Jazz Articles about Bill Evans

About Bill Evans

Album Review

Pianist Bill Evans' career lasted from the late 1950s until his passing in 1980, but beginning around about 20 years into the 21st century CD releases under Evan's name have been rolling along at a brisk clip, thanks to the Resonance, Elemental and Ess- thetics Record labels. Zev Feldman, often called “The Jazz Detective," has played a big part in this steady release of mostly laudable recordings, uncovering lost or shelved tapes of Evan's concerts, resulting in albums like Bill ...

Album Review

Tadd Dameron: Fontainebleau & Magic Touch Revisited

Read "Fontainebleau & Magic Touch Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
October 27, 2024

There is much that is tragic about Tadd Dameron's story. The composer, arranger and pianist fell prey to the heroin epidemic that gripped New York's jazz world in the 1940s and 1950s. He did jail time for his addiction in 1959-60. He died at the woefully young age of 48 years in 1965. But there is nothing tragic about Dameron's legacy as a composer-arranger, the field in which he made his most important contribution to jazz. His work was unfailingly ...

Readers Poll Results

Your Favorite Legacy Jazz Pianists

by Michael Ricci
June 29, 2024

Member votes were tabulated and this list represents our favorite legacy jazz pianists. Fully transparent and easily verifiable, All About Jazz's favorite legacy pianists poll was conducted during the 2023-2024 calendar year and ran up through June 28, 2024. We want to thank every member who participated in creating this impressive list for the next generation of jazz enthusiasts to discover. 1Bill Evans2Thelonious Monk3Oscar Peterson4McCoy Tyner5Bud Powell6Duke Ellington7Chick Corea8Art Tatum9Ahmad Jamal10Horace Silver11Dave Brubeck12Jelly Roll Morton13Count Basie14Red Garland15Erroll Garner16Wynton ...

Album Review

Bill Evans: The Legendary Trio At Birdland 1960 Revisited

Read "The Legendary Trio At Birdland 1960 Revisited" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 7, 2024

Bill Evans' The Legendary Trio at Birdland 1960 is a seminal recording that captures a fleeting moment of jazz brilliance, immortalizing the profound synergy of Evans with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. Recorded live at the iconic Birdland Jazz Club in New York City, this album is a vivid snapshot of a group at the peak of its creative powers, navigating the complexities of jazz standards and original compositions with unparalleled grace and fluidity. The trio's ...

Album Review

Bill Evans: The Legendary Trio At Birdland 1960 Revisited

Read "The Legendary Trio At Birdland 1960 Revisited" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
March 3, 2024

Keen-eyed Bill Evans aficionados will know that this album is the pianist's third in the Revisited series by ezz-thetics, following At The Village Vanguard 1961 Revisited and the double-CD Duos with Jim Hall & Trios '64 & '65 Revisited, both released in 2023. “The Legendary Trio" refers to the threesome of Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, the same group that recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1961. The Legendary Trio was brought to a tragic end ten ...

Multiple Reviews

More OJC Magic: Masterpieces from Bill Evans and Dave Brubeck

by C. Andrew Hovan
January 29, 2024

Although they might have been one of the last concerns to significantly ramp up their release schedules when the vinyl renaissance hit its stride, Concord has been making up for lost time with several series now part of their Craft imprimatur. At the end of 2023, they announced a new audiophile reissue series titled after the legendary catalog started by Fantasy in 1983. These new Original Jazz Classics (OJC) start with everything that was loved about the original series while ...

Liner Notes

Bill Evans: The Legendary Trio At Birdland 1960 Revisited

by Chris May
January 17, 2024

Thank you, Boris Rose. The obsessive New York jazz maverick set out to record every musician of note who performed in the city's clubs from the mid 1940s through the mid 1970s. He must have come close to succeeding. His vast accumulated horde of tapes--today presumed more or less safe, stacked floor to ceiling in a sizeable Bronx basement under the guardianship of his daughter Elaine--is a treasure beyond mere monetary value. Annotated but uncatalogued, there are many hundreds, perhaps ...