© - Steven A. Cerra, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
“… I wasn’t striving to be an
identifiable stylist – I was really only striving to make music and to put it
together in some way of my own.”
Bill Evans, Jazz pianist
The Jazz writer, Stephanie Stein, who included this quotation by Bill
in her insert notes to composer-arranger Don Sebesky’s I Remember Bill: A Tribute to
Bill Evans [RCA Victor 09026 68929-2; recorded in June, July, August,
1997], goes on to write:
“Nonetheless, the
Bill Evans sound has been a persistent force in modern jazz since word about
Evans — quiet and introspective, never a
self-promoter — started humming through the New York
And he developed a
sound on the piano — each note rounded from within, his playing fiery at times,
uniquely understated at others — that was as full of warmth and individuality
as that of Erroll Garner or Arthur Rubinstein. The cumulative effect? An upturning
of every musical idea or chord voicing or standard song into something never
quite heard before. Evans' music flowed from his profound and analytic
intelligence. His playing was often tinged with a deep melancholy, and was always
illuminated with a rare beauty.” [paragraphing modified]
Highly acclaimed
arranger Don Sebesky was at work on the arrangements for his tribute album to
Bill for almost five years during which he developed orchestrations that
transformed Bill’s “subtle deliberations and piano voicings” for a Jazz
orchestra made up of fourteen brass and woodwinds and seventeen strings.
In his introductory
notes to the recording, Don wrote:
“Rarely does a day
go by without my feeling the influence of Bill Evans. Bill didn't just strive
for perfection. He, like all true geniuses, was incapable of putting forth less
than his very best: the best note, the truest chord, the richest voicing,
creating a balance between head and heart which characterizes his music and
makes it so fresh and interesting every time we listen. He set a standard of
excellence to which we all aspire, and by which we all measure ourselves, and
our work. In this album, I pay tribute to him in gratitude for his having
enriched us all with his remarkable gift. …
We were fortunate
to have been able to reach out all over the world to musicians who played and
recorded with Bill over the years. Two of his rhythm sections, Eddie Gomez with
Marty Morell and Marc Johnson with Joe LaBarbera provide the support for the
brass and string ensembles which surround them. Alumni Lee Konitz, Bob
Brookmeyer, Toots Thielemans, and Tom Harrell (who was on Evans' last
recording) all demonstrate their own remarkable musicianship here, as do Larry
Coryell, Joe Lovano, Eddie Daniels, Hubert Laws, Dave Samuels, John Pizzarelli, Jeanie Bryson
and New York Voices. My heartfelt thanks to them all for contributing their
artistry to this project.”
Here is an audio
track from the I Remember Bill: A Tribute to Bill Evans that features Don orchestration of
Bill’s solo piano composition Peace
Piece. Flutist Hubert Laws and vibraphonist Dave Samuels are the soloists.
Bill’s influence
on other musicians knew no bounds as a few years earlier in 1993, guitarist
John McLaughlin, recorded his own tribute to Bill Evans and his music with his
CD – Time
Remembered: John McLaughlin Plays Bill Evans [Verve 314 519 861-2].
If you ever
wondered what Bill’s music would sound like as transcribed for guitar, you need
look no farther than this recording as John transcribed it for himself as the
lead, acoustic guitarist accompanied by a quartet of acoustic guitarists and an
acoustic bass guitar!
John explains how
and why the project came about in these background notes to the CD
[paragraphing modified] after which you will find a video tribute to John
featuring his arrangement of Bill’s We
Will Meet Again as recorded on Time Remembered: John McLaughlin Plays Bill
Evans.
© - John McLaughlin, copyright protected; all
rights reserved.
