 For TEN YEARS, this website has been 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.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! --Jan Stevens
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FOR LATEST CONTENT...
 "LATE PERIOD BILL EVANS: GENIUS OR DECLINE?" - THE OFTEN-HEATED DISCUSSION CONTINUES... |
It all started in Ted Gioia's excellent jazz.com site, in a recent essay, as titled above, dealing with Bill's final period, which leaned most heavily on the re-release on Nonesuch of the CD boxset "Turn Out the Stars -The Final Village Vanguard Recordings 1980." Many readers weighed in within the "Comments" section such as yours truly (Jan Stevens) Win Hinkle, Jack Reilly, Mike Harris and other Evans writers and fans. (The Bennett-Evans sessions are also briefly covered in Ted's first piece).
Since then, noted jazz scolar and saxophonist Bill Kirchner (who co-produced the original release for Warner Bros.) wrote his own one-page response which should be required reading for all of you. Even the last trio' s drummer Joe LaBarbera added signicant comments. This on the heels of yet another go-around on the early vs. late periods issue by the our friend Marc Myers at jazzwax.com. I mostly disagree with Marc's comments there on this topic, but support his right to express them, and I admire his honesty and good work. Be sure to check all these links out for lively discussions of this often controversial issue.
The "Turn Out the Stars" set, was out-of-print for awhile, and is now priced around $45.00 (USA), which is about half of what it was originally. Apparently BEST BUY has it for around $14.00!
A real bargain! More info here, or here.
(Thanks to Bill Byam, Jim Williams and Bruce Brannigan for some info)
| THE COMPLETE TONY BENNETT - BILL EVANS RECORDINGS |
A sublime 2-CD collection that spotlights the iconic song stylist dueting with the legendary jazz pianist from their two albums recorded in 1975 & 1976. Disc 1 combines the originally issued recordings, The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album and Together Again with two bonus tracks. Disc 2 features alternate takes from both sessions. Originally produced by Evans manager Helen Keane, the remastered compilations is produced by Nick Phillips with new liner notes by Will Friedwald. For lots more information on the tracks and more see Concord Record's new page on the CD here.
"I respect the American popular song very much and some of the masters that have composed in that form ... and I studied this very hard, analytically and diligently as I was growing.... There's still explorations that I haven't begun to make yet into handling these things."
--Bill Evans, in a 1979 interview for "Jazz Spoken Here"
| DVD- TRIO AT UMBRIA / QUARTET IN HAMBURG |
NEW DVD: BILL EVANS TRIO 1978: UMBRIA/1972: (QUARTET with HERB GELLER in HAMBURG)
This release from a European company known as Disconforme (?) presents two performances by Bill Evans for the first time ever on DVD. First, live at the Umbria Jazz festival, Umbria, Italy, July 19, 1978, and a rehearsal filmed for German TV with reedman Herb Geller in Hamburg, 1972. Some of this footage has been floating around on YouTube for a while (as noted here a few months back) but the 1978 trio with Philly Joe is rare. It's an import, and I held off a few weeks after hearing it was out, since I saw no American outlet offering it at the time.
Now it appears on amazon.com, but only being sold by resellers (Price: about $18.00) and at cduniverse.com for a little less.
Umbria Jazz Festival: (with Marc Johnson, bass and Philly Joe Jones, drums; Lee Konitz appears on alto sax)
DVD TRACKS:
01. The Peacocks 6:10
02. Theme From Mash 4:38
03. Midnight Mood 5:20
04. Nardis/Announcement by Bill Evans 8:00
05. Solar [incomplete] 4:18
Studio Rehearsal, Funkhaus, Hamburg, Germany, February 12, 1972. (with Herb Geller,piccolo flute/alto flute/sax, Eddie Gomez on bass and Marty Morell on drums.)
06. Waltz for Dissention [Geller-piccolo flute] 4:27
07. Stockenhagen [Geller-alto flute] 5:41
08. What Is This Thing Called Love? [Geller-alto sax] 4:47
09. Sao Paulo [Geller-alto flute] 1:42
10. Northern Trail [Geller-alto flute] 8:50
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| "THE BILL EVANS ALBUM" - COLUMBIA'S AD IN ROLLING STONE in 1971 |
 A few months back, I featured Columbia Records' ad for the "Living Time" album. This ad above is for the one before that -- the Grammy®-winning The Bill Evans Album , which appeared in the November 25, 1971 issue of the rock music magazine, Rolling Stone . It's a curious ad in many ways. You can barely see the artist's name to begin with. The reissued CD -- with bonus unreleased takes-- is now, sadly discontinued, and copies are going for as much as $70 -100 on the Web. However, you can purchase an MP3 download of the whole album (all Evans compositions) at this page on amazon.com for about ten dollars (USA).
