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Bill Evans

Bill Evans

Overview
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans (August 16, 1929–September 15, 1980) was an American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 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
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...

, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, John Taylor
John Taylor (jazz)
John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...

, Steve Kuhn
Steve Kuhn
Steve Kuhn is an American jazz pianist, composer and trio leader.-Biography:He began studying piano at the age of five and studied under Boston piano teacher Margaret Chaloff, mother of jazz baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff, who taught him the "Russian style" of piano playing. At an early age he...

, Don Friedman
Don Friedman
Donald Ernest Friedman , better known as Don Friedman, is a jazz pianist. On the West Coast, he performed with Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Buddy DeFranco and Ornette Coleman, among others, before moving to New York...

, Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland
Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, NPR.-Early life:...

, Denny Zeitlin
Denny Zeitlin
Denny Zeitlin is an American jazz pianist and composer, and a clinical professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco...

, Bobo Stenson
Bobo Stenson
Bo Gustav Stenson is a Swedish jazz pianist. Stenson was noted as early as 1963, when he stepped up from the local scene in Västerås to start playing frequently in Stockholm, where he accompanied a long line of visiting American players including Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz and Gary Burton...

, Warren Bernhardt
Warren Bernhardt
Warren Bernhardt is a noted pianist in jazz, pop and classical music.His father was a pianist, leading him to have early childhood exposure to piano, and he learned some rudiments of keyboarding from his friends. At five his parents moved to New York City where he began studying seriously under...

, Michel Petrucciani
Michel Petrucciani
Michel Petrucciani was a French jazz pianist.-Biography:...

 and Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...

, as well as many other musicians world-wide. The music of Bill Evans continues to inspire younger pianists like Fred Hersch
Fred Hersch
Fred Hersch is a contemporary American jazz pianist who has become a consistent and highly demanded performer on the international jazz scene....

, Bill Charlap
Bill Charlap
William Morrison Charlap is a jazz pianist born October 15, 1966 in New York City.Bill Charlap comes from a musical background and is a distant cousin to famed jazz pianist Dick Hyman. His mother, Sandy Stewart , is a singer who had a hit in 1962 with My Coloring Book, while his father was Broadway...

, Lyle Mays
Lyle Mays
Lyle Mays is an American jazz pianist and composer from Wausaukee, Wisconsin. He is best known for his work with guitarist Pat Metheny as a member of the Pat Metheny Group...

, Eliane Elias
Eliane Elias
Eliane Elias is a Brazilian jazz pianist, arranger, vocalist and songwriter.-Biography:...

 and arguably Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau is an American jazz pianist. Besides leading his own group, the Brad Mehldau Trio, he has performed with many renowned artists, including Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Larry Grenadier, Peter Bernstein, Jeff Ballard, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Kurt...

, early in his career. He is considered by some to be the most influential post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 jazz pianist. Evans had a distinct playing style in which his neck would often be stooped very low, and his face parallel to the piano. While his early style has been approximated by numerous pianists, it is doubtful that any pianist in jazz has approached the "dark and dangerous," complex and richly textured beauty of his final two years, which saw an outpouring of emotion from the increasingly frail pianist, especially with the trio comprising bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera. Rarely has a piano so readily assumed the expressive range and mesmerizing story-telling of the human voice.
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Quotations

As the painter needs his framework of parchment, the improvising musical group needs its framework in time.

Kind of blue|Kind of blue liner notes
Encyclopedia
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans (August 16, 1929–September 15, 1980) was an American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 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
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...

, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, John Taylor
John Taylor (jazz)
John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...

, Steve Kuhn
Steve Kuhn
Steve Kuhn is an American jazz pianist, composer and trio leader.-Biography:He began studying piano at the age of five and studied under Boston piano teacher Margaret Chaloff, mother of jazz baritone saxophonist Serge Chaloff, who taught him the "Russian style" of piano playing. At an early age he...

, Don Friedman
Don Friedman
Donald Ernest Friedman , better known as Don Friedman, is a jazz pianist. On the West Coast, he performed with Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, Buddy DeFranco and Ornette Coleman, among others, before moving to New York...

, Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland
Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, NPR.-Early life:...

, Denny Zeitlin
Denny Zeitlin
Denny Zeitlin is an American jazz pianist and composer, and a clinical professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco...

, Bobo Stenson
Bobo Stenson
Bo Gustav Stenson is a Swedish jazz pianist. Stenson was noted as early as 1963, when he stepped up from the local scene in Västerås to start playing frequently in Stockholm, where he accompanied a long line of visiting American players including Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz and Gary Burton...

, Warren Bernhardt
Warren Bernhardt
Warren Bernhardt is a noted pianist in jazz, pop and classical music.His father was a pianist, leading him to have early childhood exposure to piano, and he learned some rudiments of keyboarding from his friends. At five his parents moved to New York City where he began studying seriously under...

