94 Facts About Bill Evans

William John Evans was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio.

In late 1959, Bill Evans left the Miles Davis band and began his career as a leader, with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, a group now regarded as a seminal modern jazz trio.

In 1963, Bill Evans recorded Conversations with Myself, a solo album produced with overdubbing technology.

Bill Evans received 31 Grammy nominations and seven awards, and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame.

Bill Evans grew up in North Plainfield, New Jersey, the son of Harry and Mary Bill Evans.

Bill Evans's father was of Welsh descent and ran a golf course; his mother was of Ukrainian ancestry and descended from a family of coal miners.

Bill Evans had a brother, Harry, two years his senior, with whom he was very close.

Bill Evans was thought to be too young for lessons, but he began to play what he had heard during his brother's, and soon both were taking piano lessons.

Bill Evans remembered Leland with affection for not insisting on a heavy technical approach, with scales and arpeggios.

Bill Evans quickly developed a fluent sight-reading ability, but Leland considered Harry a better pianist.

At the age of seven, Bill Evans began violin lessons, and soon flute and piccolo.

Bill Evans soon dropped those instruments, but it is believed they later influenced his keyboard style.

Bill Evans later named Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert as composers whose work he often played.

At the age of 13, Bill Evans stood in for a sick pianist in Buddy Valentino's rehearsal band, where Harry was already playing the trumpet.

Bill Evans listened to Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Bud Powell, George Shearing, Stan Getz, and Nat King Cole among others.

Bill Evans studied classical piano interpretation with Louis P Kohnop, John Venettozzi, and Ronald Stetzel.

Around his third year in college, Bill Evans composed his first known tune, "Very Early".

Bill Evans was a founding member of SLU's Delta Omega chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, played quarterback for the fraternity's football team, and played in the college band.

Bill Evans regarded his last three years in college as the happiest of his life.

In July 1950, Bill Evans joined Herbie Fields's band, based in Chicago.

Shortly thereafter, Bill Evans received his draft notice and entered the US Army.

Bill Evans hosted a jazz program on the camp radio station and occasionally performed in Chicago clubs, where he met singer Lucy Reed, with whom he became friends and later recorded.

Bill Evans met singer and bassist Bill Scott and Chicago jazz pianist Sam Distefano, both of whom became Evans's close friends.

Bill Evans's stay in the Army was traumatic and he had nightmares for years.

Around 1953, Bill Evans composed his best-known tune, "Waltz for Debby", for his young niece.

Bill Evans was discharged from the Army in January 1954, and entered a period of seclusion triggered by the harsh criticism he had received.

Bill Evans took a sabbatical year and lived with his parents, where he set up a studio, acquired a grand piano and worked on his technique, believing he lacked the natural fluency of other musicians.

Bill Evans visited his brother, now in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, recently married and working as a conservatory teacher.

In July 1955, Bill Evans returned to New York City and enrolled in the Mannes College of Music for a three-semester postgraduate course in music composition.

Bill Evans wrote classical settings of poems by William Blake.

Bill Evans soon began to perform in Greenwich Village clubs with Don Elliott, Tony Scott, Mundell Lowe, and bandleader Jerry Wald.

Bill Evans met composer George Russell during his tenure with Lucy Reed.

Russell's first impression of Bill Evans was negative, but when he secretly heard Bill Evans play, he completely changed his mind.

Bill Evans, who was already acquainted with these ideas, began to work with Russell in 1956.

That year, Bill Evans met bassist Scott LaFaro while auditioning him for a place in an ensemble led by trumpeter Chet Baker, and was impressed.

Bill Evans performed on albums by Charles Mingus, Oliver Nelson, Tony Scott, Eddie Costa and Art Farmer.

Red Garland had recently been fired and Bill Evans knew it was an audition for the group's pianist.

Bill Evans formally joined the Miles Davis group in April 1958.

On May 26, Bill Evans made his first studio recordings with Davis, which were first issued as part of Jazz Track, and later reissued on 1958 Miles.

Bill Evans realized that Evans, who had worked with Russell, could follow him into modal music.

In July 1958, Bill Evans appeared as a sideman on Adderley's album Portrait of Cannonball, featuring the first performance of "Nardis", specially written by Davis for the session.

In September 1958, Bill Evans recorded as a sideman in Art Farmer's album Modern Art, featuring Benny Golson.

Later, Bill Evans deemed this record as one of his favorites.

Bill Evans had been too busy traveling with Davis to make a record.

Bill Evans started to play an introduction using an ostinato figure.

When Bill Evans suggested he might deserve a share of the royalties, Davis offered him a check for $25.

Bill Evans penned the liner notes for Kind of Blue, comparing jazz improvisation to Japanese visual art.

Sometime during the late 1950s, most probably before joining Miles Davis, Bill Evans began using heroin.

