Born and raised in New Jersey, Evans was recruited for Southeastern Louisiana University on a flute scholarship, where he received a thorough background in theory, played in the marching band, and also led his football team to a league championship as a quarterback. Graduating as a piano major in 1950, he started to tour with the Herbie Fields band, but the draft soon beckoned, and Evans was placed in the Fifth Army Band near Chicago. After three years in the service, he arrived in New York in 1954, playing in Tony Scott's quartet and undertaking postgraduate studies at Mannes College, where he encountered composer George Russell and his modal jazz theories. By 1956, he had already recorded his first album as a leader for Riverside, New Jazz Conceptions, still enthralled by the bop style of Bud Powell but also unveiling what was to become his best-known composition, "Waltz for Debby," which he wrote while still in the Army.
In spring 1958, Evans began an eight-month gig with the Miles Davis Sextet, where he exerted a powerful influence upon the willful yet ever-searching leader. Though Evans left the band that autumn, exhausted by pressured expectations and anxious to form his own group, he was deeply involved in the planning and execution of Davis' epochal Kind of Blue album in 1959, contributing ideas about mood, structure, and modal improvisation, and collaborating on several of the compositions. Although the original release gave composition credit of "Blue in Green" to Davis, Evans claimed he wrote it entirely, based on two chords suggested by Davis (nowadays, they receive co-credit).
Evans returned to the scene as a leader in December 1958 with the album Everybody Digs Bill Evans, which included the famous "Peace Piece," a haunting vamp for solo piano that sounds like a long-lost Satie Gymnopédie. Evans' first working trio turned out to be his most celebrated, combining forces with the astounding young bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian in three-way telepathic trialogues. With this group, Evans became a star -- and there was even talk about a recording with Davis involving the entire trio. Sadly, only ten days after a landmark live session at the Village Vanguard in June 1961, LaFaro was killed in an auto accident -- and the shattered Evans went into seclusion for almost a year. He re-emerged the following spring with Chuck Israels as his bassist, and he would go on to record duets with guitarist Jim Hall and a swinging quintet session, Interplay, with Hall and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard.
Upon signing with Verve in 1962, Evans was encouraged by producer Creed Taylor to continue to record in more varied formats: with Gary McFarland's big band, the full-orchestra arrangements of Claus Ogerman, co-star Stan Getz, and a reunion with Hall. The most remarkable of these experiments was Conversations with Myself, a session where Evans overdubbed second and third piano parts onto the first; this eventually led to two sequels in that fashion.
By 1966, Evans had paired with Puerto Rican bassist Eddie Gomez and formed a trio with drummer Jack DeJohnette. Though short-lived, the group garnered attention, picking up a Grammy Award for the 1968 concert album Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival. That same year, DeJohnette left to be replaced by Marty Morell. This version of Evans' trio continued to work for a decade, releasing albums like 1969's What's New and 1971's Grammy-winning The Bill Evans Album. Evans also picked up a Grammy in 1970 for his solo piano date Alone.
In his only concession to the emerging jazz-rock scene, Evans dabbled with the Rhodes electric piano in the 1970s but eventually tired of it, even though inventor Harold Rhodes had tailored the instrument to Evans' specifications. He recorded further trio sessions with Gomez and drummer Eliot Zigmund before launching a final trio in the late '70s with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joe La Barbera. Often considered one of the pianist's best configurations since the LaFaro-Motian team, their brief time together was documented on 1979's Grammy-winning We Will Meet Again, also featuring trumpeter Tom Harrell and saxophonist Larry Schneider.
By the late '70s, Evans' health was rapidly deteriorating, aggravated by long periods of heroin and cocaine addiction. He died on September 15, 1980, at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He was 51 years old. Along with a 1994 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a flood of unreleased recordings from commercial and private sources helped to further elevate interest in Evans' work. Turn Out the Stars: The Final Village Vanguard Recordings arrived in 1996, followed by 2000's The Last Waltz, recorded at Keystone Korner in 1980. Resonance Records also released three archival albums featuring Evans' late-'60s trio: 2016's Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest, 2018's Another Time: The Hilversum Concert, and 2020's Live at Ronnie Scott's.
