Undercurrent

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The full range of Evans’ approach to solo piano is heard in these sessions cut for radio in 1965. His composition “Re: Person I Knew” is a piece of rare beauty, mysterious and lyrical, and his version here is organic and alive, expanding and contracting as if it were a living, breathing thing. Monk’s “‘Round Midnight” opens with a knotty and angular intro before the eternal melody glides out of the clouds, and Evans sometimes seems like he’s wrestling with the tune, trying to extract every viable idea from its harmonic shape. Evans recorded a classic uptempo version of “My Funny Valentine” with guitarist Jim Hall on the 1962 album Undercurrent, but here he takes it at medium tempo and lingers over the individual notes in a way that makes you hear the lyrics in your head before adding inventive embellishments to the melody in his arrangement’s middle section. A few songs later, he ends his solo set with “Epilogue,” the haunting fragment threaded through his 1958 LP Everybody Digs Bill Evans.

Evans also performed on albums by Charles Mingus, Oliver Nelson, Tony Scott, Eddie Costa and Art Farmer. As usual, during the sessions of Kind of Blue, Miles Davis called for almost no rehearsal and the musicians had little idea what they were to record. Davis had given the band only sketches of scales and melody lines on which to improvise. Once the musicians were assembled, Davis gave brief instructions for each piece and then set about taping the sextet in studio. [46] La La Land' Costume Designer Explains the Retro Realistic Look of the Film". The Hollywood Reporter. November 29, 2016 . Retrieved July 21, 2017. Bennett and Evans recorded the first album in four studio sessions in June 1975, and the second album in four studio sessions in September 1976. Between the two recordings, the Bennett and Evans performed live as a duo, featuring songs from their recordings including " But Beautiful", " Days of Wine and Roses", " Dream Dancing". HORWITZ: Lovely impressionistic music that draws a perfect winter afternoon picture, but this is not to say that they don't swing on this record.Davis, Miles; Troupe, Quincy (1989). Miles: The Autobiography. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-671-63504-2. Greatest Albums of all Time". Rolling Stone. 2003. Archived from the original on January 4, 2009 . Retrieved August 19, 2008. Evans's heroin addiction increased following LaFaro's death. His girlfriend Ellaine Schultz was also an addict. Evans habitually had to borrow money from friends, and eventually, his electricity and telephone services were shut down. Evans said: "You don't understand. It's like death and transfiguration. Every day you wake in pain like death and then you go out and score, and that is transfiguration. Each day becomes all of life in microcosm." [14] [54] Other highlights from this period include "Solo – In Memory of His Father" from Bill Evans at Town Hall (1966), which also introduced "Turn Out the Stars"; a second pairing with guitarist Jim Hall, Intermodulation (1966); and the solo album Alone (1968, featuring a 14-minute version of "Never Let Me Go"), that won his third Grammy award. [53] The first section finds Evans in two different trios he worked with for a short time, and running through tunes he played frequently—standards like “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Someday My Prince Will Come,” and “Beautiful Love,” along with a couple of standards Evans wrote himself, “Very Early” and the immortal “Waltz for Debby,” which appears three times in this collection. These are relaxed, warm sets with Evans in top form.

In 1973, Evans broke up with his girlfriend of twelve years, Ellaine Schultz, to pursue Nenette Zazzara. Schultz then committed suicide by throwing herself in front of a subway train. At least during his late years, Evans's favorite keys to play in were A and E. [15] Evans greatly valued Bach's music, which influenced his playing style and which helped him gain good touch and finger independence. "Bach changed my hand approach to playing the piano. I used to use a lot of finger technique when I was younger, and I changed over to a weight technique. Actually, if you play Bach and the voices sing at all, and sustain the way they should, you really can't play it with the wrong approach." Evans valued Bach's " The Well-Tempered Clavier" and his " Two- and Three-Part Inventions" as excellent practice material. [30] Influences [ edit ]

Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue is a hard act to follow, but when compelled to find something to succeed it in a late night listening session, there is one distinctly worthy contender, Undercurrent, featuring one of Kind of Blue’s pianists in a starring role beside a jazz guitar great. a b Light, Alan (November 2, 2006). "The All-Time 100 Albums". Time. Archived from the original on November 17, 2006 . Retrieved August 19, 2008. In an interview given in 1964, Evans described Bud Powell as his single greatest influence. [76] Views on contemporaneous music tendencies [ edit ] Lees, Gene. Meet Me at Jim & Andy's: Jazz Musicians and Their World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988 (Bill Evans). SPELLMAN: Yes, it was Murray. After the success of the Modern Jazz Quartet, who made a concert jazz. That jazz had less emphasis on hard-driving drum and more on the interplay of the instruments, which liberated a lot of musicians. They could float the rhythm. In fact, Evans' piano style on Undercurrent really reminds me of John Lewis, who was, of course, the founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet.