BILL EVANS 1929 -1980

' HERE WAS ONLY ONE Bill The last tune I wrote, I was calling for clarinetist Tony Scott. In 1956, Evans, a fact that suddenly a while — because it was untitled played a tape Tbecame clear a few weeks ago “the diddly-ah tune.” Finally I realized recording of Evans over the when we learned that he had died in it’s formed mostly of one idea, over telephone for New York at the age of 51. His and over, and goes in different Orrin Keepnews. This unorthodox unfailing lyrical virtuosity had been a places. It seemed to be making more introduction led to Evans' first trio part of the musical land- scape for so and more of a statement, the more date for (one of long that perhaps he was taken too we played it. So I would like to do the tunes taped, “Waltz For much for granted. He had few this, which I think is a little more Debby,” would become a standard imitators but many admirers; as serious, maybe, for your audience. and the best known of Evans' Marian McPartland put it, “Indirectly I won't improvise, just play two many inspired compositions). he inspired most of the piano-playing choruses of the melody, it's now The trio session marked the populace." called “Your Story.” beginning of a long association Evans had been the subject of a * * * * with Keepnews, a sensitive man CK cover story as recently as this , The above statement, who never put pressure on Bill to June, and readers who would like a unusually voluble by ’ “commercialize” his style. more complete picture of the man almost taciturn standards, and the According to Helen Keane, some and his artistry are invited to consult exquisite music that followed, 60 of the 90 albums on which that story (or the previous Evans would be less remarkable were it Evans played were for Keepnews; cover story in CK, March 1977). It not for the fact that an audience of Keane produced the others, for seemed appropriate, however, to millions saw and heard it eight various labels. offer some special tribute, and so we days after he died, at 51, in a New The full, definitive impact of Bill asked the great record producer York hospital, One wonders Evans on ) the world scene was his Orrin Keepnews, who produced whether, in referring to the tour with the Miles Davis Sextet. He Evans' first two LPs as a leader and rareness of a chance to be heard was with Davis for less than a year, many of his other recordings over the by a mass audience, he was but during that time took part in the years, to provide us with some remi- aware that this might,, in effect, seminal album Kind Of Blue, with niscences and reflections. Another become a posthumous Davis, and viewpoint is offered by jazz journalist performance. . and. CK columnist Leonard Feather. All the obituaries referred to Bill The record symbolized a The most important perspective, Evans as a loner, and perhaps that retrenchment not only from the hard however, is that found in Evans’ was a consequence of the mood bop that was then prevalent, but also music itself. His personal problems communicated by so much of his from the cycle-of-fifths chord system were never reflected in his playing; music. Yet he was in fact an and toward modality. and to the very end, though he was articulate, often very talkative and The endorsement by Davis (His obviously ill, whenever he sat down witty man, capable of engaging in comment that “Bill Eyans plays the at the piano his pain was transmuted discussions on a seemingly limit- piano the way I like to heat it plaved" to joy. Fortunately, he made a great less range of topics. There were was widely quoted over the years) many recordings during his lifetime, times in his life when he was a led to Evans’ gradual acceptance as and it is the joy in his music that will happy family man; friends a major new force In piano jazz. live on. remember his joyous mood after Students around the world became — CK his son Evan was born, five years aware of this quiet, introverted man ago. He also left an estranged wife who, at a time when so many.others and an adopted daughter. And he were attacking the keyboard, only Bill Evans: The left too much unsaid, too many caressed it. The calm, reflective new expressions of beauty waiting nature of his work was the very Gentle Giant to be stated. He and many others element that focussed attention on felt that his final trio, with him. He had something in common By Leonard Feather LaBarbera and bassist Marc with the gifted actor who, irritated by Johnson, was developing into the too much coughing in the audience, best he had ever led. begins to speak his lines so softly As I noted in my column in CK in that the audience is virtually obliged XCERPT FROM the Merv Griffin to subside into respectful silence. January 1978, Bill Evans was born EShow, Sept. 23,1980: Aug. 16, 1929, in Plainfield, N.J. In After leaving Davis, Evans Griffin: Our next guest is his youth he studied violin and flute formed a fulltime trio, and despite a considered one of the most influential as well as piano. Mundell Lowe, the number of ventures with augmented piano soloists in the jazz world today, guitarist, recalls meeting him as groups it was in that setting that he and his new album is called We Will early as 1945. “Bill was a flute major made most of his records and gained Meet Again. Would.you welcome the at Southeastern l.ouisiana College, a personal image for the rest of his great Bill Evans! playing piano on the side. Later that life. The most memorable trio, for Evans: I’m gonna change up on year I joined a band in New York, but many, was the one that recorded in you. You know, directors always after that, when Bill moved north, he June of 1961 with Paul (Motian on panic about what you’re gonna play and I had a trio, with Red Mitchell on drums and the extraordinarily subtle — “Don’t play, anything slow.’’ I don’t bass. He was only about 18, but his Scott LaFaro, who was almost an get a chance to play on shows like piano style was already years ahead Evans counterpart, on bass. But this too often, where I teach this of its time.” weeks later LaFaro, 25, was killed in many people, and I’ve been writing After an Army hitch and a an automobile crash. It took a while songs they’ve been coming out lately couple of jobs with minor bands, for Evans to recover from the shock like faying eggs. Every once in a Evans began to attract some and assemble a comparable unit. His while I’ll go [imitates chicken attention in jazz circles as a associations and rapport with squawking], and there’s a new tune! member of a quartet led by the bassists were quintessential to the success of every performance. Eddie recorded for Keep- news under Everybody Digs Bill Evans. By that Gomez, who was with him for a Evans’ previous contract with time, however, Bill had turned possi- decade beginning in the mid-1960s, Fantasy. bly the most important corner in his was perhaps closest to LaFaro in Undoubtedly the Evans memorial performing career. He had been terms of his empathy with Evans. tributes will continue, just as the discovered by Miles Davis, and had Ironically, Bill’s first major albums, old and recent, will be with spent most of 1958 out on the road success in terms of popular impact us, while Evans students all over the with the classic sextet that also was recorded with neither bass nor world will continue to mirror his included John Coltrane, Cannonball drums. The album Conversations influence. “He was a pure, beautiful Adderley, Paul Chambers, and Philly With Myself, on Verve, for which he soul,” said Helen Keane. “Even when Joe Jones. overdubbed a second and third he was in the worst private torment, In the two-years-plus between piano part, earned him a Grammy he kept on giving beauty to the world albums, Evans had blossomed award in 1963. right up to the end. That’s how we incredibly. Don’t misunderstand: On In a typically articulate statement should remember him.” that first occasion he had made a in the liner notes, Bill commented; very strong debut that stirred up “There is a viewpoint which holds much critical acclaim, and he had that any recorded music which already written the celebrated “Waltz cannot also be reproduced in natural Bill Evans: The Early For Debby” (which appears in brief, live performance is a ‘gimmick’ and almost fragmentary solo form on that therefore should not be considered Recordings first album). But then he had been a as a pure musical effort. I have a firm shy, self-deprecating, - belief in the integrity of the idea upon By Orrin Keepnews influenced youngster. Actually, a lot which this album was conceived. ... of the shyness and the insistence on In my opinion the only solid and putting himself down never went interesting question that the music- FIRST HEARD Bill Evans almost away; but playing with Miles making here presents is . . . whether I 25 years ago, and in a most unlikely changed a lot of things. It was the this should be regarded as a group way: Mundell Lowe, who as a very only extensive period of time Bill was or solo musical performance. I professional guitarist should have to spend working with horns (and remember that in recording the known better, insisted on playing a what horns!), which encouraged his selections, as I listened to the first homemade demo tape for my partner tendency to play long, hornlike lines track while playing the second, and and myself over the telephone! We at and for a while gave his music an the first two while playing the third, least had the excuse of being almost aggressiveness it rarely had again. the process involved was an artificial amateurs in the jazz record business The clear approval of his colleagues duplication of simultaneous — we had begun the Riverside label in that band not only improved his performance, in that each track on a small scale a couple of years self-esteem but also made the represented a musical mind before, but about the only thing of professional jazz community (which responding to another musical mind consequence we had done by 1956 is one of the most snobbish in the or minds. was to sign . world) start really listening to and “The functions of each track are But we did have the good taste to accepting him. different, and as one in speech feels hear, despite the roughness of that The second album was recorded a different state of mind [in] making tape and the very special distortion very shortly after Bill left the Davis statements than in responding to that the telephone always adds, that band, and its rather flamboyant title statements, or commenting on the Mundell’s young friend did indeed (my idea, which Bill really didn’t care exchange involved in the first two, so have something. As I recall, I then for) was not much of an I feel that the music here has more of listened to Bill just a couple of times exaggeration. Of course, everything the quality of a ‘trio’ than a solo in clubs — he was playing the usual else aside, that session deserves to effort.” small and seedy New York bars, be remembered because it saw the Inevitably, attempts were made to mostly in a quartet led by a clarinetist creation of “Peace Piece.” The persuade Bill to commercialize his named Tony Scott — before signing strange story of how that came about style, especially during his tenure him to a very mild exclusive recording is quite accurate: Searching at the with Columbia