“We have noticed that our audiences seem to be getting younger, and this gives me new impetus. If we were just getting half a dozen drunks every night, I would have to think seriously about continuing in this business. But at the moment, I am heartened by the audience interest.
“Jazz will never be a mass appeal music but there is nothing more that I can give an audience than I give myself. I'm not trying to be abstract or esoterical. I'm just trying to play my conception of music, and I have to direct myself to that rather than the audience because I'm the only one who can tell if I'm achieving that objective. When an audience responds with applause, it can give real impetus, but if I had a choice, I'd refer no expression of enthusiasm as to me, it can be a distraction."
--Bill Evans, as quoted in Brian Hennessey's Bill Evans: A Person I Knew, Part 2, in the October 1985 issue of Jazz Journal International, from Peter Pettinger's Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings (1998).
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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