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A New Documentary Explores The Troubled, Brilliant Life Of Pianist Bill Evans

Jazz pianist Bill Evans (seen here as he appears on the cover of the 2016 legacy release Some Other Time) is the subject of a new documentary called Bill Evans: Time Remembered. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Courtesy of the artist

Jazz

A New Documentary Explores The Troubled, Brilliant Life Of Pianist Bill Evans

Filmmaker Bruce Spiegel speaks with Weekend Edition about the eight-year process behind Bill Evans: Time Remembered.

A New Documentary Explores The Troubled, Brilliant Life Of Pianist Bill Evans

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Songs We Love: Bill Evans Trio, 'You're Gonna Hear From Me [Alternate Take]'

The Bill Evans Trio (Eddie Gomez, Jack DeJohnette and Bill Evans) in 1968. Giuseppe Pino/Courtesy of Resonance Records hide caption

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Giuseppe Pino/Courtesy of Resonance Records

Songs We Love

Songs We Love: Bill Evans Trio, 'You're Gonna Hear From Me [Alternate Take]'

In a newly unearthed studio recording, a short-lived version of Bill Evans' trio, with Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette, shows just how fervent their musical conversations could be.

21You're Gonna Hear From Me [Alternate Take] [Alternate Take]

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  • Buy Featured Music

    Song
    You're Gonna Hear From Me [Alternate Take] [Alternate Take]
    Album
    Some Other Time: The Lost Session From the Black Forest
    Artist
    Bill Evans
    Label
    Resonance
    Released
    2016

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Jim Hall: Guitar As Miniature Orchestra

Jim Hall performs at the 2013 Newport Jazz Festival. Adam Kissick for NPR hide caption

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Adam Kissick for NPR

Take Five: A Jazz Sampler

Jim Hall: Guitar As Miniature Orchestra

Hall is in a league of players who've turned the tables for jazz and their respective instruments. As far as modernizing the sound and vocabulary of jazz guitar to the degree he did, longtime admirer and fellow guitarist Rez Abbasi says Hall is unmatched. Abbasi picks five songs, each of which reveals Hall's idiosyncratic technique.

Review

Music Reviews

Everybody Digs 'Em: Two Jazz Greats from '58

Fresh Air

Fresh Air's jazz critic reviews two new CD reissues showcasing great jazz pianists: We Three, featuring the Tennessee-born pianist Phineas Newborn, and Everybody Digs Bill Evans. Both were recorded in the fall of 1958.

Everybody Digs 'Em: Two Jazz Greats from '58

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Valentine's Day

Just in Time for Valentine's Day: 'Jazz for Lovers'

Fantasy Records releases a new collection of classic recordings from the 1950s and 1960s, called Jazz for Lovers. Musician and critic David Was reviews the collection, and finds some nice surprises.

Just in Time for Valentine's Day: 'Jazz for Lovers'

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Music Lists

Jazz 2005: Kevin Whitehead's Top 10

Fresh Air

For lovers of jazz music, the year 2005 brought a wealth of reissues by critical artists from Jelly Roll Morton to John Coltrane. The music, the result of exhaustive archival and restoration work, adds new details to one of America's richest musical traditions.

Jazz 2005: Kevin Whitehead's Top 10

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Basic Jazz Record Library

Tony Bennett: 'The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album'

Tony Bennett got his break when Bob Hope saw him performing with Pearl Bailey and put him in his stage show. This native of Queens had mega-hits in the 1950s and '60s as a crooner. Teamed with famed jazz pianist Bill Evans in this album, Bennett shows off his inventive, interpretive voice.

Tony Bennett: 'The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album'

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Review

Basic Jazz Record Library

Miles Davis: 'Kind of Blue'

Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is frequently cited as being the best-selling jazz album in history. Released in 1959, this classic from the master trumpeter has sold more than five million copies and is still going.

Miles Davis: 'Kind of Blue'

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Review

Basic Jazz Record Library

Jim Hall and Bill Evans: 'Undercurrent'

Guitarist Jim Hall's career spanned five decades. A founding member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet (1955-1956), Hall later toured with Ella Fitzgerald and performed duos with Lee Konitz. In 1963, Hall joined with Bill Evans to record a classic piano/guitar duo session, Undercurrent.

Jim Hall and Bill Evans: 'Undercurrent'

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The Bottom Line: Bass On Top

Thanks to fellow bassist Milt Hinton's prodding, Oscar Pettiford moved to New York and became one of bebop's most innovative musicians. Courtesy of Bethlehem Archives hide caption

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Courtesy of Bethlehem Archives

Take Five: A Jazz Sampler

The Bottom Line: Bass On Top

WBGO

Notes from an unamplified double bass rank among the most beautiful man-made sounds; in jazz, the creator of those notes is always in the middle of the action, charting the harmonic direction of a band and plotting the rhythmic narrative as both an accompanist and a soloist. It's no small task, but here are five musicians who performed the duty with aplomb.

Bill Evans: 'Piano Impressionism'

Bill Evans continued to perform and record up until his death in 1980. Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images hide caption

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Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

NPR's 'Jazz Profiles'

Bill Evans: 'Piano Impressionism'

Evans' introspective lyricism and subtle, Western classical flourishes have echoes in a legion of fellow keyboard players. As a leader and composer, he introduced an influential, highly interactive approach to trio and small-group performances.

Bill Evans: 'Piano Impressionism'

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