Jump to content

A possibly heretical statement re Bill Evans' first trio


fasstrack

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 167
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Well, at least he had good teeth, or so it appears. Best junkie teeth I've ever seen, that's for sure! :tup

That's a laugh. By the late 60s he had lost almost every tooth in his mouth. Some British dentist couldn't believe how bad his mouth looked, and gave him a whole new set of teeth for free. On "The Bill Evans Album" there's a picture of his new set of teeth somewhere on the back cover.

A friend of mine said there was a video of how he looked before he got his new teeth, and it's pretty ghastly.

It might be on "The Universal Mind of Bill Evans", featuring the world's two most dysfunctional brothers together, for the first and only time.

You can see the weird dynamic going on between the two brothers; how Harry is kind of putting words in his zonked out brother's mouth, and BE seems to be having a little problem with his mobility...

When Helen Keane took over his career, she literally took care of everything for him. All he had to do was play.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think I knew just how messed-up Bill Evans was. He would make a good subject for a film biopic--drugs, racial issues, suicide, early death, connection to greats like Miles Davis. I keep hearing there is supposed to be a film in the works on Chet Baker. But why not Bill Evans?

I give the man credit for not having extended time off the scene (like Art Pepper, Chet Baker, Joe Pass, Frank Morgan, and several others) and that the quality of his work rarely suffered.

Edited by Milestones
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To get back to my OP: Well, I've come full circle. Listened to Portrait in Jazz yesterday and really enjoyed it. It's more of a traditional piano trio than the VV stuff, but there is interplay between Bill and Scott. The main thing is Bill is playing aggressively and reaching out. He seems to be developing the ideas explored on Everybody Digs Bill Evans, with horn-like lines and double-timing.

I'd put this recording high in the Evans canon, despite my earlier comments about the trio. Go figure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's what makes music listening, jazz in particular, such an adventure to me. At any given time views can change completely from what they had been about an album, a musician or a musical style or period. That's why it's a fun challenge for me to trust my own listening (difficult at times) and my own tastes without being swayed by overly negative opinions or sentiment that is expressed at any one time. Not to be misunderstood, I highly value guidance and recommendations from others who have a different frame of reference or have much more experience whether playing, listening and/or producing. But whether I "get something" now, later or never doesn't really matter. It's the effort that's the most rewarding.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Johnny Depp as Harry Evans, Jeff Goldblum as Bill Evans, just to a straight re-creation of The Universal Mind.

With bonus commentary by Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish as Helen Keane, and with special introduction introduction by Morgan Freeman as "Roston" (voice only).

Directed by Rob Reiner and/or Ron Howard.

How does that not work?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...