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THE PIANO |
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At The Piano
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His brilliant career was cut short by heroin addiction
of TheColumnists.com
I’m delighted to be part of this special edition honoring great jazz pianists. As you will read in the columnist’s writings, we are lucky to have such a rich history of so many great jazz pianists. I suspect that I have listened to most of them over the years--and all those cited are on my favorites list.
I think we all recognize most of the bigger names who not only had great jazz piano styles, but who also knew how to utilize publicity and enjoyed great careers. But, unfortunately, not all great jazz pianists knew how to do this. Some were just too introverted or shy to even try.
But they all shared one thing: They had their own style of playing and interpreting the notes they played. What a diverse menu this makes for all us listeners.
This brings me to one of my all time jazz piano favorites, whose name may be well known in some circles, but wasn't a household word unless we're talking about the houses of real jazz lovers.
His name is Bill Evans.
Born William John Evans in Plainfield, N.J. in 1929, he died in 1980 at the age of only 51. Bill Evans left behind many recordings and memories of his great piano playing of the American jazz book as well as some of his own compositions, and arrangements that are very much a part of that book.
I first become aware of Evans' playing in a most unusual manner. It occurred during my days as a vice cop in Chicago. I was sent to a Club on the North side where there was a complaint that prostitutes and pimps were operating openly and fleecing some conventioneers. I entered the Club and soon learned it had a unique double deck bar, upstairs and down, and was once known as Club Fifty in the old days. They say comedian George Gobel, the sensation of early 1950s television, got his start there. Over the years the Club played various types of acts, including jazz artists.
Well, I did my vice cop thing and, operating
undercover, soon “bought” the services of two “mature”
female prostitutes, who worked for a damned old pimp who had
to be of Social Security age! He was a nice guy as pimps go,
and he loved jazz music.
We all wound up at the pimp's high-rise apartment on Lake Shore
Drive. I was tossing hundred dollar bills around while being
served fine scotch and watching as the prostitutes put on a strip
show for me. The old nice guy pimp played me his favorite jazz
pianot recordings. I was sipping and listening and watching but
the music soon stole my interest from the two lousy looking whores.
I asked the pimp who that was playing the piano? He said it was
this “white cat" named Bill Evans, who used to play
piano back at the Club Fifty with the Herbie Fields band in the
old days.
His style seemed pretty independent, staying inside the bounds of the melody while not adhering to the actual rhythm that the bass and and/or drum had established. At first listening to this form of jazz I thought artists were playing two different pages of the sheet music, but I soon learned that this was a style of playing. It was the Bill Evans style--and I loved it!
You will also note how Bill Evans plays almost exclusively with his head bent forward towards the keyboard. While he most definitely got into his music, I learned this bent-over posture also had something to do with his having bad teeth. You see Bill Evans' addiction to heroin has a side line of not only killing abusers with its potent chemicals, but as a precursor to death it tends to rot the addict's teeth.
Soon the addict finds that some of his teeth just fall out and they are often left with gaps in-between their other teeth and it’s quite unsightly, especially for someone who earns his living in front of an audience. So Bill played with his head bent forward, giving most audiences little more than a profile view of his face.
Bill Evans obviously was a great talent ruined by drug abuse. He was like so many other jazz greats (Chet Baker comes to mind) who also got strung out on heroin on their way to early deaths. When I hear him play "Darn That Dream," I start to think: What the hell happened in his life that lost him his dream?
Here was a guy whose Mom and Dad gave him music lessons that led him to a musical scholarship at Southern Louisiana University, where he played quarterback on the 1949 championship team. He performed Beethoven’s “Third Piano Concerto” at his senior recital. He also played “boogie woogie” piano which helped him become a founling member of the Delta Omega chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. Once he went to Chicago to start his musical career, he joined sax great Herbie Fields' band. While he was with Herbie Fields, he played for Billie Holiday's three-month tour with the band. By 1958, he was the pianist for the Miles Davis band. With a fast-rising success like that, what made heroin seem necessary?
Some say Miles Davis' own addiction might have influenced Evans. True or not, the teaming up of Miles Davis and Bill Evans was one of the most fruitful collaborations in the history of jazz. You’ve only to listen to some of the recordings they made togehter to know that. Davis once said of Evans, "Bill had the quiet fire that I loved on piano. The way Bill approached it, the sound he got was like crystal notes or sparkling water cascading down from some clean waterfall”. Additionally Miles is quoted as saying; “I’ve learned a lot from Bill Evans. He plays piano the way it should be played”.
Bill Evans was also a great accompanist for singers. One of my favorite CD’s is of Tony Bennett singing with mostly just Bill Evans accompanying him. It’s titled: "Tony Bennett and Bill Evans Together Again” on Concord Records. The song selections are all first rate and the playing and singing makes for a fantastic and very relaxing listen.
Bill Evans played with numerous other jazz greats, far too many to list here, but suffice it to say that Bill is perhaps one of the least known great jazz pianists, Treat yourself and listen to Bill Evans play and just close your eyes. Then write to our TALKBACK column and tell me what you think.
Living in Chicago for so many years as a young cop I got to see and hear so many great jazz pianists at many different venues, from the famed jazz showcase of the old London House, which was on my beat, to the famed Mr. Kelly’s, which was two blocks from my apartment. Bill Evans was always a treat to hear.
When Bill's liver gave out from his drug related habits, death took him in 1980us in 1980. It reminded me what my beloved father told me when the great classical guitarist Andres Segovia died: "People so talented should never die!”
That's how I felt when Bill Evans died. What a waste of such a talent! He had been nominated for 34 Grammy awards and won seven. He was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1994. He is also a member of Downbeat’s Jazz Hall of Fame.
Bill Evans' last recording on Fantasy records was “You Must Believe In Spring.” It came out after his death. I highly recommend it for any jazz collection. Because of his recordings that survive, his artistry will never die.
©2010 by Andy Murcia. The Murcia caricature is ©2003 by Jim Hummel. This column first posted May 10, 2010.
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