wax", however the track lists for the version of this album on Google Play does not match this information. Fortunately, there is a recording of the radio broadcast of this performance currently available on YouTube that captures the first known performance of this legendary Davis/Evans team.
On May 26 of that year, Davis took his newly formed sextet into the Columbia studio and recorded four pieces, three Davis standards (On Green Dolphin Street, Fran-Dance, and Stella by Starlight) and "Love for Sale" to give the band an upbeat end to the session. There was not enough music recorded to release as an LP and the material was not released until 1973 as side two of an album called Jazz Tracks, which is not available on digital formats, but was re-released in 1974 under the title 1958 Miles.
Through the summer of 1958, the sextet played club dates almost nightly (bootleg copies appearing on multiple pirate CDs), but the next known official recording was from the 1958 Newport Jazz festival as part of the July 4th celebrations. The recording was sub-standard and Evans is low in the recorded mix. Davis wasn't happy with the overall performance that night and a truncated recording of it was not released until 1963 as a half an LP (along with portions of a 1963 Monk set at Newport). However, the full performance (in the correct order) was finally released in 2001 as "Miles Davis at Newport 1958".
On September 9, 1958, Columbia jazz threw a big party at the Plaza in New York City celebrating the success of its jazz division. Miles and the sextet performed a set without knowing that it would be recorded and the recording was not released by Columbia until 1973. The version of My Funny Valentine was an early example of modal playing that Evans and Davis would perfect six months later on Kind of Blue. This recording is generally regarded by critics as the highest quality of the four released by the group in this period.
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Everybody Digs Bill Evans 1959
Evans left the Miles quintet in October 1958. Evans and Davis got along well and had significant mutual respect and the departure was initiated by Evans. Probably a bit overwhelmed by the sudden attention, the non-stop performing and recording, and a drug use that would plague him on and off throughout his career, Evans retreated to his parents home in Florida for a few months before returning to New York. When he returned, his interest was to leverage his new-found prominence into leading his own trio. He released his studio album Everybody Digs Bill Evans in May 1959, which included four unaccompanied solos with the most significant clearly being Peace Piece. which started as a free-form improvisation on "Some Other Time" and which was clearly influenced by Chopin's Db, Opus 57, a piano piece that Evans, with his classical background, knew well. The album was both a commercial and critical success and from that point on in his career, Evans was established in the top tier of jazz musicians, enabling him to pursue his own musical objectives. Miles Calls Back 1959 In 1959, Evans performed both live and studio gigs for several different bands, including Chet Baker (Chet), Bill Potts (The Jazz Soul of Porgy and Bess), and Lee Konitz (Live at the Half Note), but, of course these were all eclipsed by his return to Miles Davis for two recording dates in March and April of 1959, resulting in Kind of Blue, nearly universally viewed as the greatest jazz album of all time by both critics and fans (and is to this day the best selling jazz album of all time). Davis performed on four of the five pieces on the album (excluding only Freddie Freeloader) and is considered almost a co-creator with Miles of this masterpiece. In particular, Blue in Green, although Davis received the original composing credit, is generally credited as having been primarily composed by Evans. |
The Great (First) Trio 1959-61
By mid-1959, Evans was firmly established in the top-tier of jazz artists in the eyes of both critics and the general public and was now looking to form his own trio to launch his career as a leader. His vision was of a trio that played as "one instrument" - for the piano, bass, and drums to plan an equal role in a three-way conversation. To accomplish that, he needed to find highly talented and like-minded musicians and he found them in Scott LaFaro (bass) and Paul Motian (drums). Evans later said about the concept of his trio: “What we tried to do was loosen up everybody’s role so that they were participating more, and with responsibility. It takes a really musical approach, an artistic approach, to know when to be really simple, and when you should break something up. That’s what I was looking for.”
There only only four official albums (and many bootleg recordings of live performances) that were released by this trio - two studio albums and two albums that came out of a recording of five live sets at the Village Vanguard on June 25, 1961 that is regarded as one of the greatest live recordings ever made. All four of these albums are "must haves" for even a casual Bill Evans fan and are regarded by many of his fans as the high point in Evans' 25-year career.
By mid-1959, Evans was firmly established in the top-tier of jazz artists in the eyes of both critics and the general public and was now looking to form his own trio to launch his career as a leader. His vision was of a trio that played as "one instrument" - for the piano, bass, and drums to plan an equal role in a three-way conversation. To accomplish that, he needed to find highly talented and like-minded musicians and he found them in Scott LaFaro (bass) and Paul Motian (drums). Evans later said about the concept of his trio: “What we tried to do was loosen up everybody’s role so that they were participating more, and with responsibility. It takes a really musical approach, an artistic approach, to know when to be really simple, and when you should break something up. That’s what I was looking for.”
There only only four official albums (and many bootleg recordings of live performances) that were released by this trio - two studio albums and two albums that came out of a recording of five live sets at the Village Vanguard on June 25, 1961 that is regarded as one of the greatest live recordings ever made. All four of these albums are "must haves" for even a casual Bill Evans fan and are regarded by many of his fans as the high point in Evans' 25-year career.
Portrait in Jazz was the first album recorded by the trio on December 28, 1959. Bill Evans wrote in the liner notes: “I’m hoping the trio will grow in the direction of simultaneous improvisation rather than just one guy blowing followed by another guy blowing. If the bass player, for example, hears an idea that we wants to answer, why should he just keep playing a background?” Much of the album consist of standards (except for Evans' "Peri's Scope"), but their original interpretations are highly regarded.
