Jazz Articles about Bill Evans

Bill Evans: The Oslo Concerts

by Samuel Chell
March 28, 2007

Bill Evans Trio The Oslo Concerts Shanachie Entertainment Corp. 2007

Arguably sharing with John Coltrane the distinction of being the primary shaper of the language of jazz over the past fifty years, Bill Evans was also a remarkably focused and consistent artist who paradoxically manifested different musical personae, each capable of attracting its own cadre of followers or detractors. Despite the spatial proximity of these two Evans' concerts, released for the first-time ...

Bill Evans and Bob Brookmeyer: The Ivory Hunters

by Samuel Chell
March 27, 2007

Yes, that's Bob Brookmeyer the valve trombonist, and it's Bill Evans the pianist who, during the same year as this recording, would appear with Miles Davis on the fabled Kind of Blue session (Columbia, 1959). Some listeners will no doubt be familiar with the session, originally issued by United Artists under Brookmeyer's name and with the descriptive sub-title “Double-Barrelled Piano." But if you're hearing about this curious match-up for the first time, and close to the beginning of April at ...

Bill Evans / Randy Brecker: Soul Bop Band Live

by Woodrow Wilkins
September 22, 2006

&BBill Evans and Randy Brecker are both, to put it succinctly, well-traveled. In more than twenty years as a solo artist, Evans has been nominated for several Grammy awards, establishing a repertoire that includes traditional jazz, funk, hip-hop and Brazilian styles. Brecker has been delivering straight jazz, fusion, rock and R for three decades. Collectively, the pair has performed or recorded with a wide range of acts, including Miles Davis, Parliament/Funkadelic, James Taylor, Steely Dan, Horace Silver, Chaka Khan, Dave ...

Bill Evans: The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings 1961

by George Kanzler
August 7, 2006

This 45th anniversary issue of all five June 25, 1961 sets by pianist Bill Evans' trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian is rightly considered the crowning preserved achievement of one of the most influential piano trios in jazz history. This group was the coming out of a new, sensitive, interactive mode, a new ideal of the piano trio as triumvirate. In hindsight, though, Motian still seems more a timekeeper at this juncture than the spacey, open drummer ...

Bill Evans and Lee Konitz: Play the Arrangements of Jimmy Giuffre

by Matthew Miller
July 14, 2006

Merged from two brilliant 1959 studio sessions, this disc is, just as the title and artist credits suggest, a showcase for three immense talents. Those expecting to hear the snap-crackle of Roy Haynes' snare or Bob Brookmeyer's punctuated counterpoints after reading the all-star lineup may be surprised to hear them relegated to the background, but any disappointment will end there. The brilliant playing of Konitz and Evans, paired with Jimmy Giuffre's sensitive arrangements, is enough to satisfy any true jazz ...

Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings

by Victor Verney
May 19, 2006

Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings Petter Pettinger Hardcover; 346 pages ISBN: 0300097271 Yale University Press 1998

The late Bill Evans, a cerebral, classically-trained pianist, was the first of many brilliant keyboardists whose careers were launched by Miles Davis. Sometimes described as the Chopin of jazz, Evans, who died in 1980, was ethereal in his approach and esoteric in his appeal. “Bill Evans has no casual fans," wrote Adam Gopnik ...

Bill Evans: Soulgrass

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 13, 2006

Il banjo di Bela Fleck e il violino di Stuart Duncan che aprono l'album Soulgrass con l'omonimo brano, firmato dallo stesso Fleck e dal leader del progetto, il saxofonista americano Bill Evans, non lasciano spazio ad equivoci: siamo davvero in clima campagnolo. Ma dopo poco il sax pungente di Bill Evans ci scardina le fondamenta delle nostre certezze con il suo impeto carico di energia fusion e di tutta la curiosità che lega assieme due mondi che difficilmente hanno occasione ...