Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans

Great talent; mismatched ensemble

My tastes in jazz run to the more relaxing or sometimes mid-tempo pieces. I can't listen to anything too dissonant or jumpy. Most of Bill Evans' work fits perfectly into my preferences, and I have five Evans disks and will probably buy more. He's one of the great piano talents.

This disk, however, seems out of sync with his other offerings. I think it is because he is not with the classic trio line-up of Paul Motian on drums and Scott LaFaro on bass. Motian especially seems to understand Evans' sophisticated romanticism, and meshes well with him on my favorites: "Sunday at the Village Vanguard" and "Moon Beams." The drummer on this disk is Philly Joe Jones, who is indisputably a great drummer, but is too aggressive in this line-up and seems to compete, not connect, with Evans.

On "Minority," the piano breaks several times for brief trap drum solos; the result is a disjointed, jolting listening experience. I generally love jazz interpretations of Cole Porter songs, but the odd drum intro and Latin treatment Jones gives "Night and Day" ruins it for me.

A great assembly of talent, but they just don't seem to read each other well, and I believe there are far better works out there by both Evans and Jones. June 6, 2008

Very cool for someone new to jazz music

I don't play any musical instruments. I grew up listening to 80s new wave, and Jazz for me was a basketball team. So I can't comment on "harmonic textures" or "melodic contouring" or even tell you what that means, but I can say that I really like this album. I heard about this reissue on the radio and realized that I liked the sound of a "trio" - just a piano, a bass, and some drums. No blaring and overwhelming brass instruments, just the easy-going yet up-beat sound that reminds me of the music that always seemed to be playing in the background in the cool restaurants in old 50s and 60s movies.

To me, the very first song here, "Minority," exemplifies this perfectly. It's up-beat and bouncy, yet relaxing at the same time. Several songs are just Bill Evans solo on the piano, like "Young and Foolish," and while they're more subdued and even a bit melancholy, this is great stuff. I'm still trying to find more of this kind of jazz music, and I seem to be partial to the older stuff, but this is great to put on while I'm just hanging around the house. So for those like me who are new to jazz but like that piano/bass/drums stuff, this is a great place to start. May 5, 2008

An important album

Everybody Digs comes right after Bill Evans's brief stint with the Miles Davis Sextet. Exhausted from the band's busy touring schedule, stung by the criticism that he received from many who thought Davis should have hired a harder-swinging (which in this case meant African-American) pianist, and still sort of amazed that Davis insisted he remain in the group: according to Evans biographer Peter Pettinger, in the must-read How My Heart Sings, this is the emotional backdrop for the pianist's second major trio album. Moreover, "for most of November [1958], burned out after leaving Miles...Evans relaxed on his father's driving range in Florida. He reportedly took great satisfaction in shooting 41 for nine holes of golf. He also visited his brother Harry in Louisiana. "One of the reasons I left Miles was because my father was ill," [Evans] said. "I spent some time visiting my folks, and went through a rather reflective period. While I was staying with my brother in Baton Rouge...I remember finding that somehow I had reached a new inner level of expressiveness of my playing. It had come almost automatically, and I was very anxious about it - afraid I might lose it - I thought maybe I'd wake up tomorrow and it wouldn't be there" (Pettinger 66).

Perhaps all of this explains the blistering "Oleo," Night and Day," and "Minority," which at times consciously seem to assert, "I can swing my f*ck%n' a*s off with the best of them - just take a listen." I think it also explains the very moving rendition of "Lucky to Be Me," whose title Evans finds at once painfully ironic and blessedly true.

So what is there to say? Too much about all the astonishing things he does with these tunes. Evans sounds like the heir apparent to Bud Powell, only harmonically more "modern" and more fluid technically. Tons of credit also goes to Bill's favorite drummer (and fellow junkie in the Davis sextet) Philly Joe Jones, who swings his f*ck%n' a*s off, himself. Although Jones is sympathetic to everything the pianist does, even on the rather piano-centric ballads, he is absolutely explosive in the uptempo numbers. What a killer groove this guy could lay down! Meanwhile, Sam Jones keeps everyone grounded and shines in his unfortunately rare solo interludes.

