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. I had to change the way the band sounded again for Bill’s style by playing different tunes, softer ones at first.
- Miles Davis
The first time I ever heard Bill Evans’ piano was the introduction to Blue In Green from Kind of Blue. Unfortunately, that was just about the same time of his passing in New York City on September 15, 1980.
I will always remember those first 8 bars, before Miles’ trumpet came in. Even my non-musically educated ear could hear something very special. That was, in many regards, the start of my Jazz journey.
In a 1968 interview with Marian McPartland, Bill Evans describes the first step on his Jazz journey:
“When I was 10, I got medals for playing Mozart and Schubert, but I couldn’t even play My Country ‘Tis of Thee without the music. When I was about 12, I started playing in the school band. One of the tunes was a stock arrangement of Tuxedo Junction and I was playing the piano part note for note. Then one day, I hit a chord (the piece was in B flat, and the notes I played were in C sharp, D and F) Man. I was so thrilled I couldn’t believe it. Here was something I had done myself – something that wasn’t written down – it sounded great to me – a chord that I made, that wasn’t in the music sheet! That very experience started me in jazz.”
That story makes me reflect on the beginnings of my own jazz journey and how Bill Evans’ music played such an important part in it.
In the fall of 1980, with very little knowledge and understanding of Jazz, I was thumbing through “Ground Zero’s” massive jazz record collection. Remarkably, one of the first albums I pulled out was Kind Of Blue – I liked the cool cover. As great as the first two songs on side 1 are, it was Blue in Green that knocked me out. I must have played it over and over again five times.
Later, after having just absorbed Kind of Blue, I pulled out another album because I recognized the names Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans on the cover. That album was Cannonball Adderley’s Know What I Mean?.
From that album, I remember playing side 2 over and over many times. Again, listening to Bill Evans as much as Cannonball. Here’s Toy from that album:
So my introduction to Bill Evans was first as an accompanist.
It was not until 1986 or so, when I was in the service in Europe, that I bought my first Bill Evans Trio album at the Jazz Inn Recordshop in Den Haag, the Netherlands.
I was looking at the Chet Baker albums and noticed Bill Evans played on Chet Baker’s 1958 Riverside recording Chet, with Pepper Adams on Baritone and Herbie Mann on flute.
I think Evans’ introduction on Alone Together reminds me of his introduction to Blue in Green:
Strangely, at the same time I was reading the back cover of the Chet Baker album, I noticed that Bill Evans Trio album, Trio ’65, was playing in the record store.
That was the first time I ever heard Bill Evans Trio music. I think it was a French or Japanese gatefold reissue. Very nice. I thought - now this was something altogether different than the piano as just accompaniment that I had been hearing. This was more like a conversation between three voices. Here’s an example of that team effort on Elsa from that album, recorded on February 3, 1965 with Chuck Israels on bass and Larry Bunker on drums:
This was the time when jazz was making a comeback and reissues were coming out regularly. By the time I returned to the states in the late 1980s, pretty much all his trio albums were available on the Original Jazz Classics label, which was releasing awesome and hard to find albums (and CDs) originally released on the Riverside, Prestige and, Contemporary record labels. It was also the time I learned about his legendary trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motion. I have to admit, I started out hearing Bill Evans’ Israels and Bunker trio first, so I am somewhat partial to that trio; however, that by no means diminishes the remarkable output of Evans’ LaFaro and Motion trio.
I prefer their two live albums (Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby both recorded in June 1961) over their first two studio albums (Portrait in Jazz recorded in late 1959 and Explorations recorded in February 1961). Here is one of my favorite songs from Waltz For Debby, Some Other Time recorded live for the Riverside label:
On a trip to Tower Records in San Francisco I bought Time Remembered, with some previously unreleased songs from a live recording at Shelly's Manne-Hole in Hollywood in May 1963. Evans’ trio features, again, Chuck Israels on bass and Larry Bunker on drums. The title track, Time Remembered, the first song on side 2, remains to this day my favorite Bill Evans Trio song:
In that same 1968 interview with Marian McPartland, Bill Evans provides some perspective on his approach: “You can hear that I know exactly what I’m doing – there’s no doubt in my mind when I play. I know the reason for everything I do.” He continues, ‘If you play too many things at one time, your whole approach will be vague. You won’t know what to leave in and what to take out. I would say to a young musician: know very clearly what you’re doing and why – play much less, but be very clear about it. It’s much better to spend 30 hours on one tune than to play 30 tunes in one hour.”
It is interesting to me how he proclaims his playing to be so structured, yet it sounds so free. As is always the case, I have absolutely no idea what chords he’s playing, but so many of his songs just move me each time I hear them.
Here’s one more for the road. Gloria’s Step is from the Bill Evans Trio album Sunday at the Village Vanguard, recorded for Riverside on June 25, 1961. In my opinion, one of the greatest live trio songs ever recorded. I find the depth of interplay stunning:
Next week, On that Big River called Jazz, we’ll journey through the music of big big band of Boyd Raeburn.
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Until then, keep on walking….