, Michel Petrucciani
Michel Petrucciani
Michel Petrucciani was a French jazz pianist.-Biography:...

 and Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...

, as well as many other musicians world-wide. The music of Bill Evans continues to inspire younger pianists like Fred Hersch
Fred Hersch
Fred Hersch is a contemporary American jazz pianist who has become a consistent and highly demanded performer on the international jazz scene....

, Bill Charlap
Bill Charlap
William Morrison Charlap is a jazz pianist born October 15, 1966 in New York City.Bill Charlap comes from a musical background and is a distant cousin to famed jazz pianist Dick Hyman. His mother, Sandy Stewart , is a singer who had a hit in 1962 with My Coloring Book, while his father was Broadway...

, Lyle Mays
Lyle Mays
Lyle Mays is an American jazz pianist and composer from Wausaukee, Wisconsin. He is best known for his work with guitarist Pat Metheny as a member of the Pat Metheny Group...

, Eliane Elias
Eliane Elias
Eliane Elias is a Brazilian jazz pianist, arranger, vocalist and songwriter.-Biography:...

 and arguably Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau is an American jazz pianist. Besides leading his own group, the Brad Mehldau Trio, he has performed with many renowned artists, including Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Larry Grenadier, Peter Bernstein, Jeff Ballard, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Kurt...

, early in his career. He is considered by some to be the most influential post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 jazz pianist. Evans had a distinct playing style in which his neck would often be stooped very low, and his face parallel to the piano. While his early style has been approximated by numerous pianists, it is doubtful that any pianist in jazz has approached the "dark and dangerous," complex and richly textured beauty of his final two years, which saw an outpouring of emotion from the increasingly frail pianist, especially with the trio comprising bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera. Rarely has a piano so readily assumed the expressive range and mesmerizing story-telling of the human voice.

Evans is an inductee of the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.

Early life


Bill Evans was born in Plainfield
Plainfield, New Jersey
Plainfield is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population increased to a record high of 49,808....

, New Jersey, United States, to a mother of Rusyn
Rusyns
Carpatho-Rusyns are a primarily diasporic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language, or Ukrainian dialect, known as Rusyn. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the use of the ethnonym "Ukrainian" in the early twentieth century...

 ancestry and a father of Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

 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 flutist by age 13 and could play the violin.

At age 12, Evans filled in for his older brother Harry in Buddy Valentino's band. At this age he was able to interpret classical music, but he couldn't improvise. In the beginning, he played exactly what was written in the sheet, but soon started trying to improvise, while learning about harmonies in the songs and how to alter them. Meanwhile, he was playing dance music (and jazz) at home. In the late 1940s, Evans played boogie woogie in various New York City clubs. He attended Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University is a state-funded public university in Hammond, Louisiana, United States. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims, the principal of Hammond High School, as Hammond Junior College, located in a wing of the high school building. Sims succeeded in getting the campus...

 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
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music...

, and played quarterback for the fraternity's football team, helping them win the school's 1949 intramural tournament.

Evans's first professional job was with sax player Herbie Fields's band, based in Chicago. During the summer of 1950, the band did a three-month tour backing Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...

, including East Coast appearances at Harlem's Apollo Theater and shows in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and at Washington D.C.'s Howard Theater. In addition to Fields and Evans, the band included trumpeter Jimmy Nottingham
Jimmy Nottingham
Jimmy Nottingham was an American jazz trumpeter.Nottingham's first professional job was with Cecil Payne in 1943. He served in the Navy in 1944-45, where he played in Willie Smith's band. Following this he worked with Lionel Hampton , Charlie Barnet, Lucky Millinder, Count Basie , and Herbie Fields...

, trombonist Frank Rosolino
Frank Rosolino
Frank Rosolino was an American jazz trombonist.- Biography :Born in Detroit, Michigan, Frank Rosolino studied the guitar with his father from the age of 9. He took up the trombone at age 14 while he was enrolled at Miller High School where he played with Milt Jackson in the school's stage band and...

 and bassist Jim Aton. Upon its return to Chicago, Evans and Aton worked as a duo in Chicago clubs, often backing singer Lurlean Hunter. Shortly thereafter, Evans received his draft notice and entered the U.S. Army.

After his army service, Evans returned to New York and worked at nightclubs with jazz clarinetist Tony Scott
Tony Scott (musician)
Tony Scott was a jazz clarinetist known for an interest in folk music around the world...

 and other leading players. Later, he took postgraduate studies in composition at the Mannes College of Music
Mannes College of Music
Mannes College The New School for Music is The New School university's music conservatory. While the university's main campus is located in Greenwich Village, New York City, Mannes maintains its main academic building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan....

