Evans, Bill,
1929-80, American jazz pianist and composer, b. Plainfield, N.J., as William
John Evans, Southeastern Louisiana Univ. (B.Mus., 1950). Evans began playing
piano when he was very young, and was working professionally in his teen
years around his hometown; he also played flute. After graduating from
college, he moved to New York and then to Chicago, Il., where he worked in
local bands and small groups. He was drafted into the Army (1951-54),
serving in the Army band at Fort Sheridan. On his discharge, he returned to
New York to pursue postgraduate studies at the Mannes School of Music, and
began playing with Jerry Wald’s band, making his first recordings
with that group. Composer George Russell, who was experimenting with modal
composition, admired his playing and hired Evans for recording and
performing his compositions, leading to Evans being signed to Riverside
Records as a solo artist. Evans joined Miles Davis’s group in April 1958,
composing for and performing on Davis’s most famous recording,
Kind of Blue (1959). Evans became famous for his piano
trio recordings, with bass and drums, from the late ‘50s through the
‘60s. His cool, cerebral playing and harmonically complex
compositions were highly influential; several became favorites, including
“Waltz for Debby,” as well as his reworking of older jazz
standards, including “Some Other Time.” Evans began using
heroin in the ‘60s, and his habit ebbed and flowed over the following
years; eventually he kicked the habit, but then became a heavy user of
cocaine. He continued to record and tour until his death.
See the biographies by P. Pettinger (1999), K. Shadwick (2002); memoirs by L.
Verchomin (2010), J. LaBarbera and C. Levin (2021).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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