In mid-1959, Bill Evans was performing at Basin Street East, and was visited by bassist Scott LaFaro, who was playing with singer and pianist Bobby Scott at a club around the corner.

In parallel with his trio work, Bill Evans kept working as a backing musician for other bandleaders.

Around this time, Bill Evans hired Monte Kay as his manager.

In May and August 1960, Bill Evans appeared on George Russell's album Jazz in the Space Age.

Additionally, Bill Evans was suffereing at the session from headaches, and LaFaro was playing with a loaned bass.

Bill Evans did not record or perform in public again for several months.

In October 1961, persuaded by his producer Orrin Keepnews, Bill Evans returned to the musical scene on the Mark Murphy album Rah.

Bill Evans habitually had to borrow money from friends, and eventually, his electricity and telephone services were shut down.

Bill Evans never allowed heroin to interfere with his musical discipline, according to a 2010 BBC record review article which contrasts Bill Evans's addiction with that of Chet Baker.

On one occasion while injecting heroin, Bill Evans hit a nerve and temporarily disabled it, performing a full week's engagement at the Village Vanguard virtually one-handed.

At that time, Ellaine meant everything to Bill Evans, and was the only person with whom he felt genuine comfort.

In 1966, Bill Evans met Puerto-Rico born, Juilliard-graduated bassist Eddie Gomez.

Bill Evans had overcome his heroin habit and was entering a period of personal stability.

Between 1969 and 1970, Bill Evans recorded From Left to Right, featuring his first use of electric piano.

In 1973, while working in Redondo Beach, California, Bill Evans met and fell in love with Nenette Zazzara, despite his long-term relationship with Ellaine.

When Bill Evans broke the news to Ellaine, she pretended to understand, but then committed suicide by throwing herself under a subway train.

Nenette and Bill remained married until Evans's death in 1980.

In 1974, Bill Evans recorded a multimovement jazz concerto written for him by Claus Ogerman entitled Symbiosis.

Bennett and Bill Evans recorded the first album in four studio sessions in June 1975, and the second album in four studio sessions in September 1976.

Between the two recordings, the Bennett and Bill Evans performed live as a duo, featuring songs from their recordings including But Beautiful, Days of Wine and Roses, Dream Dancing.

Bill Evans then asked Philly Joe Jones, the drummer he considered his "all-time favorite drummer", to fill in.

Bill Evans finally settled on Marc Johnson on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums.

At the beginning of a several-week tour of the trio through the Pacific Northwest in the spring of 1979, Bill Evans learned that his brother, Harry, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, had committed suicide at age 52.

Bill Evans started with one gram per weekend, but later started taking several grams daily.

Laurie Verchomin has claimed that Bill Evans was clear in mind that he would die in a short time.

On September 15,1980, Bill Evans, who had been in bed for several days with stomach pains at his home in Fort Lee, was accompanied by Joe LaBarbera and Verchomin to the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, where he died that afternoon.

Bill Evans was interred in Baton Rouge, next to his brother Harry.

Bill Evans is credited with influencing the harmonic language of jazz piano.

Bill Evans's harmony was itself influenced by impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

Bill Evans's improvisations relied heavily on motivic development, either melodically or rhythmically.

At the beginning of his career, Bill Evans used block chords heavily.

At least during his late years, Evans's favorite keys to play in were A and E Evans greatly valued Bach's music, which influenced his playing style and which helped him gain good touch and finger independence.

Bill Evans's career began just before the rock explosion in the 1960s.

However, Bill Evans believed he had been lucky to gain some exposure before this profound change in the music world, and never had problems gaining bookings and recording opportunities.

Bill Evans never embraced new music movements; he kept his style intact.

Bill Evans was an avid reader, in particular philosophy and humorous books.

Bill Evans's shelves held works by Plato, Voltaire, Whitehead, Santayana, Freud, Margaret Mead, Sartre and Thomas Merton; and he had a special fondness for Thomas Hardy's work.

Bill Evans was fascinated with Eastern religions and philosophies including Islam, Zen, and Buddhism.

Bill Evans was a keen golfer, a hobby that began on his father's golf course.

Bill Evans had a fondness for horse racing and frequently gambled hundreds of dollars, often winning.

Bill Evans later acknowledged that some felt his presence threatened the black pride aspect of the famed Davis band's success.

Pettinger believed in a recording, for his solo on a tune named "Walkin'", Bill Evans received noticeably less applause than the other soloists, and for that on "All Of You", none at all.

Davis noted in his autobiography that Bill Evans was sensitive to the criticism and let it get to him.

Bill Evans was named Outstanding Alumnus of the year in 1969 at Southeastern Louisiana University.

Bill Evans influenced the character Seb's wardrobe in the film La La Land.

Bill Evans's repertoire consisted of both jazz standards and original compositions.