, where he also mentored younger music students.

1950s


Working in New York in the 1950s, Evans gained recognition as a sideman in traditional and so-called Third Stream
Third stream
Third Stream is a term coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller, within a lecture at Brandeis University, to describe a musical genre which is a synthesis of classical music and jazz...

 jazz groups. During this period he had the opportunity to record in many different contexts with some of the best jazz musicians of the time. Seminal recordings made with composer/theoretician George Russell, including "Concerto for Billy the Kid" and "All About Rosie", are notable for Evans's solo work. Evans also appeared on notable albums by Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...

, Oliver Nelson
Oliver Nelson
Oliver Edward Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer.-Early life and career:...

, Tony Scott
Tony Scott (musician)
Tony Scott was a jazz clarinetist known for an interest in folk music around the world...

, and Art Farmer
Art Farmer
Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet/flugelhorn combination designed for him by David Monette. His identical twin brother, Addison Farmer Arthur Stewart "Art" Farmer (August 21, 1928, Council Bluffs, Iowa –...

. In 1956, he made his debut album, New Jazz Conceptions
New Jazz Conceptions
New Jazz Conceptions is the debut album as leader by jazz musician Bill Evans, released in 1956 on Riverside Records.-History:Producer Orrin Keepnews of Riverside Records first determined to record Evans after hearing a tape of Evans' playing...

, featuring the original version of "Waltz for Debby
Waltz for Debby (song)
"Waltz for Debby" is a jazz standard composed by Bill Evans. A piano trio jazz waltz, it was first recorded on Evans's 1956 album New Jazz Conceptions and, perhaps more famously, on his 1961 live album Waltz for Debby. It has been recorded by many artists, both as an instrumental and as a vocal piece...

", for Riverside Records
Riverside Records
Riverside Records was a United States record label specializing in jazz. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer under his firm Bill Grauer Productions, Inc. in 1953, the label was a major presence in the jazz record industry for a decade...

. Producer Orrin Keepnews
Orrin Keepnews
Orrin Keepnews is an American writer and jazz record producer. In June 2010, he received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.- Career :...

 was convinced to record the reluctant Evans by a demo tape guitarist Mundell Lowe
Mundell Lowe
Mundell Lowe is an American jazz guitarist.Lowe was born in Laurel, Mississippi on 21 March 1922. In the 1930s he played country music and Dixieland jazz. He later played with big bands and orchestras, and on television in New York City. In the 1960s, Lowe composed music for films and television...

 played to him over the phone.

In 1958, Evans was hired by Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

, becoming the only white member of Davis's famed sextet. Though his time with the band was brief (no more than eight months), it was one of the most fruitful collaborations in the history of jazz, as Evans's introspective scalar approach to improvisation deeply influenced Davis's style. Davis wrote in his autobiography, "Bill had this quiet fire that I loved on piano. The way he approached it, the sound he got, was like crystal notes or sparkling water cascading down from some clear waterfall." Additionally, Davis said, "I've sure learned a lot from Bill Evans. He plays the piano the way it should be played."

Evans's desire to pursue his own projects as a leader (and increasing problems with drug use) led him to leave the Davis sextet in late 1958. Shortly after, he recorded Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Everybody Digs Bill Evans is a record album by jazz musician Bill Evans, released in 1958, see .-History:Everybody Digs Bill Evans was the artist's second album, done two years after his first record as a leader...

, documenting the wholly original meditative sound he was exploring at the time. But Evans came back to the sextet at Davis's request to record the jazz classic Kind of Blue
Kind of Blue
Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released August 17, 1959, on Columbia Records in the United States. Recording sessions for the album took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City on March 2 and April 22, 1959...

in early 1959. Evans's contribution to the album was overlooked for years; in addition to cowriting the song "Blue in Green
Blue in Green
"Blue in Green" is the third track on Miles Davis' 1959 album, Kind of Blue. One of two ballads on the LP , "Blue in Green"'s melody is very modal, incorporating the presence of the dorian, mixolydian, and lydian modes...

", he had also already developed the ostinato figure
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...

 from the track "Flamenco Sketches
Flamenco Sketches
"Flamenco Sketches" is a jazz composition written by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Bill Evans. It is the fifth track on Davis' 1959 album Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz record of all time, and an innovative experiment in modal jazz...

" 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
Japanese art
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of 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
Scott LaFaro
Rocco Scott LaFaro was an influential jazz bassist, perhaps best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio.-Biography:...

 and drummer Paul Motian
Paul Motian
Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups...

. 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
Portrait in Jazz
Portrait in Jazz is an album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans, released in 1960.-History:Eight months after his successful collaboration with Miles Davis on the album Kind of Blue, Evans recorded Portrait in Jazz with a new group that helped change the direction of modern jazz.Most noticeably,...

