― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 28 February 2005 23:51 (8 years ago) Permalink
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Monday, 28 February 2005 23:54 (8 years ago) Permalink
― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 28 February 2005 23:55 (8 years ago) Permalink
Very under-rated, i think. At least, I hardly hear anyone I know talk about him.
― poortheatre (poortheatre), Monday, 28 February 2005 23:58 (8 years ago) Permalink
just got thru reading "Lost Chords," the great book about white jazz musicians 1915-40 (ish). And listening to those supposedly secondary guys like Bud Freeman, Jack Purvis, etc. Bill Evans was incredible--and so, for ex., is Keith Jarrett today. I particularly like Evans on Miles's '58 "Love for Sale"--that's about as good as it gets.
But I can see the objections--he can be a bit pastel, you know. Still, his playing swings real hard, his touch is immaculate, his ideas first-rate. If he doesn't provide the thrills that someone like Bud Powell or Monk does, well, he's doing his own thing and that's cool.
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 28 February 2005 23:58 (8 years ago) Permalink
― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 00:04 (8 years ago) Permalink
― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 00:05 (8 years ago) Permalink
― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 00:11 (8 years ago) Permalink
i also really like the montreux live album from '68 (i think) w/ jack dejohnette and eddie gomez. much harder-edged, more coked-out bill evans. his last couple of albums with marc johnson and joe labarbera are also pretty interesting -- you can hear that they would've been a really interesting group.
― pm (p-m), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 00:23 (8 years ago) Permalink
― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 00:36 (8 years ago) Permalink
― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 05:13 (8 years ago) Permalink
Has anyone heard Things Remembered? Saw it today and was curious. No LaFaro, though. I do love Watltz For Debby and Sunday At The Vanguard...
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Saturday, 10 November 2007 06:12 (5 years ago) Permalink
LaFaro's great but he's hardly a yardstick, there's loads of great non-LaFaro stuff. I don't know Things Remembered though
― J0hn D., Saturday, 10 November 2007 09:17 (5 years ago) Permalink
A prof us showed this film when I was briefly in jazz school. It's great. (links to parts 2-5 in the sidebar)
― Everything is Highlighted (Hurting 2), Saturday, 11 October 2008 22:45 (4 years ago) Permalink
Oh right, embeds. I forgot.
...............
Uh, I seem to have done something wrong. Anyway, search "The Universal Mind of Bill Evans" on youtube.
― Everything is Highlighted (Hurting 2), Saturday, 11 October 2008 22:46 (4 years ago) Permalink
this is kind of why i like but don't like bill evans: just in my own experience -- i have a friend who is so into the mechanics of this (and how it came up on the spot) that it turns into boring schematics. or boring theory-explanations i guess? that's why from the same time period, def. not the same area, i'm like: "andrew hill." because he's so far away from that, at least in my mind.
then again i just need to listen to gil w/ fresh ears. because in all honesty i know i'd fckin love it, that's the type of thing i like, just not the theory about it.
― matt p (Matt P), Thursday, 15 January 2009 14:10 (4 years ago) Permalink
I'm not sure what you mean by that -- the fact that you can explain Bill Evans in music theory terms makes you like him less? Because it's not like you couldn't do the same thing with Andrew Hill.
― ichard Thompson (Hurting 2), Thursday, 15 January 2009 16:46 (4 years ago) Permalink
Listening to Moon Beams again for the first time in a while. Such a perfect record.
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Monday, 7 May 2012 19:31 (1 year ago) Permalink
I think this is one of my favorites because it's almost all slow and understated and doesn't have as much of his jauntier playing.
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Monday, 7 May 2012 19:32 (1 year ago) Permalink
every year I love Bill Evans more
― cosi fan whitford (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 7 May 2012 20:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
i actually like some of evans' jauntier stuff -- occasionally it gets a little too lugubrious for me! though obviously he is is the master of the meditative. but as far as "jaunty" goes, i love the version of "solar" on the village vanguard sessions -- some highwire tension there.
― tylerw, Monday, 7 May 2012 20:03 (1 year ago) Permalink
yeah that is a good track
I also love Milestones, although I wouldn't quite call it "jaunty"
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Monday, 7 May 2012 20:08 (1 year ago) Permalink
I also find it helpful to remind myself sometimes that the way his trio is improvising is actually quite deliberately experimental and in that way it might sometimes produce mildly awkward sounding moments. Like there just weren't really piano trios before him, or at least not many, that played in that loose, multi-directional way where no member of the trio is forming a bedrock and all are instead kind of orbiting around an invisible point at different speeds.
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Monday, 7 May 2012 20:12 (1 year ago) Permalink
yeah it's definitely a different conception of the piano trio -- unlike say, ahmad jamal's trios of the same period, where everyone's working in pretty close tandem. evans' trios seem to be all about pulling things in different directions and seeing where that lands them.
― tylerw, Monday, 7 May 2012 20:21 (1 year ago) Permalink
The beginning of his solo on "Flamenco Sketches" are the most beautiful nine notes in all of music.
― improvised explosive advice (WmC), Monday, 7 May 2012 20:28 (1 year ago) Permalink
Flamenco Sketches has an interesting history actually. The germ for it came from Bill Evans's intro to Some Other Time on Everybody Digs Bill Evans. The engineer recorded Bill doing extended improvising on the two-chord figure he used for the intro, and that became Peace Piece, which is also on Everybody Digs Bill Evans. Then Bill Evans and Miles co-wrote Flamenco Sketches based on Peace Piece (to what degree each contributed who knows) and Flamenco Sketches loosely refers to some of the changes in Some Other Time.
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Monday, 7 May 2012 20:42 (1 year ago) Permalink
some other time is a leonard bernstein song, right? both that and piece peace are so beautiful -- and yeah, lead straight into flamenco sketches. i guess evans gets credit on KoB for that song and blue in green?
― tylerw, Monday, 7 May 2012 20:48 (1 year ago) Permalink
i barely play, but it is very relaxing to play the opening to flamenco sketches on the piano.
― tylerw, Monday, 7 May 2012 20:50 (1 year ago) Permalink
ah yeah it is Bernstein, and it's from On the Town. For some reason I was thinking it was from South Pacific, but I was mixing it up with This Nearly Was Mine.
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Monday, 7 May 2012 20:58 (1 year ago) Permalink
this one from the tony bennett album is nice
― tylerw, Monday, 7 May 2012 21:02 (1 year ago) Permalink
i've been listening to 'the bill evans album' because i happen to have it on vinyl, and although it seems like he took some heat for it, i really like him on fender rhodes.
― 40oz of tears (Jordan), Monday, 7 May 2012 21:10 (1 year ago) Permalink
anyone heard this newish live release. the world is not hurting for live bill evans, i suppose, but it is sounding great this morningfrom 1968, a semi-pro recording, but the quality is pretty astounding, like you're in the front row.
― tylerw, Monday, 23 July 2012 17:23 (9 months ago) Permalink