"Bill Evans revolutionized the jazz piano trio, a genre that dates back to the twenties. After Evans, the jazz piano trio is a texture woven from three more or less equal voices. Bill Evans invented new forms of integration for the piano trio by erasing the previously automatic assignment of solo and accompaniment roles. To simplify somewhat, before the Evans Trio was formed in 1959, jazz piano trios played "two-dimensionally." On the one hand, the piano dominated and led; on the other hand, the rhythm section of bass and drums had the task of establishing the appropriate foundation. The Bill Evans Trio, however, was the first jazz piano group to play "three-dimensionally." Now each instrument in the trio could assume a leading role, which meant that bassist Scott LaFaro was by no means restricted to playing walking lines (with four quarter notes to the bar). He also phrased lines that were melodically and rhythmically independent of his supporting function. Paul Motian similarly developed a freer way of playing that extended time-keeping (marking the beat) and opened up additional melodic possibilities for the drums. By creating a new division of labor between the piano, bass, and drums, Bill Evans introduced to the piano trio an element that has since become the standard of successful music-making in this configuration: the freshness of equal dialogue."
- Gunther Huesmann, writing in The Jazz Book, 7th Ed.