(1959); and Explorations
Explorations (album)
Explorations is an album by jazz musician Bill Evans originally released on Riverside label in 1961. The album won the Billboard Jazz Critics Best Piano LP poll for 1961.-History:...

, Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Sunday at the Village Vanguard is a 1961 album by jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans. The album is routinely ranked as one of the best live jazz recordings of all time.-History:...

, 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
The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961
The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961, a three-CD box set released in 2005, marks the first time the entire Bill Evans Trio's complete sets at the Village Vanguard on June 25, 1961 have been released in their entirety...

. 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
Bud Powell
Earl Rudolph "Bud" Powell was an American Jazz pianist. Powell has been described as one of "the two most significant pianists of the style of modern jazz that came to be known as bop", the other being his friend and contemporary Thelonious Monk...

.

Like Davis, Evans was a pioneer of modal jazz
Modal jazz
Modal jazz is jazz that uses musical modes rather than chord progressions as a harmonic framework. Originating in the late 1950s and 1960s, modal jazz is characterized by Miles Davis's "Milestones" Kind of Blue and John Coltrane's classic quartet from 1960–64. Other important performers include...

, favoring harmonies that helped avoid some of the idioms of bebop and other earlier jazz. In tunes like Time Remembered
Time Remembered
-Track listing:# "Danny Boy" - 10:41# "Like Someone in Love" - 6:27# "In Your Own Sweet Way" - 2:58# "Easy to Love" - 4:42...

, 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
Jim Hall (musician)
James Stanley Hall is an American jazz guitarist.-Biography:Educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Hall moved to Los Angeles where he began to attract national, and then international, attention in the late 1950s...

, 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
Toni Frissell
Toni Frissell, or Antoinette Frissell Bacon, was an American photographer, known for her fashion photography, World War II photographs, portraits of famous Americans and Europeans, children, and women from all walks of life.-Pre-war career:Antoinette Frissell was born in 1907 in New York City, New...

. 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
Chuck Israels
Charles H. "Chuck" Israels is a composer, arranger, and bassist who is best known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio. He has also worked with Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, J. J. Johnson, John Coltrane and many others.-Biography:Chuck Israels was...

, initially keeping Motian on the drums. Two albums, Moon Beams
Moon Beams
Moon Beams is a 1962 album by jazz musician Bill Evans, and the first trio album recorded by Evans after the death of Scott LaFaro. With Chuck Israels on bass taking the place of LaFaro, Evans recorded several songs during these May and June 1962 sessions. Moon Beams contains a collection of...

and How My Heart Sings!
How My Heart Sings!
How My Heart Sings! is a 1962 album by jazz musician Bill Evans, recorded at the same time as Moon Beams. It was reissued in 1992 with one bonus track.-Reception:...

, resulted. In 1963, after having switched from Riverside
Riverside Records
Riverside Records was a United States record label specializing in jazz. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer under his firm Bill Grauer Productions, Inc. in 1953, the label was a major presence in the jazz record industry for a decade...

 to the much more widely distributed Verve
Verve Records
Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...

, he recorded Conversations With Myself
Conversations with Myself
Conversations with Myself is a 1963 album by American jazz musician Bill Evans.-History:Recorded at three different studio sessions on February 6 and 9, and May 20, 1963, Evans recorded the album using the then controversial method of overdubbing three different yet corresponding piano tracks for...

, 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
Grady Tate
Grady Tate, , is a hard bop and soul-jazz drummer and singer.He has played with Lional Hampton, Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, Lena Horne, Astrud Gilberto, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Blossom Dearie, Chris Connor, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Cal Tjader, Peggy Lee, Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Count...

, they were ill-represented by the rather perfunctory album Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra
Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra
Bill Evans Trio with Symphony Orchestra is an album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans and his Trio, released in 1965. The Evans trio is accompanied by a symphony orchestra conducted and arranged by Claus Ogerman.- Reception :...

, with the piece Pavane
Pavane (Fauré)
The Pavane in F-sharp minor, Op. 50, is a composition by the French composer Gabriel Fauré, written in 1887. It was originally a piano piece, but is better known in Fauré's version for orchestra and optional chorus...

by Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...

 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. It is unpopular, especially with fans of jazz' most famous recording engineer, Rudy Van Gelder, but the techniques of the former optometrist, who made his name synonymous primarily with the iconic Blue Note label, tended to alter the sound of the piano, homogenizing the sound of the most individual, personal piano touches. Evans soon recognized the deleterious effect on his recorded product, affecting overtones, ambience, and naturalness of the piano's sound, but not before some of his nuanced, subtle voicings and delicate, personal touch were all but erased by Van Gelder's methods, which admittedly were best suited to bringing out the piano in a "hard bop" ensemble.

