The BILL EVANS Webpages - Bill Evans, jazz piano

Welcome to billevanswebpages.com

Dedicated to the life and music of pianist and composer BILL EVANS (1929-1980), one of the most important and influential musicians in all of jazz history. News, CD and DVD reviews, essays and articles, recording catalog, interviews, sidemen info, sound samples, biography, etc. . We try to update at least once every few weeks, as circumstances warrant, so come by again soon. If you're new to Bill Evans, you can start your journey HERE.

We welcome you to send email with your comments or questions...or any reviews or articles you may want us to consider for inclusion on this website. All will be read and answered as time permits. Thank you!

COMING IN JUNE: ALBUM OF THE MONTH -a new regular feature, where we will look at a particular Evans album in retrospect, one each month or so. First up will be the Grammy®-winning "At the Montreux Jazz Festival", which was recorded 'live' forty years ago this June. If any of you writer types would like to contribute such a retro-review for future inclusion here, please email me soon!

RARE VIDEO - NOT ON YOUTUBE - THE TRIO WITH HERB GELLER (1972)

The Bill Evans Trio (with Eddie Gomez and Marty Morell) toured Europe in the early months of 1972. On February 12, German broadcasters filmed their rehearsal with reedman Herb Geller, (here on alto flute) who appeared with them the following night in their concert in Hamburg. The film is out-of-sync in the middle, but corrects itself soonafter. "Northern Trail', an original by Mr.Geller, is the tune being played. This clip is also of great interest since we also get a rare glimpse of Ellaine (in the white turtleneck sweater), Bill's lady during those years, in the background.

See the video here.

UPDATED: "ELIANE ELIAS SINGS AND PLAYS BILL EVANS"- NEW CD

The fine pianist and vocalist Eliane Elias (who is married to former Evans bassist Marc Johnson) was just featured on the March 2008 cover of the jazz periodical JazzTimes. Her recent Blue Note release"Something For You: Eliane Elias Sings and Plays Bill Evans" has been garnering some good reviews, and she's currently doing some dates with her band in Europe. The album features standards closely associated with Bill (like the Brazilian tune "Minha", "A Sleepin' Bee", "My Foolish Heart"). However, according to my recent conversation with Judy Bell at TRO (Bill's publisher), perhaps the most intriguing thing of all is the CDs inclusion of a tune or two Bill was writing before he passed on, that he gave to Marc on cassette tape. These have never been recorded, and an exceprt is included.
See Eliane Elias own site for more infoon this CD.

Also check out the allaboutjazz.com review - their piece is entitled
"Something for Bill (Evans)"

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"Bill Evans was articulate, forthright,gentle,majestic, witty and very supportive. His goal was to make music that balanced passion and intellect, that spoke directly to the heart"

--- Eddie Gomez

"V.I.P.s THEME" CD RE-RELEASED. WHY?

This 1963 session, conceived by producer Creed Taylor, was not even released as part of the "Complete Verve" CD boxset, so one wonders why their current parent company would bother putting it out now at all? The bigger question for those who run the Verve catalog is: why not re-release (in America) the "What's New" album- the trio with flautist Jeremy Steig? That one is only available as a $40 import from Japan!)

As for "V.I.P.s" , Bill told Downbeat in November 1964 that he did not really know it was going to be a pop record when he got into the studio, but said "...I've played lots of lousy jobs, and lousy music; certainly this is nice, and pleasing, a lot better than the things I'm referring to". However, he also seriously considered using the Russian derivitive of his name on the cover, so one can make one's own conclusions. Claus Ogerman (uncredited) did the competent but sugary arrangements of such tunes as "On Broadway", and movie and TV themes like "Man with the Golden Arm", "Mr. Novak" and "Monco Cane" ['More than the greatest love..' etc.) If there are Evans fans who haven't heard this heretofore unavailable record, be forewarned: this is "nice" as Bill said --in a muzak sort of way, but probably for Bill Evans completists only.

NPR's BILL EVANS DOCUMENTARY" - JAZZ PROFILES with NANCY WILSON"

Many jazz fans listen to NPR's "Jazz Profiles" radio program, a series of biographies of jazz greats, hosted by Nancy Wilson. On February 27th, their profile on Bill Evans was aired. In my view, it rates as one of the very best ever done on the pianist, and it's now available as a FREE download on the NPR site. Lots of great music, of course, and various interview excerpts with Bill himself are featured, as are the late Helen Keane (!), Gene Lees, Marc Johnson, Eddie Gomez, Paul Motian, Andy Laverne and others. Believe me, you want to hear this one.

VIDEO - "PORTRAIT OF BILL" - ORRIN KEEPNEWS

Record producer/writer Orrin Keepnews is featured in a series of short videos about the major artists whose music he produced at Riverside Records. Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderley, McCoy Tyner and others have been profiled, and in this new installment, he talks about working with Bill Evans, and the "Portrait in Jazz" album. our thanks to Bret Primack, known as "JazzVideoGuy" on YouTube, where you can see other fine jazz videos.

OUR NEW REVIEW OF "THE MASTERY OF BILL EVANS" BOOK

Check out Jan Stevens' new review of the great new book of Pascal Wetzel's Bill Evans excellent piano transcriptions, "THE MASTERY OF BILL EVANS".

Includes analysis and some actual excerpts from the book.

