Bill Evans: Soundcheck in Paris, 1979

Forty-three years ago, on November 26, 1979, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera were booked to perform at Theatre de la Ville at Espace Cardin in Paris. The concert that evening was recorded for broadcast, and the two subsequent live albums would become known as The Paris Concert/Edition One and The Paris Concert/Edition Two. Earlier that day in 1979, Evans visited the concert space with Marc, Joe and pianist Walter Davis Jr., who was on tour in the city. Evans wanted to become familiar with the concert setup and do a soundcheck. Davis came along to listen. Yesterday, pianist Dave Thompson turned me on to a recording of the soundcheck (scroll down).

What I find particularly interesting about the soundcheck is that Evans seemed to be doing many things at once: First and foremost, he was playing the piano to allow the sound team to set the microphone levels for that evening. But he also was limbering up and experiencing the piano, much the way someone in fashion might run their hand over fabric before cutting the cloth or a chef might examine a set of new kitchen knives before cooking.

During the early part of the soundcheck recording, we can hear Evans trying out new approaches to My Foolish Heart to see if he could take the standard to a new level. For some reason, the trio never performed the song that night, which may have been a result of the kinks Evans was trying to iron out at the soundcheck.

In his email yesterday, Dave noticed something amazing: Evans used a good chunk of the soundcheck to work on a song he was composing—Here's Something for You. The following year, Evans would hand Marc Johnson a tape of the finished song. After Evans's death, Marc shared it with his partner Eliane Elias, who recorded it in 2007 with lyrics she added. You'll find more on the song in my earlier post here.

I reached out to drummer Joe LaBarbera for his insights:

Marc, you're right. the audio is the setup and soundcheck for the Paris Concert. Bill loved playing this piano, and the recordings released later of the Paris Concert are proof of that. I recall that he lingered after the concert and played the piano for another 20 minutes or so. Walter Davis Jr. was in Paris at the time, and he and Bill hung out together at Francis Paudras apartment. Bill gave me the photo at the top of your post.

Dave shed light on words exchanged between Evans and Davis during the soundcheck...

Marc, I had to put my ear up to the speaker to hear some of what Bill was saying. As he reworked things harmonically, he said he had come across something he had never done before in terms of harmonic movements. He was illustrating that to Davis. It sounds to me like he was working with a lot of suspensions and moving through inversions of suspensions to find new key centers and then back to the original key center again. He seemed energized by that, as he certainly would have been. Always exploring, always discovering.

Evans, of course, closes the soundcheck with Like Someone in Love, which the trio also skipped over that night. Given how much he loved the piano, Evans was clearly enjoying himself working through the standard on an instrument that was fully realizing the beauty of what he was playing.

Above all, what is most significant about this soundcheck is that we now have a recording of Evans playing and possibly composing Here's Something for You. The only other recording of Evans playing the song that I know of was the cassette tape he handed Marc in 1980. For that alone, this soundcheck is a treasure.

JazzWax tracks: Here's Eliane Elias playing Here's Something for You, with her lyrics added...



Here's the song recorded by Eliane in 2007 and released on her album Something For You : Eliane Elias Plays and Sings Bill Evans (Blue Note)...



And here are two “lost tracks" from the Paris Concert...