Jazz Articles about Chuck Israels

About Chuck Israels

Album Review

Bill Evans: Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956 - 1980)

Read "Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956 - 1980)" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
July 20, 2021

Only occasionally do classy looking limited-edition box sets prove to be a triumph of style and substance. Too often they are undermined by cheapskate packaging, over elaborate design, poorly written and researched booklets, inadequate session details or, most egregiously, bizarre (in a bad way) track selections. So it is a more than pleasant surprise when something comes along which succeeds, and succeeds magnificently, on all those fronts. Such an item is Concord Records' Craft imprint's Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: ...

The Jazz Life

My Early Years With Bill Evans, Part 3

by Chuck Israels
July 27, 2020

Bassist and composer, Chuck Israels was raised in a musical family. Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger and The Weavers were visitors to his home and the appearance of Louis Armstrong's All Stars in a concert series produced by his parents in 1948 gave Chuck his first opportunity to meet and hear jazz musicians. Chuck studied the cello and played guitar in junior high school. Later musical training took place at Indian Hill, a summer workshop in the arts directed by his ...

The Jazz Life

My Early Years with Bill Evans, Part 2

by Chuck Israels
July 10, 2020

Bassist and composer Chuck Israels was raised in a musical family. He studied the cello and played guitar in junior high school. Later musical training took place at Indian Hill, a summer workshop in the arts directed by his parents, and at the High School of Performing Arts in New York City. A year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology provided access to the considerable jazz activity in Boston where Herb Pomeroy, Charlie Mariano, Joe Gordon, Serge Chaloff and bassist John ...

The Jazz Life

My Early Years With Bill Evans, Part 1

by Chuck Israels
June 25, 2020

Interview

Chuck Israels: Tribute to Bill Evans

by Robin Arends
April 16, 2014

Isn't it nice to meet someone who takes time for a good chat in these hectic times? Especially if this person has a lot to tell, carries the living memory of an important part of jazz history, and is called Chuck Israels?Bassist/arranger/composer Chuck Israels is in expansive form for this interview conducted in a room of a former monastery in Oegstgeest, a small town in the Netherlands near the North Sea. He is happy to be reunited again ...

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Interview

Chuck Israels: Evans, Education and Philosophy

by Sean Dietrich
May 27, 2010

Throughout his career bassist Chuck Israels has worked with illustrious names including Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz, Herbie Hancock, J.J. Johnson, John Coltrane. He is, however, best known for his work with Bill Evans, following the untimely death of Scott LaFaro, performing with the legendary pianist from 1961 to 1966. Strikingly intelligent and well-spoken when it comes to articulating a valuable philosophy regarding jazz, and composition, Israels is currently the Director of Jazz Studies at Western Washington ...

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Profile

Chuck Israels

by Elliott Simon
January 17, 2007

An infrequent visitor to his hometown, bassist Chuck Israels is returning to NYC this month for rehearsals of his new music with David Berger's Sultans of Swing big band. Israels and Berger have a musical relationship that dates back to the National Jazz Ensemble, a groundbreaking jazz repertory orchestra that Israels conceived in the mid '70s. Their recordings highlighted superb arrangements across a wide variety of jazz styles. A treasure from their catalogue features pianist Bill Evans sitting in with ...