During this time, Helen Keane
Helen Keane
Helen “Happy” Faith Keane Reichert was an American talk show personality, New York University Professor, founder of The Round Table of Fashion Executives, and the oldest living alumnus of Cornell University at the time of her death.- Early life : Helen Reichert was born on November 11, 1901 on...

, 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
Eddie Gomez
Edgar "Eddie" Gómez is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, perhaps most notable for his work done with the Bill Evans trio from 1966 to 1977.-Biography:...

. 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
Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival
Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival  is a 1968 album by the American jazz pianist Bill Evans, recorded live at that year's Montreux Jazz Festival....

, from 1968. Although it was the only album Evans made with drummer Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette
Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He is one of the most influential jazz drummers of the 20th century, due to extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians like Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett and Sonny...

, 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
Jim Hall (musician)
James Stanley Hall is an American jazz guitarist.-Biography:Educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Hall moved to Los Angeles where he began to attract national, and then international, attention in the late 1950s...

; Intermodulation
Intermodulation (album)
Intermodulation is a 1966 jazz album by pianist Bill Evans and jazz guitarist Jim Hall. It is a follow-up to their 1963 collaboration Undercurrent.-Reception:Writing for Allmusic, music critic Michael G...

(1966); and the subdued, crystalline solo album Alone
Bill Evans Alone
Bill Evans Alone is an album by jazz musician Bill Evans, released in 1968. The Grammy Award-winning Alone was Bill Evans' first single piano solo album following in the footsteps of his 1963 Verve session Conversations With Myself and his 1967 Further Conversations with Myself, also on Verve...

(1968), featuring a 14-minute-plus version of "Never Let Me Go".

1970s


In 1968, Marty Morell
Marty Morell
Marty Morell is a drummer, percussionist, vibraphonist and producer who played with the Bill Evans Trio for seven years - longer than any other drummer. Morell attended the Manhattan School of Music and studied mallets with Morris Goldberg, and tympani with Saul Goodman at the Juilliard School of...

 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
From Left to Right
From Left to Right is an album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans, released in 1970 .-Reissues:* From Left to Right was reissued on CD by Verve Records on November 13, 1998 with bonus tracks....

(1970), which features Evans's first use of electric piano; The Bill Evans Album
The Bill Evans Album
The Bill Evans Album is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans, released in 1971.At the Grammy Awards of 1972, The Bill Evans Album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo and the Best Jazz Performance by a Group awards....

(1971), which won two Grammies; The Tokyo Concert
The Tokyo Concert
-Track listing:# "Mornin' Glory" - 5:17# "Up With the Lark" - 6:36# "Yesterday I Heard the Rain" - 6:24# "My Romance" - 8:32...

(1973); Since We Met
Since We Met
-Track listing:# "Since We Met" - 8:52# "Midnight Mood" - 6:53# "See-Saw" - 6:53# "Sareen Jurer" - 6:39# "Time Remembered" - 5:27# "Turn Out the Stars" - 5:07...

(1974); and But Beautiful
But Beautiful (Stan Getz & Bill Evans album)
But Beautiful is a jazz album by musicians Stan Getz and Bill Evans, released in 1996.-History:Recorded live on August 9, 1974 during the Laren International Jazz Festival at the Singer Concertzaal located in Laren, Holland and on August 16, 1974 during Jazz Middelheim held in Antwerp, Belgium,...

(1974), featuring the trio plus legendary tenor saxophonist Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...

 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
Intuition (Bill Evans album)
Intuition is an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans, released in 1974 . It was reissued on CD by Original Jazz Classics in 1995.-Reception:The Allmusic review awarded the album 4 stars.-Track listing:...

and Montreux III
Montreux III
-Track listing:# "Elsa" - 7:28# "Milano" - 4:40# "Venutian Rhythm Dance" - 4:27# "Django" - 6:18# "Minha " - 4:11# "Driftin'" - 5:12# "I Love You" - 6:38...

. In 1970, Evans visited Ilkka Kuusisto
Ilkka Kuusisto
Ilkka Taneli Kuusisto is a Finnish composer of popular opera and father of Jaakko Kuusisto and Pekka Kuusisto. He was the general manager of the Finnish National Opera 1984-1992.-Operas:* Muumiooppera 1974* Miehen kylkiluu 1977...

's home in Helsinki and was interviewed about jazz before performing.