“I can recall
quite vividly the very first time I heard Bill Evans play. I was about
seventeen years old and had already been subjugated by Miles Davis with his
record "Milestones." His following record was the now
"classic" record, "Kind of Blue." Naturally I bought this
record for Miles, but, was astonished to hear the pianist Bill Evans, who
seemed to me to have a kind of empathic communication with Miles and his way of
playing. Among the many qualities Miles had, poignancy was one of his most
eloquent; Bill understood this exceptionally well, and had the capability of
encouraging this while accompanying Miles. Bill played many different kinds of
harmonies that, though I couldn't understand them at all, were so
"right." I spent many hours listening to that recording and, I can
add, listen regularly to now.
A couple of years
later I heard his first trio record with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. This was
a turning point in my life. The next six months were spent listening almost
exclusively to this record, and trying to analyze it while marveling at the
interaction between the three players. It was on this record that I heard
Bill's compositions for the first time and, although incapable of playing them,
I did my best to try to understand his harmonic and rhythmic conceptions which
were so new to me. It was only much later, on having discovered the music of
Ravel, Debussy, and Satie, that I began to understand the origins o/ Bill's
harmonic viewpoint.
Time passed and I
remained as I remain to this day one of his most ardent fans. By the time I
took up residence in the USA London USA Greenwich
Village that has
hosted the greatest jazz musicians of our epoch. I would go regularly to see
Bill play there and I recall one particular night when Bill's trio came on
stage to play the second set, Bill began an introduction to Nardis and he went into what I can only
call a state of grace. He played some of the most beautiful music I have ever
had the privilege to witness. I was there with saxophonist Dave Liebman, and we were both in a state of
total astonishment.
The idea of
recording Bill's music exclusively with guitars dates back at least eleven or
twelve years. The reason behind the exclusivity of guitars is probably due to
the fact that to me, Bill was a thorough romantic. The acoustic guitar is,
without doubt, one of the most romantic instruments, and I felt that I could do
justice to his music in this way. At the beginning of 1992, I decided that the
time had come and began work on the selection of Bill's compositions and the
conception of how to realize this already long dream of recording his music in
this way. I decided to employ six guitars, five acoustic and one acoustic bass
guitar. This proved to be an arduous task of even greater proportions that I
had imagined.
To help me in this
work I asked for the help of my own student, Van Maresz, himself a composition
graduate of the Julliard school in New York
In a sense this
work was almost "classical," and to solve this problem, I had the
good fortune to meet a classical guitar quartet The Aighetta Quartet in my part
of the world. Prior to my meeting them, they were not familiar with Bill's
music, but subsequently became enamoured with the compositions and devoted
hundreds of hours to mastering the parts and particularly the task of adapting
their style of music.
There remained,
however, the thorny problem of improvisation. For all his classical training,
Bill was a jazz musician and a supreme improviser, and in the majority of his
recorded works, improvisation has equal importance with his compositions.
Naturally I needed
to include this element in my work and whereas in a normal jazz situation, the
group plays the head and then improvise around the changes, this could not
apply to this project. To solve this problem, I took the artistic liberty of
writing new music for the five other musicians upon which I would improvise.
This also proved to be quite demanding.
If you listen
carefully to Bill's records, after the composition and the improvisation
begins, there is always a forward movement, a kind of further development in
the piece. This is what I have done in this recording. What was quite tricky
was to have Bill's music lead into mine in the most natural way possible while
at the same time giving this forward movement and allowing me to improvise,
while keeping the essential characteristics of his piece. And of course, the
reverse was necessary, to leave my music and improvisation and flow naturally
back into Bill's tune for the ending.
Altogether this
record was a real labor of love and one that I am very happy to have made.
Firstly for Bill and his music which has enriched my life, secondly for the
guitar, and the combination of these two elements.
I give my
heartfelt thanks to Francois Szonyi, Pascal Rabatti, Alexandre Del Fa and
Philippe Loli of the Aighetta Quartet, to Van Maresz for his great work in the
preparation of the scores, to Abraham Wechter for my wonderful instrument, Jim
D'Addario for his strings, and most profoundly of all, to Bill Evans.”
John McLaughlin
Posts
