as time goes by bill evans transcription

And he could become an accompanying voice in that way. In order to really mix the horn player in, he would have to learn essential second lines, in the same way that I learn an essential bass line, for each of the pieces that we play. Israels: I thought of a way of doing that. There are so many technical musical things that have to be left behind before you can just relax and play, And like I say, the fewer people responsible for staying together in reference to this thing the freer you can be. And to get out of that would be kind of difficult. Israels: I have nothing to add to that, except to say that the answer to that question is: because it sounds good.Įvans: I know that as soon as we've had horn players sit it, it's been fun, depending on who it was- but immediately we change our whole approach it becomes more or less a typical lead-voice-and- rhythm-section-thing. So that you have all the basic musical functions fulfilled and there are no extra voices Therefore, for myself, I feel the freedom to shape something and feel that the fewer people that are responsible for the musical product, the more pure that product can be. Tomkins : A question to start things off- why would you say the trio formula of piano, bass and drums has been used so consistently in jazz?Įvans: Well I would say as a pianist that it offers a perfect musical combination of percussion and timbre and bass, plus the piano, which is a sort of lead voice with a harmony or colouristic function. They talk about the advantages of the piano trio format, and about the essence of jazz and the disciplines its entails. Les Tomkins interviewed the members of the Bill Evans Trio in 1965. After leaving Davis, he led his own trios, using a succession of top bassists (including Scott LaFaro, Chuck Israels and Eddie Gomez) and toured widely in the US, Europe and beyond.Įvans wrote memorable compositions, such as ‘Waltz for Debby’ and ‘Very Early’, but was perhaps at his best in his lustrous re-interpretations of standard tunes which he could lift to new levels of subtlety and lyricism. The pressure of working in Davis’ sextet, perhaps the leading jazz unit of its time, aggravated Evans’ narcotic habit which very seriously affected his later career. Evans’ contribution was crucial, helping to define the album’s unique mood. He influenced Davis’ interest in modal jazz and returned to play on the trumpeter’s 1959 Kind of Blue album, one of the most important recordings in jazz history. His breakthrough to real prominence came as a member of Miles Davis’ sextet from April to November 1958. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey as William John Evans, he introduced an original, attractive style of piano playing to jazz, with distinctive harmonies, great sophistication in chord voicings, and a new conception of the piano trio in which bass and drums assumed almost equal responsibility with the pianist for developing a performance.Įvans, classically trained from the age of six, worked with various jazz groups before attracting notice on recordings by Charles Mingus and George Russell. It is hard to over-estimate Bill Evans’ influence on subsequent jazz pianists.

As time goes by bill evans transcription