THE COMPLETE 'LIVE AT RONNIE SCOTT'S" NOW ON CD

The Bill Evans Trio with Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera last performed at Ronnie Scott's famed London jazz club July 21st and August 2nd, 1980. "Letter To Evan" was the title of the CD released by Drefus of the July gig, and the August performance was put out by Dreyfus as "Turn Out the Stars". Now all in one place, both nights are in one 2-CD set on the MSI Music/Super D (?) label.

Amazon.com link

NPR DOCUMENTARY ON BILL EVANS IN 1962

"After the Vanguard: The Return of Bill Evans" is a radio documentary produced by WFIU (Indiana University), an NPR outlet. The period of time after June 1961 was a deeply troubling one for the pianist, after suffering the loss of his bassist and "musical soulmate" Scott LaFaro. He refused to even play any piano for months, and went deeper into his drug habit -- though when he later returned to the recording scene in 1962, he was more prolific than ever.

There are, of course, lots of great Evans recordings to hear, including some sideman dates (with Dave Pike, Herbie Mann, Tadd Dameron et al, and the aborted April 4, 1962 solo-piano session) that you really ought to hear if you haven't yet. Treat yourself and listen now onlne here.

BILL EVANS NEWSLETTERS- NOW ONLINE

This is huge: between Autumn 1989 and the summer of 1994, a (hard copy) newsletter dedicated solely to the music of Bill Evans was published by well-known Evans historian and bassist Win Hinkle. (Those who have appreciated Bill's work since that time may have seen references about Win and his published material included in both the Peter Pettinger and Keith Shadwick books-- and on Bill's life - and in this website as well.) "Letter From Evans" was available by subscription only back then, but now Win has made all twenty-six issues available online in .pdf files-- and it's all free!

During it's five-year run, LFE featured Evans news, album reviews, commentary, analysis, transcriptions and many exclusive interviews done mostly by Win with some folks you just might have heard of: Keith Jarrett, Marc Johnson, Steve Allen, Earl Zindars, Joe LaBarbera, Henry Mancini, Chuck Israels, Mundell Lowe, Jimmy Rowles, Denny Zeitlin and many others -- to name just a few!

Some rare interviews with Bill himself appeared in the newsletter too, as did a number of nifty transcrptions of Evans solos -- many that were not available elsewhere. Just a few of those who contributed articles or reviews included musicians like Jack Reilly, Hal Galper, Kenny Werner, Richie Bierach, Evans archivist Ron Nethercutt and, in fact, yours truly (Jan Stevens).

For those Bill Evans fans and jazz listeners who haven't seen any issues of "Letter From Evans", you're in for quite a treat. They are all filled with loads of unique material on Bill -- and some related jazz from that time period-- that you just won't find anywhere else. Once again, the files of all issues are now free (though Win has mentioned at his blog that those who may wish to can contribute, just to help defray all the expense).

To get started , you'll need the free Adobe PDF reader. Then just copy and paste http://www2.selu.edu/orgs/34skid/html/3.pdf where 3.pdf where "3" is the number of the issue you want to request, 1 through 26-- corresponding to each of the 26 issues.

Obviously, if you're an Evans aficianado, or even a casual fan, this is big news. Since I was a subscriber myself then, of course, I have all these issues -- but honestly, I couldn't be more thrilled, just thinking about all the good stuff some of you will soon be looking at. For further information, check out Win's blog, since he'll likely be posting more on all this soon.

Or, at least email him and say thanks!

-JS

DO IT NOW! Get the .zip file of "Letter From Evans". A reader of the popular "Rifftides"(Doug Ramsey's excellent jazz blog), Ken Deifik, has enabled a downloadable .zip of the entire run here. It's over 300 mgs, so be advised. You better act quickly, it won't be up for very long! Thanks, Ken! (and thanks to Doug as well!)

NOTES AND DISCLAIMERS:

This tribute website is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It is a not-for-profit endeavor and we do not solicit nor accept any contributions, nor do we sell any products, music transcriptions, ad space, or other Bill Evans- related or jazz-related services whatsoever. This website is not affiliated with any record company or publisher, nor with the Estate of Bill Evans. Any ads or logos to featured jazz sites are purely promotional as a recommended site, and are unsolicited and done for free.

Also: many musicians and fans have contacted us and asked about obtaining Bill Evans piano transcriptions. Sorry, but we do not provide these for various copyright reasons. The webmaster (a pianist) has studied many Evans solo transcriptions, and various transcriptions by both amateurs and professionals are available on the Web. Though we do not endorse or specifically recommend these, you can see a few links to transcriptions on our LINKS page and for info on where to purchase music books of various Evans collections. Many are able to be obtained from TRO Music, Inc., distributed by Hal Leonard, Inc., and other authorized companies which pay licensing fees and have permissions to reproduce original musical compositions and transcriptions.

NOTE: The textual information and HTML within is proprietary content and cannot be copied digitally, electronically or otherwise for use on the Web or other media without permission. If you wish to use any content here, (Other than brief quotes or paragrapgh use under the Fair Use Doctrine) or have a BLOG, simply email us for permission before copying reviews and or other materials. Thank you.

We kindly ask that you please do not email to ask "What album is "[whatever song] on?". Our discography of Bill Evans' recording history (1956 through 1980) --though in need of some updating for recent reissues -- gives as much detailed and complete information as possible. Thank you.

COMING SOMETIME SOON

OUR NEW DVD and VIDEO PAGE - and BILL "AT THE MOVIES"

MIKE HARRIS - ("Secret Sessions" CD boxset) profile article

"BILL EVANS" - our DVD review of the rare Italian documentary from 1996

Updated MAY 2008 by Jan Stevens