You can also read my original review here, from shortly after the CD re-release came out.
If any of you have copies of old advertisements of Bill Evans albums, concerts, club appearances or whatever, (scanned in .jpg, .gif, .bmp .pdf or most other graphic formats) please contact me, simply so we can share them with Evans fans all over the world! Maybe we'll give them all a whole page here if we get enough.
They are an integral part of jazz history and jazz marketing, and many younger fans have not seen these "remnants" of past times. I often hear from Bill's fans from many countries who became aware of his music after his passing, and these would make for good educational materials! Anyone contributing copies of same will be fully credited of course. If you're a real Bill Evans fan, this is YOUR site, and we want to hear from you! Thanks - JS.
BILL EVANS CONCERT DVD "JAZZ ICONS" SERIES |
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NAXOS and Reelin' in the Years Productions has released this excellent DVD as part of its highly acclaimed "Jazz Icons" series. (the six other releases in the series include Oscar Peterson, Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, Nina Simone, Lionel Hampton and Rahsaan Roland Kirk -- all are sold separately, of course.)
- There are five filmed Evans trio performances (including a tune with jazz legend Lee Konitz sitting in) from between 1964 and 1975. Two of these (the longer ones!) have rarely been seen, as far I know -- and we finally get to see drummer Eliot Zigmund with the trio. The whole package is beautifully done, and jazz fans will be quite pleased with the attention to detail and the obvious care that went into this effort. The set includes a beautiful 23-page booklet with rare photos and essays, including a new interview with Chuck Israels as well as Maxine Evans. (see the "Jazz Icons"dedicated site for the Bill Evans DVD here, for extensive details, and preview - it's quite a treat!)
Below is a list of the performances and the what, where and who.
Order it now, you don't want to be without this one!
PERFORMANCES ON THE DVD:
 1. My Foolish Heart
2. Israel
Sweden September 29, 1964 -with Chuck Israels (bass) ,
Larry Bunker (drums) 3. Detour Ahead
4. My Melancholy Baby (featuring Lee Konitz -alto sax)
France 1965 - with Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (bass),
Alan Dawson (drums) 5. Emily
6. Alfie
7. Someday My Prince Will Come
Denmark 1970 - Eddie Gomez (bass), Marty Morrell (drums)
8. If You Could See Me Now
9. 'Round Midnight
10. Someday My Prince Will Come
11. Sleepin' Bee
12. You're Gonna Hear From Me
13. Re: Person I Knew
Sweden, February 20, 1970 -with Eddie Gomez (bass) , Marty Morrell (drums) |
14. Sareen Jurer
15. Blue Serge
16. Up With The Lark
17. But Beautiful
18. Twelve Tone Tune Two
Denmark 1975 (in studio) -with Eddie Gomez (bass) , Eliot Zigmund (drums)
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(
Images courtesy of Reelin in the Years Productions, LLC and Naxos. All rights reserved.)
FREE DOWNLOAD - BILL EVANS NEWSLETTER FROM THE 80s |
You can now download the "Letter From Evans" series of newsletters here-
An
incredible resource: between 1989 -1994, a newsletter dedicated solely to the music and
the life 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 Win's name included in both the Peter Pettinger and Keith Shadwick books) "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, BILL himself and many others!
A few of those who contributed articles or reviews included musicians
like Jack
Reilly, Kenny Werner, Hal Galper, Richie Bierach, Ron Nethercutt and yours truly, Jan Stevens. Obviously,
if you're an Evans aficianado, or even just a serious jazz fan, you want to see this stuff. Since I was a subscriber myself back then, of course, I have
all the issues -- but I'm thrilled,
just thinking about all the good things you'll soon be seeing. Check out Win's blog as well.
NOTES, DISCLAIMERS AND LEGALESE:
NOTE:
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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. 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
WE PROUDLY RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING JAZZ SITES FOR THEIR EXCELLENCE!
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