Digging Up Gold From The Dustbin of Time
There was always something special about internationally-revered piano man Bill Evans. He was especially popular in Scandinavia, Paris, London and South America. Was it the fact that his voicings included snippets from the great classical composers? Or was it that this Jersey Boy, born in 1929 Plainfield, added so much when he was in the band of Miles Davis to record the best-selling jazz album of all time, Kind Of Blue?
Leave it to Zev “The Jazz Detective” Feldman to dig up the rarest of the rare: Bill Evans In Norway, a two-disc set, due tomorrow, on his Elemental Music label. Taken from the pianist’s 1970 set at the Konigsberg Jazz Festival, with his longstanding trio (drummer Marty Morell and bassist Eddie Gomez), the opening track itself, 1946’s “Come Rain Or Come Shine,” is alone worth the price of admission. Evans had kicked heroin by then. He was, at 41, at the top of his game, with but a decade left to live. He covers Miles and Leonard Bernstein. He peppers his playing, even on an overly done chestnut like “Autumn Leaves,” with surprising flourishes, syncopation, intelligence and even humor. And his originals bespeak a quiet elegance that has the crowd in a stony silence.
Brazilian Star Pianist Eliane Elias says it best: “Bill Evans created his own musical universe in harmony, melody and rhythm and has influenced generations of musicians with his sound and conception of interplay. I consider him to be one of my important influences.”
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