In 1974, Bill Evans recorded a multimovement jazz concerto specifically written for him by Claus Ogerman
Claus Ogerman
Claus Ogerman is a German musical arranger/ orchestrator, conductor, and composer, best known for his works with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra and Diana Krall.-Life and work:...

 entitled Symbiosis, originally released on the MPS Records
MPS Records
MPS Records was a German jazz record label founded in 1968. MPS stands for "Musik Produktion Schwarzwald" .-History:...

 label. The 1970s also saw Evans collaborate with the singer Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

 on 1975's The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album
The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album
The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album is a 1975 album by the singer Tony Bennett, accompanied by the pianist Bill Evans.Their second album together, Together Again was released in 1977...

and 1977's Together Again
Together Again (Bennett and Evans album)
-Track listing:For the 2003 Concord Reissue, 2198# "Lucky to Be Me" – 3:45# "Make Someone Happy" – 3:53# "A Child Is Born" – 3:17...

.

On September 13, 1975, Evans's son, Evan, was born. Evan Evans
Evan Evans (film composer)
Evan Edward Evans is an American film score composer. He is the son of legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans who died when he was a small boy....

 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
Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the "Theme from Mission: Impossible". He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations...

 and harmony specialist Bernard Maury.

In 1976, Marty Morell was replaced on drums by Eliot Zigmund
Eliot Zigmund
Eliot Zigmund is an American jazz drummer, who has worked extensively as a session musician.Zigmund studied at Mannes College of Music and CCNY, where he graduated in 1969. After moving to California, he found work in the 1970s playing with Ron McClure, Steve Swallow, Art Lande, Mike Nock, Mel...

. 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
I Will Say Goodbye
I Will Say Goodbye is an album by American jazz pianist Bill Evans, released in 1977.-Reception:At the Grammy Awards of 1981, I Will Say Goodbye won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo and We Will Meet Again won the Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Group awards.The Allmusic review...

(Evans's last album for Fantasy Records
Fantasy Records
Fantasy Records is a United States-based record label that was founded by Max and Sol Weiss in 1949 in San Francisco, California. They had previously operated a record-pressing plant called Circle Record Company before forming the Fantasy label...

) and You Must Believe in Spring
You Must Believe in Spring
You Must Believe in Spring is the title of an album by jazz pianist Bill Evans, recorded by Evans, bassist Eddie Gomez, and drummer Eliot Zigmund in August 1977 and released after Evans' death in September 1980. It was Evans's last recording sessions done with Gomez on bass, who left after eleven...

(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
Philly Joe Jones
Joseph Rudolph Jones was a Philadelphia-born United States jazz drummer, known as the drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet.Philly Joe Jones was often confused with another influential jazz drummer, Jo 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
Michael Moore (bassist)
Michael Moore is an American jazz bassist.Moore started on bass at age 15, at Withrow High School in Cincinnati, where he performed in various ensembles as well as the Presentation Orchestra in George G. "Smittie" Smith's famed The Withrow Minstrels. He played with his father in nightclubs in...

 staying the longest. Evans finally settled on Marc Johnson on bass and Joe LaBarbera
Joe LaBarbera
Joe LaBarbera is an American jazz drummer and composer. He is best known for his recordings and live performances with the trio of pianist Bill Evans in the final years of Evans's career. Prior to joining Evans he worked in the quartet of Chuck Mangione and Joe Farrell.- Early life :He was born...

 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
The Paris Concert: Edition One
-Track listing:# "I Do It for Your Love" - 6:18# "Quiet Now" - 5:55# "Noelle's Theme" - 4:20# "My Romance" - 9:15...

 and Edition Two
The Paris Concert: Edition Two
-Track listing:# "Re: Person I Knew" - 5:22# "Gary's Theme" - 5:31# "Letter to Evan" - 4:50# "34 Skidoo" - 6:45# "Laurie" - 8:06# "Nardis" - 17:31# Interview - 1:46*Recorded in Paris, France on November 29, 1979.-Personnel:...

, 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 Debussy-like 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 Russian 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
La Valse
La valse, un poème choréographique pour orchestre , is a work written by Maurice Ravel from February 1919 until 1920 ; it was conceived as a ballet but is now more often heard as a concert work...

. 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
The Last Waltz: The Final Recordings
-Track listing:Disc One:# "After You, Who?" -Track listing:Disc One:# "After You, Who?" -Track listing:Disc One:# "After You, Who?" (Cole Porter - 2:41# "Like Someone in Love" (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) - 6:56# "Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Burke, Van Heusen) - 7:03# "Emily" (Johnny Mandel,...

, and Consecration
Consecration: The Final Recordings Part 2
-Track listing:Disc One:# "Re: Person I Knew" - 5:54# "Tiffany" - 5:46# "My Foolish Heart" - 5:24# "Song from M*A*S*H " - 4:27# "Knit for Mary F." - 8:11...

