Jazz Articles about Bill Evans

About Bill Evans

Building a Jazz Library

Arguably the greatest jazz pianist of the 1960s and '70s, Bill Evans is generally acknowledged as the most influential pianist since Bud Powell and a primary influence on players such as Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea. Evans co-wrote Kind Of Blue with Miles Davis and some consider the pianist's Sunday At The Village Vanguard the best piano trio album ever. Evans is also credited with advancing harmonic and voicing structures, and pioneering modern trio format elements such as giving sidemen ...

The Vinyl Post

Bill Evans: The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961

by C. Andrew Hovan
December 18, 2014

Those of us who are diehard jazz collectors often loathe answering questions from neophytes as to a good starting place for building a jazz collection. Nonetheless, a short go-to list would probably include the iconic live sessions of Bill Evans and his trio captured on tape by Riverside Records back in June of 1961. For sheer improvisational genius and telepathic group interplay, these recordings can't be beat. Furthermore, the sonic magic that teleports you to your own personal table at ...

Album Review

Bill Evans, Bob Brookmeyer: The Ivory Hunters

Read "The Ivory Hunters" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo

by Maurizio Zerbo
March 12, 2014

Solo nel jazz accadono simili incontri, dove le regole vengono stravolte. È il caso di questa seduta discografica del 1959, che vede entrare in sala di incisione un quartetto guidato da un pianista ed un trombonista. Grazie all'idea estemporanea del produttore, Bob Brookmeyer viene invitato a sedersi al pianoforte e ne discende un percorso davvero ragguardevole. Il trombonista aveva già inciso un disco dove si era cimentato anche al pianoforte, qui mimeticamente orientato verso una cifra ...

Reassessing

Bill Evans Trio: How My Heart Sings

by C. Michael Bailey
August 20, 2013

The Bill Evans Trio How My Heart Sings OJC 1962/2013 Pianist Bill Evans' 1962 Riverside recording How My Heart Sings concludes the first wave of re-issues celebrating the 60th anniversary of Riverside Records. The previous releases include: alto saxophonist Julian Cannonball Adderley's 1959 Things Are Getting Better, guitarist Wes Montgomery's So Much Guitar!, trumpeter Chet Baker's Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner & Loewe (OJC/Riverside, 1959/2013) and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan's Mulligan Meets ...

Album Review

Bill Evans: Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of the Gate

Read "Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of the Gate" reviewed by AAJ Italy Staff

by AAJ Italy Staff
July 16, 2012

D'Lugoff's non è certo un nome facile da pronunciare per un italiano, eppure merita un piccolo sforzo, perché si tratta di un locale notevole. Era il club posto un piano sopra il più celebre Village Gate e per questo soprannominato “Top of the Gate". Accoglieva artisti dello stesso calibro e capitava spesso che il trio di Bill Evans suonasse lì mentre poco più sotto operava Thelonious Monk. Possiamo solo invidiare l'appassionato di jazz che, nell'ottobre del 1968, si trovava nel ...

Album Review

Bill Evans: Live At Art D'Lugoff's Top of The Gate

Read "Live At Art D'Lugoff's Top of The Gate" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
June 6, 2012

Why is pianist Bill Evans so important to jazz? it is simple: every pianist to hear and perform after him was influenced by him. Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson may have been technically more brilliant and extroverted, but it took first Bud Powell and then Evans to turn the creative tables toward the muted and introverted, thereby beginning a jazz piano cultural revolution that continues to this day. Evans had an almost painfully personal style that, like late-period Art Pepper, ...

Album Review

Bill Evans: Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of the Gate

Read "Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of the Gate" reviewed by Larry Taylor

by Larry Taylor
June 5, 2012

The two-CD Bill Evans Live at Art D'Lugoff's Top of The Gate--a never-before-released recording of the Bill Evans Trio made over 50 years ago--consists of two sets recorded by then-college student George Klabin in the New York City club, October, 1968. Until now, the music has only been heard on a Columbia University radio show; now, Klabin has taken the tape out of the closet and released it on Resonance Records, the label he heads. Crisp and clear, the sound ...