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After recording Portrait in Jazz, the trio went on a cross-county tour in 1960, which was the start of a career-long practice for Evans in taking his trios on extended world tours. The trio did not record any studio albums in 1960, but all three musicians participated in recording sessions for others during this time. Most notably, Evans played on Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth, which was recorded in February 1961. Explorations was also recorded in February 1961. Evans considered this recording to be one of his favorites from this period and it received wide critical acclaim including winning the Billboard Jazz Critics Best Piano LP poll for 1961. Evans redefines some standards including "How Deep is the Ocean" and "Sweet and Lovely", but the highlights of the album are his version of Miles Davis' "Nardis" and "Elsa", which is one of the most beautiful jazz piano ballads ever recorded.
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This leads us to one of the legendary dates in jazz history and a high point in the musical career of Bill Evans, June 25, 1961 at the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village, New York. This legendary jazz club is the only club from the golden age of jazz that is still operating today and it is pretty much unchanged from its days back then, and a club that I have been to countless times. A small, cramped, oddly shaped room in the basement down a steep narrow flight of stairs with uncomfortable chairs and no food service, but great acoustics and the site of virtually every great live jazz album ever recorded, a trend that Bill Evans started on this Sunday in 1961.
On that Sunday in June, 1961, Bill Evans and his trio were wrapping up a two-week gig at the Vanguard and his Riverside producer was anxious to release another record, so they arranged for high-quality recording equipment to be lugged down those steep steps and set up in that small room. In those days, they did five sets on a Sunday - two in the afternoon and three in the evening, and Riverside got a good recording of all five sets. For hard-core Evans fans, all five sets were released in 2014 on a three-CD set called Bill Evans, The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961.
This performance is regularly listed in any compilation of the greatest live jazz performances of all time and many of his fans (not including me) feel that these recordings were the peak of his career. The tragic aspect to the story is that this was the last time the trio was together. Ten days later, Scott LaFaro died in a car crash on route 20 in western New York (not far from where I grew up). Bill Evans was devastated and it took years for him to recover and return to the form of that magical Sunday.
Two albums were ultimately released from those Riverside recording of the five sets recorded on that legendary Sunday in lower Manhattan. They are both "must haves" and a great starting point to getting to know Bill Evans and close listenings focusing on the interplay between Evans and La Faro are particularly rewarding.
On that Sunday in June, 1961, Bill Evans and his trio were wrapping up a two-week gig at the Vanguard and his Riverside producer was anxious to release another record, so they arranged for high-quality recording equipment to be lugged down those steep steps and set up in that small room. In those days, they did five sets on a Sunday - two in the afternoon and three in the evening, and Riverside got a good recording of all five sets. For hard-core Evans fans, all five sets were released in 2014 on a three-CD set called Bill Evans, The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961.
This performance is regularly listed in any compilation of the greatest live jazz performances of all time and many of his fans (not including me) feel that these recordings were the peak of his career. The tragic aspect to the story is that this was the last time the trio was together. Ten days later, Scott LaFaro died in a car crash on route 20 in western New York (not far from where I grew up). Bill Evans was devastated and it took years for him to recover and return to the form of that magical Sunday.
Two albums were ultimately released from those Riverside recording of the five sets recorded on that legendary Sunday in lower Manhattan. They are both "must haves" and a great starting point to getting to know Bill Evans and close listenings focusing on the interplay between Evans and La Faro are particularly rewarding.
Waltz for Debbie followed in the spring of 1962 with the title track being the most famous of all of Evans' original compositions and which was a consistent part of his performances and recordings the rest of his career and which has become a jazz standard recorded by many other jazz piano players over the years. This album contains some of the most romantic of Evans' performances. Evans himself, writing for the liner notes of the 1976 Spring Leaves (a re-release of Portrait in Jazz and Explorations, wrote about this trio: "Discipline and freedom have to be mixed in very sensitive way, creatively, to get a really great result. I believe all music is romantic, but if it gets schmaltzy, romanticism is disturbing. On the other hand, romanticism handled with discipline is the most beautiful kind of beauty. And I think that kind of combination was beginning to happen with this particular trio."
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As a "what might have been" postscript to this phase of Evan's career, Motian recalled in 1996 (in booklet notes to the Complete Verve Bill Evans 1997 release): "We were supposed to make a record date with Miles: the trio, Bill, myself, and Scott ... We were talking to Miles about it, it was all set up, and then Scott got killed and the whole thing got forgotten". One can only imagine what that recording would have been!
A trio struggles to form (1962-1966)
How My Heart Sings
Moonbeams
Time Remembered
How My Heart Sings
Moonbeams
Time Remembered
The Second Trio (1966 - 1977)
After attempting to form a compatible trio for several years, Evans found his match with bassist Eddie Gomez and settled into an 11-year relationship that included different drummers over that time.
Bill Evans Album (1971)
Tokyo Concert (1973)
Intuition (1974)
Montreaux III (1975)
After attempting to form a compatible trio for several years, Evans found his match with bassist Eddie Gomez and settled into an 11-year relationship that included different drummers over that time.
Bill Evans Album (1971)
Tokyo Concert (1973)
Intuition (1974)
Montreaux III (1975)