Everybody Digs Bill Evans

Everybody Digs Bill Evans was the title of an album the pianist released in 1958.  The title is an apt summation of the career of a musician who is widely viewed as the most influential jazz pianist of the post-bop years.  Joel Simpson, in his biographical sketch of Evans at AllAboutJazz.com,  described Evans' "highly nuanced touch, the clarity of the feeling content of his music and his reform of the chord voicing system pianists used."  Miles Davis described Evans' playing as "quiet fire ... or sparkling water cascading down from some clear waterfall."  Davis dug Evans enough that he included him, along with John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, in the group that would record the immortal album Kind of Blue.  Evans, however, was much more than a sideman; as a leader he would record over 50 albums and receive 5 Grammy awards.


Evans' "quiet fire" is on display from about the three-minute mark in the recording of "All Blues" as he plays behind solos from Davis, Adderley, and Coltrane, and then adds a spare, sparkling solo of his own.



Born in New Jersey in 1929, Evans began taking piano lessons at age six.  His parents didn't want him to be limited to just one instrument, so he also took violin and flute lessons.  He would later credit the flute with helping him play with tonal expressiveness.  Evans' mother was an amateur pianist herself, and she had amassed a large library of classical sheet music, which young Bill mastered rather than practicing scales.

After college and a stint in the army, Evans recorded his first album, New Jazz Conceptions as leader in 1956.  The album was a critical, but not a commercial success; it sold only 800 copies in a year.  In between stints with Miles Davis, Evans released his second album as leader in 1958, the above-mentioned Everybody Digs Bill Evans.  The video below is "Some Other Time" from that album.  Evans is joined by Miles' drummer, Philly Joe Jones and bassist Sam Jones (no relation).


Evans was especially fond of the trio format and by giving prominence to the contributions of the drummer and bassist took a more egalitarian approach to the ensemble than was common at the time.  Among the most acclaimed of Evans' trio recordings are the recordings of live performances at the Village Vanguard in 1961.  On these dates he was joined by long-time drummer Paul Motian and bassist Scott LaFaro. The authors of the Penguin Guide described this group as one of the "finest piano trios ever documented."  Evans' composition "Waltz for Debby" featured below, was first recorded on his 1956 debut and became one of the pianist's signature songs as well as the title of one of the Vanguard albums. Unfortunately these Village Vanguard albums would be the last from this trio as LaFaro died in a car accident ten days later.
















As the '60's progressed, so did Evans' career.  He pioneered the use of overdubbing (standard practice today) and won a Grammy for his Conversations with Myself.  He would also win a Grammy for his 1968 album of piano solos, Alone.  "Never Let Me Go" from that album is presented below.







During the same period that Evans was experiencing his greatest professional success, he also experienced devastating personal tragedy.  Like so many jazz musicians of the period, Evans developed a heroin addiction that would plague him for years.  His wife, Ellaine, also an addict, committed suicide by throwing herself under a train in 1970.  Although not immediately, Evans did enter a methadone treatment program and stayed away from heroin.  He married for the second time. Although the marriage didn't last long, the union did produce a son, Evan, for whom Evans senior composed "Letter to Evan," and who became a prominent musician in his own right.



Evans' productivity and artistry remained unabated during the 1970's.  The Bill Evans Album (1971) won two Grammies.  In 1975 and 1976 Evans teamed with Tony Bennett for The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album and Together Again. Presented below is the vocal version of "Waltz for Debby," which the authors of the Penguin Guide characterize as the definitive vocal presentation of that song.
















Although Evans had been off heroin for some time, by 1980 he started using the current drug du jour, cocaine, which he thought of as "safe."  This was to be his undoing and he died in Mt. Sinai hospital on the 15th of September of that year.  Evans' influence lives on and has probably even grown since his death.  Joel Simpson ranks him, along with Oscar Peterson, as "one of the major enduring forces in jazz piano."