Bill Evans
Bill Evans in Norway,
(Elemental Music)
The annals of Jazz history are replete with tales of staggering talents sacrificed at the twin alters of drug abuse and alcoholism. One of the most heart breaking is that of Bill Evans whose cool, east coast piano phrasings found him working with stellar names like John Coltrane, Chet baker, Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davies' - for whom he was featured pianist on "Kind of Blue" - the best selling, and undoubtedly one of the best, jazz albums ever recorded, before striking out on his own. His subsequent solo career, leading a succession of piano, bass, drums trios, lasted a mere 21 years before the excesses took their toll. He died in 1980 at the age of just 51, although his later years had seen a steady slide downwards with money problems compounded by difficulties keeping together even just a trio of musicians capable of matching his level of skill.
'Bill Evans In Norway' - released as a double LP on 180 gram vinyl for Record Store Day, and as a double cd a week later, captures the trio of Evans, with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morell - his longest lived trio -live at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival in on June 26, 1970. The recording, unearthed just last year in the festival archives, finds the trio bright and tight, and full of energy. Evans himself had recently entered a supervised methadone programme in an effort to quit his longtime heroin addiction, and was in sparkling good form, responding to an audience, who despite their small town location, were clearly no strangers to cutting edge jazz. It was, and still is, a small town (population currently just 25,000 ) with Evans commenting after the gig: “This is an excellent audience, and it's weird to think that a little place like Kongsberg can hire musicians from all over the world just because they like jazz here. …It's a beautiful place, and I've been able to relax.” The result his being able to chill is a live set that fizzes and pops with rippling solos and neat improvisations but never strays too far from the familiar. One that balances familiar numbers like the Miles Davies penned 'Nardis', and Evans' own '34 Skidoo', and 'Turn Out the Stars", with less obvious choices like ‘What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?' - a showtune penned by French composer Michel Legrand and plucked from the film "The Happy Ending" which had hit cinema screens less than a year earlier, and the Anthony Newley penned "Who Can I Turn to".
In short, a clear, unblurred snapshot of one of the greatest jazz pianists in a late career highpoint.
Essential Info
Black and White image on this page by Jak Kilby/Arena PAL