Records, where one contract. (In those days we used the piano to work up an introduction to executive referred to him as “an old- printed form provided by the A.F.M. the Leonard Bernstein show tune fashioned pianist.” Of course, he and paid only union scale — which “Some Other Time” (the album never gave in, and if his career didn’t was possibly a bit more than the repertoire had been preset, but reach the heights of the economic average impoverished young inde- details like overall length and intro- ladder, his conscience was clear and pendent jazz label did at the time.) So ductions and the like were in those his income nevertheless consistent. young musician met fledgling record days routinely left open until we were Several books of his original company, and to begin with it did not ready to roll tape), Bill found that he’d compositions and transcriptions of seem like any sort of earth-shaking gotten into something he liked better his solos have been published by event. Which may show that you than that song and went on to record The Richmond Organization [10 shouldn’t judge by early appear- his own reflective, probably immortal Columbus Circle, New York, NY ances, because by the time Evans improvisation. 10019]. Some of his later music has and Riverside parted company, The next thing that happened been, and more is due to be, nearly seven years later, we had musically to Evans was Scott published by the company he shared brought into being some ten albums LaEaro. I hadn’t really been aware of with Helen Keane, Teneten Music — most of them of real importance in this mercurial young bassist until we [49 E. 96th St., New York, NY the history of current jazz piano — began putting together Bill’s first date 10028], and Evans had long been accepted with his new working group. Scotty Evans’ appearance on the Griffin as the major artist he was. apparently had just sort of come show was not his only posthumous But when we went into a New along, being one of several bass contribution. According to Keane, an York studio in September of ’56 to players who sat in during a formative album he recorded a couple of years make the first of those albums, I was trio gig at a New York club and ago with Gomez on bass and Elliott mainly aware that this was an turning out to be the one Bill decided Zigmund on drums will be released unusually unaggressive musician. It to hire permanently. by Warner Bros, in January. Later, had taken me quite a while to Bill has spoken of his aim with this the same company will issue a set persuade him to record. But that trio ( was the extremely recorded live last summer at New turned out to be nothing compared to compatible drummer) as being to put York’s Village Vanguard, featuring what it took to get him back a second all three members on the same level his last trio, with Marc Johnson and time: It was just short of 27 months — a unified voice, in deliberate Joe LaBarbera. There may also be between and distinction from the normal piano- some suitable unreleased material the session that produced with-accompaniment trio. I don’t think they ever quite fully succeeded, but brash and rather abrasive young at Fantasy in the early 1970s I even they were getting closer to it (and man — helped bully him into full- co-produced another Village Scott was becoming more and more scale recording and working activity. Vanguard album by a Bill Evans trio, brilliantly innovative) as they went There were also two very strong non- but by that time his recording career along. It culminated in the Sunday trio records: a rather outgoing quintet was being firmly and well handled by afternoon and evening live record- album called Interplay that included his longtime manager, Helen Keane. ings at the Village Vanguard on June trumpeter and The earliest of Bill’s records have 25,1961, from which a version of guitarist , and a quite lovely almost all been available again for each of the thirteen selections they quartet set under Cannonball some time now (as reissues on the played that day has been issued (I Adderley’s leadership with the Milestone label, a project I am wasn’t looking for two albums at the collaboration of bassist Percy Heath pleased to have been involved in), so time, but there just wasn't anything and drummer Connie Kay of the that we can continue to have his work you could throw away). Of course, Modern Jazz Quartet. There were with us; there doesn’t have to be any with melodramatic timing worthy of a also, in Bill’s life in the early 1960s, tasteless rushing out of “memorial” soap opera, that was the very last severe personal problems that rarely albums. And on a purely personal day that trio ever worked together: diminished the music but often made level, I’m glad to be able to Less than two weeks later LaFaro it hell to be his friend and record concentrate on writing about the was killed in a highway accident. producer at the same time. Even- early days. It allows me to avoid for a There were still two more years of tually, under all sorts of pressures, while the reality of present-day loss, recording Evans at Riverside in my including the fact that Riverside was which is how I prefer it. life, but it’s difficult not to think of the doing some financial stumbling of its rest as faintly anti-climactic. Bill did own, I surrendered him to the eagerly Contemporary Keyboard very little playing, and most of that waiting Creed Taylor, who was then (December 1980) unaccompanied, for about a year, producing jazz at . until the highly talented bassist That was in 1963. Bill and I Edited by Rob Rijneke Chuck Israels — then also a very remained friends over the years, and (www.billevans.nl)