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Bill Evans Trio

The piano trio Bill Evans led from 1959, built on three equal voices, whose June 1961 night at the Village Vanguard became two of the best-known live albums in jazz.

Origin
New York City, United States
Years active
1959-1980
Genres
jazz, piano trio
Labels
Riverside, Verve, Fantasy, Warner Bros.

Three equal voices

Bill Evans joined Miles Davis's sextet in April 1958 and played on Kind of Blue, recorded on 2 March 1959. He left the band in late 1959 and formed a trio of his own with the bassist Scott LaFaro and the drummer Paul Motian. Evans had first met LaFaro in 1957, when he auditioned him for a group led by Chet Baker, and Motian had already played on Evans's 1956 debut, New Jazz Conceptions. In mid-1959 LaFaro came to hear Evans at Basin Street East, said he wanted to form a trio, and suggested Motian for the drums.

The three were committed to the idea of equal voices, working toward one musical idea, often with no one explicitly keeping time. They recorded for Riverside Records with Orrin Keepnews producing, and they turned mostly to standards, adding a few Evans originals.

The studio albums

Portrait in Jazz was recorded on 28 December 1959 at Reeves Sound Studios in New York and released in 1960. It closed with a trio version of Blue in Green and included Evans's Peri's Scope. Evans said of LaFaro that he was astounded by his creativity. Keith Shadwick called the record the blueprint for every working trio Evans would run afterward. In 1960 the group toured Boston, San Francisco and Chicago, then began a residency at Birdland.

Explorations, recorded in February 1961 at Bell Sound Studios, opened with Israel and carried the trio's first version of Nardis. It held no Evans originals. Evans was at first unwilling to release it, believing the trio had played badly, and changed his mind on hearing it. It won the Billboard jazz critics poll for best piano LP of 1961.

The Village Vanguard

In June 1961 the trio began two weeks at the Village Vanguard in New York. On 25 June Riverside recorded five sets, two in the afternoon and three in the evening, each of four or five numbers and about half an hour long. Riverside had wanted only one album from the day. It was the last performance by the trio with LaFaro, who died on 6 July 1961.

Sunday at the Village Vanguard appeared in September 1961, subtitled Featuring Scott LaFaro. Evans and Keepnews chose takes to show off the bassist, opening and closing with his own pieces, Gloria's Step and Jade Visions. Waltz for Debby followed in 1962 and carried the title song, Waltz for Debby. Evans later said he was thankful they had recorded that day, because it was the last time he saw LaFaro and the last time they would play together. The rest of the day appeared as More From the Vanguard in 1984 and in a three-CD set in 2005. C. Michael Bailey of All About Jazz placed the two albums at the top of his list of the best live jazz recordings of 1953 to 1965, and the Penguin Guide to Jazz gave each a crown in all nine editions from 1992.

After LaFaro

Evans stopped performing for several months. In October 1961 he returned on the singer Mark Murphy's album Rah, and in 1962 he re-formed his trio with the bassist Chuck Israels. Motian stayed until 1964. Evans won his first Grammy in 1963 for the solo overdub album Conversations with Myself. From 1966 his bassist for eleven years was Eddie Gomez, and the last trio, with Marc Johnson and Joe LaBarbera, played until Evans died on 15 September 1980.

The first trio has kept its standing. Craft Recordings, which put out a career retrospective in 2021, names Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Eliane Elias and Robert Glasper among those who cite Evans as an influence. Bass Player magazine ranked LaFaro number 16 on its list of the greatest bass players, and Geneva, New York, made 3 April Scott LaFaro Day in 2014. Motian went on to Keith Jarrett's band and to a long-running trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano.

Members

Records

Songs

Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, Tony Bennett, Paul Motian, Scott LaFaro

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Discography and data

Writing and criticism

Interviews

Sources

  1. Bill Evans, Wikipedia
  2. Bill Evans discography, Jazz Discography Project
  3. Scott LaFaro, Wikipedia
  4. Paul Motian, Wikipedia
  5. Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective, Craft Recordings (2021-04-12)
  6. Miles and Bill in Black and White, JazzTimes
  7. Bill Evans at Southeastern Louisiana University, Southeastern Louisiana University