. 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
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...

 in the late 1950s
1950 in music
-Events:*January 3 – Sam Phillips launches Sun Records at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee.*August – Herbert Howells' Hymnus Paradisi is premiered at the Three Choirs Festival.*Malcolm Sargent becomes chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra....

. 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
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

 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
Peptic ulcer
A peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. It is defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm...

, cirrhosis
Cirrhosis
Cirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver disease characterized by replacement of liver tissue by fibrosis, scar tissue and regenerative nodules , leading to loss of liver function...

 of the liver, and bronchial pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

. Evans's friend Gene Lees
Gene Lees
Frederick Eugene John "Gene" Lees was a Canadian music critic, biographer, lyricist, and former journalist. Lees worked as a newspaper journalist in his native Canada before moving to the United States where he was a music critic and lyricist...

 bleakly summarized Evans's struggle with drugs to Peter Pettinger as "the longest suicide in history". At the time of his death, Evans was residing with his partner Laurie Verchomin, in Fort Lee, New Jersey
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Fort Lee is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 35,345. Located atop the Hudson Palisades, the borough is the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge...

.
Bill Evans is buried at Roselawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum, Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

 (Section #161, Plot K), next to his brother Harry Evans, who died the previous year. The inscription reads, "William John Evans; August 16, 1929; September 15, 1980".

Legacy


As music critic Richard S. Ginell noted, “With the passage of time, Bill Evans has become an entire school unto himself for pianists and a singular mood unto himself for listeners. There is no more influential jazz-oriented pianist – only McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.-Early life:...

 exerts nearly as much pull among younger players and journeymen – and Evans has left his mark on such noted players as Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...

, Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...

, Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau
Brad Mehldau is an American jazz pianist. Besides leading his own group, the Brad Mehldau Trio, he has performed with many renowned artists, including Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, Larry Grenadier, Peter Bernstein, Jeff Ballard, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Kurt...

.” 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
Conversations with Myself
Conversations with Myself is a 1963 album by American jazz musician Bill Evans.-History:Recorded at three different studio sessions on February 6 and 9, and May 20, 1963, Evans recorded the album using the then controversial method of overdubbing three different yet corresponding piano tracks for...

and Further Conversations with Myself
Further Conversations with Myself
Further Conversations with Myself is a 1967 album by jazz pianist Bill Evans. All the pieces are solo with piano overdubs, a method Evans used on his earlier release 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
Waltz for Debby (song)
"Waltz for Debby" is a jazz standard composed by Bill Evans. A piano trio jazz waltz, it was first recorded on Evans's 1956 album New Jazz Conceptions and, perhaps more famously, on his 1961 live album Waltz for Debby. It has been recorded by many artists, both as an instrumental and as a vocal piece...

", "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
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded by the Recording Academy to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording."...

.

Tribute albums


  • 1981: Elegy For Bill Evans by Richie Beirach
    Richie Beirach
    Richard "Richie" Beirach is a jazz pianist and composer born in New York City.He initially studied both classical and jazz before entering the Berklee College of Music....

  • 1986: Music of Bill Evans
    Music of Bill Evans
    Music of Bill Evans is a studio album by the Kronos Quartet, containing compositions written by or associated with Bill Evans. With Jim Hall and Eddie Gomez...

    by the Kronos Quartet
    Kronos Quartet
    Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...

     with Eddie Gomez
    Eddie Gomez
    Edgar "Eddie" Gómez is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, perhaps most notable for his work done with the Bill Evans trio from 1966 to 1977.-Biography:...

     and Jim Hall
    Jim Hall (musician)
    James Stanley Hall is an American jazz guitarist.-Biography:Educated at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Hall moved to Los Angeles where he began to attract national, and then international, attention in the late 1950s...

    .
  • 1990: Bill Evans
    Bill Evans (album)
    Bill Evans is an album by Paul Motian on the German JMT label. It was released in 1990 and features nine compositions by Motian's former employer Bill Evans performed by Motian with Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano and Marc Johnson...

    by Paul Motian
    Paul Motian
    Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups...

  • 1991: Bill Evans: A Tribute by Jimmy Rowles
    Jimmy Rowles
    Jimmy Rowles was an American jazz pianist who was best known as an accompanist. He also released a number of albums under his own name, and explored various idioms including swing and cool jazz. - Biography :Born in Spokane, Washington, Rowles studied at Gonzaga College in Spokane, Washington...

    , McCoy Tyner
    McCoy Tyner
    McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career.-Early life:...

    , Herbie Hancock
    Herbie Hancock
    Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

    , John Lewis
    John Lewis (pianist)
    John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.- Early life:...

    , and Dave McKenna
    Dave McKenna
    Dave McKenna was a jazz pianist. He was known for his "three-handed swing" and was a leading proponent of solo piano style.-Biography:...

