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Bill Evans emerged onto the scene as a band-leader in the late 50s with the
launch of his debut album aptly named The New Jazz Conceptions (1956). As
the title suggests he introduced a new approach to playing jazz; building upon
the bebop tradition as well as borrowing elements from western classical music.
His music has since gone on to inspire a generation of musicians, most notably
Andy Laverne (who briefly studied with Evans) as well as Michel Patrucciani and
Alan Broadbent. He has been integral in my development as a jazz pianist and is
a direct influence in my playing. In this essay Ill highlight the key contributions
Evans made to the music and how they have influenced my own playing.
Fig.
2
Evans harmonic language was incredibly advanced for the time; he spent a
lot of time studying the music of French impressionist composers such as
Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy. Arguably his most significant contribution
regarding harmony is his development of rootless chord voicings. Whilst they
originated in the playing of pianists Red Garland and Ahmad Jamal in the early
1950s, Evans was one of the first to structure and
Fig.
completely integrate them into his playing. He established
two formulae for constructing them; the first formula
builds upon the 3rd of the chord and the second upon the
7th (both formulae are shown for a Cmin9 chord in fig. 1i).
Because the root is omitted, the left hand is freer to play more upper extensions
of a chord. Below are the first four bars of Evans take on the popular standard
How deep is the ocean (fig. 2ii); it is an excellent example of how Evans applied
rootless voicings in a trio context. Evans superb use of voice leading is seen in
bars 2 and 3. Here he limits the movement between voicings to just a tone or
semi-tone. Not only does this enable him to play through the changes with
minimal effort it also makes the harmony more transparent. Here also he has
changed the quality of the II chord from half-diminished to dominant seventh
sharp nine, making the minor II-V-I sound more contemporary. In bar 4 this is
conveyed as he plays just the 3rds and 7ths of the chords rather than a complex
voicing. Evans was noted for this subtlety, and even when comping behind a
soloist using two-handed voicings hed often only use a maximum of 5 voices. iii
When I
discovered this it totally changed my approach, which up until a few of years ago
was centred more on Bud Powell style rooted voicings.
In the same year as Bill released his own pivotal recording, Everybody Digs
Bill Evans, 1959 also saw Miles Davis venture into the realms of modal jazz with
the launch of his record Kind of Blue which along with Wynton Kelly featured
Evans as a pianist. Whilst Kelly plays a swinging bop oriented solo on Freddie
Fig.
Within this solo too Evans sophisticated phrasing is seen. Fig. 4 xvi shows the
opening 8 bars of the solo. Note how the phrasing here is sparse with the longest
line being only 3 bars. This style of phrasing is most seen in my own playing.
Here also Evans use of motivic development is seen; the fragment of the G H/W
diminished scale in bar 2 has been manipulated in two ways, both rhythmically
augmented in bar 3 (shown in blue) and melodically in bar 5 (shown in orange).
This kind of subtle motivic development is synonymous with Evans and it gives
his solos a cohesive direction. This is something Im personally working towards
as I feel my chorus are more like a collage of unconnected ideas.
Fig.
4
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Bibliography
ii
Bill Evans, How Deep the Ocean, Explorations, 1961, Riverside RLP-351 Excerpt transcribed
by myself
iii
iv
http://www.lydianchromaticconcept.com/lccoto_2.html
vi
Dr. Gordon Vernick, Jazz Insights Ep.2 Bill Evans The Early Years, 2009
vii
Dr. Gordon Vernick, Jazz Insights Ep.2 Bill Evans The Early Years, 2009
viii
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-2786664/elton-john-ray-charles-jamie-cullumreveals-ten-pianists-influenced-career.html
ix
http://downbeat.com/microsites/ecm-jarrett/post_9-jarrett-acoustic-pianist.html
xi
Bill Evans, Conversations With Myself, 1963, Verve V/V6-8526 Quote from Evans statement
on the sleeve notes.
xii
Gene Lees, The Poet: Bill Evans, Originally published in Downbeat however taken from Robert
Gottliebs Reading Jazz, 1997
xiii
xiv
xv
Bill Evans, Night and Day, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, 1959, Riverside RLP 12-291 Excerpt
transcribed by myself
xvi
Bill Evans, Night and Day, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, 1959, Riverside RLP 12-291 Excerpt
transcribed by myself
Sources
http://www.billevans.nl/History.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Piece
Robert Gottlieb, Reading Jazz, 1997
John Valerio, Post-Bop Jazz Piano, 2005
Len Lyons, The Great Jazz Pianists, 1983
Eunmi Shim, Lennie Tristano: His Life in Music, 2007