Artist Profiles

Pianist Bill Evans: A Retrospective

By

MARK SABBATINI,

Mark Sabbatini

Mark Sabbatini

Columnist since 2004

A professional transient wandering Earth's extreme regions.

Recent articles (245 total)

Published: July 31, 2004

Books

How My Heart Sings by Peter Pettinger.
This is more than a biography of Evans; it is also a stellar analysis of his playing and compositions. Pettinger, a concert pianist, shows a gift for providing exceptional musical insight while not writing over the heads of inexperienced listeners. He will described, for example, how a song's Debussy-like "parallel diatonic motion" resulted in an off-kilter recording where "the musicians were too busy counting to make music." In another section he devotes more than a page to a single note that opens "Spring Is Here," exploring the question of "How did (Evans) make it sing?"

Related Articles
Building a Jazz Library: Bill Evans
Incomparably Quiet: Bill Evans
Remembering... Bill Evans
Bill Evans: 1929-1980

AAJ Book Reviews
The Pianist as an Artist
Everything Happens To Me - A Musical Biography
How My Heart Sings

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