     (Palo Alto Records
    Palo Alto Records
    Palo Alto Records was a jazz record label that released most of its discography in the 1980s. The label was founded in 1981 by Jim Benham, who was a Palo Alto, California resident. The artistic director was Herb Wong. In 1985 the company ceased its activities...

    )
  • 1992: Then Along Came Bill: A Tribute to Bill Evans by Sylvia Syms
    Sylvia Syms
    Sylvia M. L. Syms OBE is a British actress. She is probably best known for her roles in the films Woman in a Dressing Gown , Ice-Cold in Alex , No Trees in the Street , Victim and The Tamarind Seed...

  • 1993: Time Remembered: John Mclaughlin Plays Bill Evans by John Mclaughlin
    John McLaughlin (musician)
    John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...

  • 1994: Now & Then: A Tribute to Bill Evans by Mitchel Forman
    Mitchel Forman
    Mitchel Forman is a jazz and fusion keyboard player currently residing in Southern California.-Biography & Music Career:...

  • 1994: Your Story: The Music of Bill Evans by Howard Alden
    Howard Alden
    Howard Alden is an American jazz guitarist born in Newport Beach, California. He has recorded a long series of albums for Concord Records. His performances were dubbed over Sean Penn as 'Emmet Ray' in the 1999 Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown...

  • 1996: Turn Out The Stars - The Songs Of Bill Evans by Dominic Alldis
    Dominic Alldis
    Dominic Alldis is a jazz pianist, singer, orchestral conductor & arranger who straddles the worlds of jazz, classical music and New York cabaret...

  • 1997: Conversations with Bill Evans by Jean-Yves Thibaudet
    Jean-Yves Thibaudet
    -Early life:Jean-Yves Thibaudet was born in Lyon, France, to non-professional musical parents. His father played the violin, and his mother, of German origin and a somewhat accomplished pianist herself, introduced the instrument to Jean-Yves....

  • 1998: Evanessence: Tribute to Bill Evans by Fred Hersch
    Fred Hersch
    Fred Hersch is a contemporary American jazz pianist who has become a consistent and highly demanded performer on the international jazz scene....

  • 1998: I Remember Bill: A Tribute to Bill Evans by Don Sebesky
    Don Sebesky
    Don Sebesky is an American jazz trombonist and arranger.-Biography:Sebesky trained in trombone at the Manhattan School of Music; in his early career, he played with Kai Winding, Claude Thornhill, Tommy Dorsey, Warren Covington, Maynard Ferguson and Stan Kenton...

     and Larry Coryell
    Larry Coryell
    Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...

  • 2000: Conviction: Thoughts Of Bill Evans by Roseanna Vitro
    Roseanna Vitro
    - Biography :Born Roseanna Elizabeth Vitro in Hot Springs, Arkansas on February 28, 1951, Vitro began singing at an early age, drawing inspiration from various musical genres like gospel, rock, and R&B, theatre, and classical music. Her father owned a night club in Hot Springs, Arkansas in the '50s...

  • 2000: Remembering Bill Evans - A Vocal Tribute by Karen Gallinger
  • 2002: Homage To Bill Evans And Jim Hall by Luigi Tessarollo with Stefano Bollani
    Stefano Bollani
    Stefano Bollani is an Italian jazz pianist from Milan.He made his professional debut at fifteen and received his diploma in piano from the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence. He performs classical music, smooth jazz, avant-garde jazz, Brazilian jazz, and pop rock...

  • 2002: Play Bill Evans by The Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra & Jim McNeely
    Jim McNeely
    Jim McNeely is a Grammy award winning jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.Jim was born in Chicago, Illinois. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois, and moved to New York City in 1975. In 1978 he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band...

  • 2003: Bill Evans: Tribute to the Great Post-Bop Pianist by Paul Motian
    Paul Motian
    Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups...

  • 2005: Querido Bill (Dear Bill) by Manuel Fraga, Alfredo Remus and Oscar Giunta
  • 2006: Paz - Niño Josele and the music of Bill Evans by Niño Josele
    Niño Josele
    Niño Josele is a Spanish guitarist, and exponent of the New Flamenco style.His first two albums show a vibrant, pure, modern flamenco style....

  • 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
    Eliane Elias
    Eliane Elias is a Brazilian jazz pianist, arranger, vocalist and songwriter.-Biography:...

  • 2008: We Sing Bill Evans by Joan Diaz Trio
  • 2009: Bill Evans Compositions Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 by Stefano Battaglia
    Stefano Battaglia
    Stefano Battaglia is an Italian classical and jazz pianist.He has played extensively on the international circuit, performing as a soloist with the European Youth Orchestra in Barcelona , and winning the "J.S...


External links