Bill Evans

In the wake of the hard-bop era, Bill Evans’s piano playing seemed to capture the sound of the new ‘cool’ movement unlike anyone else. From his involvement with the inception of modal jazz to his work in the third-stream movement, Evans as a player was ever-present and always evolved with the music. He had a unique way of playing, including his iconic rootless left-hand voicings and lyrical melodic style which seemed to open the door to anyone that had the pleasure of performing alongside him.

Evans was born in New Jersey in 1929 but found his true musical home in New York in the mid-1950s. Evans is cited as having an eclectic mix of influences that range from his true hero, Bud Powell, to a favourite of his early career, Nat King Cole. Western classical pianists also played a crucial role in his psyche, particularly the works of Debussy, Ravel, and others of the impressionist movement. Not long after his move to New York, Evans became involved with the composer and theorist George Russell, who at the time was pioneering in the worlds of Modal and Third Stream Jazz, both of which Evans became a strong proponent of. Additionally, it was through Russell that Evans got the gig to replace Red Garland in the Miles Davis Sextet. This was the height of Evans's career up to this point and saw him playing with the greats of Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Philly Joe Jones and Paul Chambers, as well as Davis himself.

After just six months in the Davis group Evans left to pursue work as a bandleader and in December 1958, this came in the form of the album Everybody Digs Bill Evans (1959). This was only his second recording as a bandleader and came two years after his first effort, New Jazz Conceptions (1957). Everybody Digs was Evans's most compelling work to date and really showcased the extent, as well as variety, of effort he had undertaken as a sideman since that initial recording, and the tune ‘Peace Piece’ might be the most convincing example of this. The track is an ostinato piece based around two chords that has strong impressionistic influences and even delves into bitonality towards its end; a rarely seen technique in jazz at the time.

In early 1959, Evans rejoined the Miles Davis Sextet in anticipation of a recording session for what would go on to become the most famous album in Jazz. Kind of Blue (1959) is a seminal piece of work and Evans's influence on it is plain to see. Shades of Evans can be clearly heard throughout the album, from the opening track ‘So What’ through to the final track, ‘Flamenco Sketches’, which utilises the previously mentioned chord progression of 'Peace Piece' as its introduction. In addition to his role as a player, Evans's compositional talents can also be heard on Kind of Blue in the track 'Blue in Green', which he wrote despite not being credited as such on the original release.

After leaving the Davis group for a second time, Evans entered a period of his career most famously associated trio work. The most well-regarded album of this era is Sunday at the Village Vanguard (1961) with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motion. The three players interweave perfectly to form one unified voice that plays with a delicacy like no trio before it. The album opens and closes with LaFaro composed tunes that really highlight the deftness of their relationship and make it more sombre to learn of the untimely death of LaFaro, 11 days after the date of this recording.

After a decade of leading different trios both on the stage and in the studio, Evans made a change to his sound by adding an electric element to proceedings, most famously on The Bill Evans Album (1971). In 1970 Miles Davis released a pioneering album in the world of Jazz Rock, Bitches Brew, so it will have come as no surprise when Evans followed suit and electrified the trio setting that had worked so well for him previously. While Evans never fully embraced the electronic sensibilities of some of his contemporaries, the Fender Rhodes added to this recording as well as on the album From Left to Right added an interesting new sound to the familiar Evans trio. Another key feature of the album is the fact that it’s comprised entirely of Evans compositions and showcases again what a unique talent he was when it came to both playing and writing music.

Evans’s last great success both critically and commercially came in the form of two albums of material recorded with Tony Bennett. Regarded as some of the best examples of Piano/Vocal duo work on offer, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album and Together Again showcase two performers in the primes of their ability who sit together on equal billing in both instances. Evans had previously received acclaim for his duo work with guitarist Jim Hall on Undercurrent for the sensitivity and interplay of his accompaniment and these two recordings sit alongside this for quality of counterpoint on offer. All the recordings discussed here speak of Evans’s vast ability in all aspects of jazz musicianship. Whether it was as bandleader or sideman, performer or composer, Evans paved the way in both the practical and theoretical sides of the art and contributed heavily to the music of his contemporaries and beyond.