Bill Evans

[HenryMc]

I remembered that clint did that from years ago and while I cant say that I listen to bill every day I certainly listen to bill a lot. Maybe its because when I first stated getting into jazz about 40 years ago (more actually) one of the first records I got was "Explorations" quickly followed by Sunday at the Village Vanguard. I came to jazz through Bird, to Miles through bird, To Bill through Miles.

So maybe not every day ....but every other day at least

[bluenoter]

Read the full article at http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-bill-evans-legacy-1423008187

[Ron Thorne]

Great, insightful article. Thanks for posting it, bluenoter. You beat me to it.

This quote from Bill Evans really sums it up for me; “Especially, I want my work—and the trio’s if possible—to sing. It must have that wonderful feeling of singing.”

His playing was always so lyrical and honest to my ears. I especially liked the trio with Motian and LaFaro.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdnPisW7E-E

[moldyfigg]

Peter Pettinger's bio of Bill Evans, "How My Heart Sings" is excellent. Also Gene Lees devoted a lot of space to Bill in his Jazzletter.

[jwaggs]

From the WSJ article:

"Evans is so much a part of the jazz environment that many musicians who reached maturity in the 21st century are not conscious that his concepts are part of their musical DNA. Exceptions are Jeremy Siskind, an active player who also teaches at Western Michigan University, and Sullivan Fortner, a New Orleanian who plays piano in trumpeter Roy Hargrove’s quintet. Former students of Mr. Hersch, each was born seven years after Evans’s death."

Anyone listen to Jeremy Siskind or Sullivan Fortner?

[Ron Thorne]

Rifftides
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

A New Old Bill Evans Interview

February 11, 2015 by Doug Ramsey



Since Rifftides has been pretty much about Bill Evans since last Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal article, let’s continue with a discovery brought to light through fellow blogger Marc Myers on his JazzWax. It’s a 1976 interview with Evans by a pair of young jazz broadcasters on a Madison, Wisconsin radio station. Marc recruited Bret Primack, The Jazz Video Guy, to add pictures to the sound track of James Farber’s and Larry Goldberg’s interview. Thirty-nine years later, it’s fascinating to hear Evans jovial and relaxed in a 43-minute discussion about many things, including his time with Miles Davis (pictured above with Bill), the various editions of his trio and vagaries of his relationships with record companies.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKtwcBpVL4k


For details about how the Evans interview became public via Marc Myers, please see his JazzWax post.


Rifftides

[moldyfigg]

The Fantasy box has a cd of Evans talking with Marian McPartland. It was quite illuminating.

[Ron Thorne]

Yet more goodies about/from Bill Evans today, thanks to Marc "JazzWax" Myers and one of his readers.


JazzWax

Marc Myers writes daily on jazz legends and legendary jazz recordings


February 12, 2015
______________________________________________________________

Bill Evans' 'Kind of Blue' Notes



Most jazz fans know that pianist Bill Evans wrote the liner notes that appear
on the back of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. What you probably don't know is that
Evans' draft was worded slightly differently in places before he edited the text
prior to submission. Yesterday, JazzWax reader Robert Brais sent along a copy
of the original draft. He has the copy framed at his house. [Photo above of
trumpeter Miles Davis, bassist Paul Chambers and pianist Bill Evans at the Kind
of Blue session]

Kind Of Blue Notes

[Ron Thorne]

At the risk of duplication, I'm posting a link to a fascinating article and materials primarily centering on the relationship of Bill Evans with Gene Lees & Helen Keane, along with his European friends Bernard Maury, Francis Paudras and Brian Hennessey.

There are some rare photos and other materials I've never seen elsewhere.

http://www.billevans.nl/Genehelen.htm

[moldyfigg]

At the risk of duplication, I'm posting a link to a fascinating article and materials primarily centering on the relationship of Bill Evans with Gene Lees & Helen Keane, along with his European friends Bernard Maury, Francis Paudras and Brian Hennessey.

There are some rare photos and other materials I've never seen elsewhere.

http://www.billevans.nl/Genehelen.htm

I still have all the Jazzletters. I go back to them and am fascinated by his writing about Bill Evans and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

[bluenoter]

I still have all the Jazzletters. I go back to them and am fascinated by his writing about Bill Evans and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

For those who, like me, didn't know, that's a reference to Gene Lees.

[Ron Thorne]

Rifftides
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...



Just Because: Evans, Konitz, NHØP & Dawson

June 14, 2015 by Doug Ramsey




In the fall of 1965 pianist Bill Evans, alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, bassist Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen and drummer Alan Dawson toured parts of Western Europe. It was both a time of Cold War tension and a time when jazz enjoyed popularity in every part of the continent. In countries behind the Iron Curtain, jazz devotees risked being caught at their shortwave radios listening to Willis Conover on the forbidden Voice of America. In Western Europe, nowhere was openness to jazz more evident than in Scandinavia, where the quartet played at Copenhagen’s Tivoli Concert Hall.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOUHKk73KgY


On the same tour, Evans, Konitz, Pedersen and Dawson played in Berlin, where a wall constructed by the leadership of East Germany divided the country. While their countrymen across the wall hunched around radios to hear records broadcast by Conover on the VOA, West Germans were free to gather in concert halls for live performances. This was October 29, 1965.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeDAVMFhqQo


Source

[Gentle Giant]

Great clips, Ron.