Bill Evans Biography
16 August 1929, Plainfield, New Jersey, USA, d. 15 September 1980, New York City, New York, USA. One of the most important and influential of modern jazz pianists, Evans studied at Southeastern Louisiana University, while summer jobs with Mundell Lowe and Red Mitchell introduced him to the jazz scene. He was in the army from 1951-54; played with Jerry Wald in 1954-55; studied at the Mannes School of Music, New York 1955-56; then began a full-time jazz career with clarinettist Tony Scott. Through Lowe he was introduced to Riverside Records and made his recording debut as leader (of a trio) in 1956. Evans then recorded with Charles Mingus and George Russell. In 1958 he joined Miles Davis, playing a central role on the album Kind Of Blue, which was so influential in the development of modal jazz. Evans left Davis after less than a year to form his own trio, and favoured that format thereafter. His recordings with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian (1959-61) represent the summit of the genre (Portrait In Jazz, Explorations, and two outstanding live sessions at the Village Vanguard; Sunday At The Village Vanguard reissued as Live At The Village Vanguard and Waltz For Debby). The tragic loss of the brilliant LaFaro in a car accident deprived Evans of his most sympathetic partner, and the later recordings do not quite approach the level of those on Riverside; Eddie Gomez was the most compatible of later bass players. Evans recorded solo, most interestingly on the double-tracked Conversations With Myself; in duo with Jim Hall, Bob Brookmeyer and Tony Bennett; and in larger groups with such players as Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims and Freddie Hubbard. Towards the end of his life Evans was establishing a new trio with Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera, and playing with new-found freedom. Although he eventually kicked his heroin habit, he experienced continuing drug problems and these contributed to his early death from a stomach ulcer and other complications.
Evans' background is significant; he matured away from the bebop scene in New York. Although his earlier playing was indebted to bopper Bud Powell and more strikingly to hardbop pianist Horace Silver, as well as to Lennie Tristano, he gradually developed a more lyrical, "impressionistic" approach, with an understated strength far removed from the aggression of bebop. His ideas were influential in the development of modal jazz and hence of the John Coltrane school, whose major pianistic voice was McCoy Tyner; however, he did not pursue that direction himself, finding it insufficiently lyrical and melodic for his needs. The softer, understated, less obviously dissonant idiom of the great trio with LaFaro and Motian embodies the rival pianistic tradition to that of the eventually overbearing Tyner. Contemporary jazz piano tends towards a synthesis of the Evans and Tyner styles, but the Evans legacy is with hindsight the richer one. Technically, Evans led the way in the development of a genuinely pianistic modern jazz style. Most important was his much-imitated but completely distinctive approach to harmony, in particular to the way the notes of the chord are arranged or "voiced". Red Garland, who preceded Evans in the Miles Davis group, had moved away from Bud Powell's functional "shell voicings", but it was Evans (and to a lesser extent Wynton Kelly) who first fully defined the new style of "rootless voicings". These retain only the essential tones of the chord (dispensing with the root itself, often played by the bass player), and form the grammatical basis of contemporary jazz piano. Evans employed a wider variety of tone-colour than is usual in jazz piano, with subtle use of the sustaining pedal and varying emphasis of notes in the chord voicing. He improvises thematically, "rationally"; as he said, "the science of building a line, if you can call it a science, is enough to occupy somebody for 12 lifetimes'. His influence on pianists is as considerable as that of Coltrane on saxophonists , most notably on several artists known to a wider public than he was, such as Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea, but also on Hampton Hawes, Paul Bley and more recently Michel Petrucciani. Legions of imitators have tended to conceal from listeners the complete originality of his style as it developed in the late 50s and early 60s, and Evans" music still continues to yield new secrets. A trio setting was Evans' ideal format, and his solo piano style is (with the exception of the double-tracked Conversations With Myself) less compelling. The trio with LaFaro and Motian is definitely one of the great combinations in jazz history. The "collective improvisation" of this group involved rhythmic innovation, with the bass in particular escaping its standard timekeeping role. Evans commented that "at that time nobody else was opening trio music in quite that way, letting the music move from an internalized beat, instead of laying it down all the time explicitly'. However, the apparent lassitude of Evans" mature style has led to much misunderstanding and criticism. Archie Shepp commented (incorrectly) that "Debussy and Satie have already done those things"; Cecil Taylor found Evans "so uninteresting, so predictable and so lacking in vitality". As James Collier wrote, "If Milton can write 'Il Pensero", surely Bill Evans can produce a "Turn Out The Stars". But Milton also wrote "L'Allegro', and Evans is not often seen dancing in the chequer'd shade'. Melancholy is Evans" natural mood, and rhythm his greatest weakness; he does not swing powerfully, and is not interested enough in the "groove". Cannonball Adderley commented that when the pianist joined Davis, "Miles changed his style from very hard to a softer approach. Bill was brilliant in other areas, but he couldn't make the real hard things come off . . . ". When Evans played in a determined up-tempo (as on Montreux 1968), the result can sound merely forced and frantic, and unlike Wynton Kelly or Tommy Flanagan, he was not a first-choice accompanist. Nonetheless, he swung effectively when pushed by a drummer such as Philly Joe Jones on Everybody Digs Bill Evans (listen to "Minority'), and there are many powerful swinging musicians whose music has a fraction of the interest of Evans". In common with an unusual handful of great jazz musicians, Bill Evans was not a master of the blues. He rapidly learned to avoid straight-ahead blues settings, although his grasp of minor blues (e.g., Johnny Carisi's wonderful "Israel") was assured, partly because melodic minor harmony is the basis of the modern jazz sound that he helped to develop. Evans increasingly played his own compositions, which were unfailingly fine and inventive, often involving irregular phrase lengths and shifting metres, and many, incidentally, named after female friends ("Waltz For Debby", "One for Helen", "Show-Type Tune", "Peri's Scope", "Laurie", "Turn Out The Stars", "Blue In Green"). His originality was equally apparent in his transformations of standard songs ("Beautiful Love", "Polka Dots And Moonbeams", "Someday My Prince Will Come", "My Romance", "My Foolish Heart"). His recorded legacy is extensive and is being continually expanded by his son Evan, who has released several archive recordings on his E3 label. Peter Pettinger's objective biography is an essential tool in studying the life and work of Bill Evans, undoubtedly one of the five or six key figures of piano jazz.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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