There is an awful lot of talk about (and rightly so, for the most part) about the LaFaro-Motian-Evans trio - especially the way they expanded and tinkered with the time feel. But the germs of it (I'd say better than the germs of it) are all here. Take "Tenderly," a short waltz, but an absolute tour de force. Philly Joe gets this relaxed thing going; Evans goes all over the place, displacing the beat with sly interjections and letting loose with dizzyingly virtuosic scale passages; Sam Jones is strong, right there with them. Every time I hear it I almost have to restrain myself from laughing out loud it's so good. Why was this kind of exuberance so rare with LaFaro and Motian? In the end, I'm left feeling robbed of some great music knowing that Philly Joe, Sam Jones, and Evans didn't form a working group first.

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Some of the '61 Vanguard fanatics might also carp that the pianist hadn't yet perfected the elaborate system of inner voicings that became one of his trademarks. But as one who was first exposed to his later albums, I find the starker (and still extremely logical) harmonic and emotional content here both refreshing and invigorating. In an essay on Jean Sibelius, James Hepokoski says about the composer's Third Symphony, "A watershed in his career, the Third Symphony sets out...to restore the possibility of experiencing...the major triad...as a progressively deepening, revelatory event." Although Bill Evans certainly adds some 9ths, 13ths, and other extensions to his triads, he brings the same meaning to the most fundamental western harmony on this watershed album in his career and his art. After all, what is "Peace Piece" but a study of the I-V-I harmonic relationship foundational to all western music? The startlingly inventive improvisation (which dabbles in bitonality as much as the blues)'s startlingly simple two chord figure (CMaj7 - Dmin7/G), derived from an introduction to "Some Other Time," becomes the album's central meditation, showing up in the closing vamp of "Young and Foolish" and the final measures of "Lucky to Be Me," as well.

And there are no extraneous notes expended exploring this fundamental relationship or any other progression. Indeed, the open fifths left ringing at the end of "Peace Piece," or accompanying the devastating final chords of "Lucky to Be Me," are almost spiritual in their nakedness. Really more than ever, the pianist makes each added voice, each sustained pedal count. Pettinger writes, "With the two remaining ballads, Evans creates an illusion that overcomes the simple fact that tone dies on his instrument. Working this magic requires a certain mental attitude; it is necessary to "think through" a phrase to connect dying notes. On "What is There to Say?" and "Young and Foolish" he is the master at this, sustaining the lines with intensely yearning tone and melting harmony....But it is his ravishing use of tone that makes "Young and Foolish" his first truly lyrical trio track and one of those that goes deepest; played with muscular strength in the singing, it touches the heart" (Pettinger 69).

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Ultimately, Bill's quotation about finding "a new inner level of expressiveness" and fearing that he would lose it says it best. Everybody Digs is the result of an artist who is burning to say something and now - finally - knows how to say it. Compare it to the first flush of a great romance or the steady flow of a stream where there once was only a trickling brook. Either way, Bill Evans reinvented jazz piano on this album, with the big heart, probing mind, and hitherto unimaginable sensitivity of touch that made him the giant he is. February 1, 2008

A must for....

One look at the cover of this album just about somes it up best. Everybody Digs Bill Evans and you will to. You'll be in good company; Miles Davis, George Shearing and Cannonball Adderley to name a few. Need I say more? This CD is a must for any jazz enthusiast. December 24, 2007

Great starter

For someone new to Bill Evans, this 1958 studio session may be a better bet than the celebrated Village Vanguard sessions. Instead of near-equal interaction by all three trio members, Philly Joe Jones and Sam Jones provide a non-intrusive backdrop for the featured performer, who reveals his unique, inimitable voice throughout. Evans plays here like a complete and mature artist with nothing to prove, fearless about programming ballads back to back and taking minimalism to its poignant extreme by leaving spaces for the listener to supply the evoked thought or feeling. He's equally in control on the up-tempo tunes, avoiding straightahead "blowing" in favor of harmonic textures and melodic contouring that's consistent with his work on the ballads. The varied program holds the listener's interest while still having the hallmarks of a unified tonal tapestry. It's doubtful there's a more introspective, meditative trio set on record, yet the pianist shows he can dance as well. August 29, 2007

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