Biography by Richard S. Ginell
There are other artists with the same name:
2.) Bill Evans (born 9th February 1958 in Clarendon Hills, Illinois, USA) is an American jazz saxophonist. His father was a classical piano prodigy and until junior high school Evans studied classical clarinet. Early in his studies he was able to hear such artists as Sonny Stitt and Stan Getz live at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago. He attended Hinsdale Central High School and studied with jazz tenor saxophonist Vince Micko.
He plays primarily tenor and soprano saxophones. Evans attended North Texas State University and William Paterson University, where he studied with Dave Liebman, who had played with Miles Davis. Moving to New York City in 1979 he spent countless hours in lofts playing jazz standards and perfecting his improvisational style. At the age of twenty-two he joined Miles Davis. In the early to mid-1980s, Evans played with Davis and was instrumental in his musical comeback. Notable albums recorded with Miles include The Man with the Horn, We Want Miles, and Decoy.
In addition to playing with Miles Davis he has played, toured and recorded with artists such as Herbie Hancock, John Mclaughlin (and his Mahavishnu Orchestra), Michael Franks, Willie Nelson, Mick Jagger, Les McCann, Mark Egan, Danny Gottlieb, Ian Anderson, and Randy Brecker, among others. He is featured on the Petite Blonde album with Victor Bailey, Dennis Chambers, Mitch Forman, and Chuck Loeb.
Two of his most recent albums Soul Insider and Soulgrass were nominated for Grammy awards. Soulgrass was a groundbreaking bluegrass-jazz fusion concept involving such musicians as Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Bruce Hornsby, and Vinnie Colaiuta. Although his latest projects are musically eclectic, his stylistic roots remain in the history of jazz saxophone, influenced by such players as Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Sonny Stitt, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Stan Getz, and Steve Grossman.
3.) San Francisco Bay Area musician and Virginia native Bill Evans has been involved with bluegrass music and the banjo for over twenty-five years as a player, teacher, writer, and historian. He occupies a unique niche in the banjo world: celebrated worldwide for his traditional and progressive bluegrass banjo styles as well as his innovative original compositions, he also enjoys a reputation as an outstanding instructor as well as being an expert player of nineteenth-century minstrel and classic/parlour banjo styles.
Lucky To Be Me
Bill Evans Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Anyone else but me
I thought that it would be a pleasant surprise
To wake up as a couple of other guys
But now that I've found you
I've changed my point of view
And now I wouldn't give a dime to be
Oh, what a day
Fortune smiled and came my way
Bringing love I never thought I'd see
I'm so lucky to be me
What a night
Suddenly you came in sight
Looking just the way I'd hope you'd be
I'm so lucky to be me
I am simply thunderstruck
At this change in my luck
Knew at once I wanted you
Never dreamed you'd want me too
I'm so proud you chose me from all the crowd
There's no other guy I'd rather be
Oh, I could laugh out loud
I'm so lucky to be me
Yes, I'm so proud you chose me
From all the crowd
There's no other guy I'd rather be
Oh, I could laugh out loud
I'm so lucky to be me
In Bill Evans’s song “Lucky to Be Me”, he talks about how he used to think it might be fun to be anyone else but him. However, this all changed when he found the love of his life, and now he wouldn’t give a dime to be anyone else but himself. The song is dripping with gratitude and happiness, as he acknowledges how lucky he is to have found true love. He talks about how fortunate he is that ‘fortune smiled and came his way’ and how he is ‘simply thunderstruck’ by this change in his luck. He is so proud that she chose him, and there’s no one else that he’d rather be.
Line by Line Meaning
I used to think it might be fun to be
I used to imagine how it would be like to be someone else
Anyone else but me
Anyone other than myself
I thought that it would be a pleasant surprise
I believed that it would be a delightful experience
To wake up as a couple of other guys
To wake up as someone else with a different identity
But now that I've found you
Since I have met you
I've changed my point of view
My perspective has altered
And now I wouldn't give a dime to be
I would not exchange myself for anything or anyone
Anyone else but me
No one other than myself
Oh, what a day
This is an expression of excitement and enthusiasm for the current moment
Fortune smiled and came my way
Luck was in my favor at this moment
Bringing love I never thought I'd see
Love that I never expected to find
I'm so lucky to be me
I feel fortunate to have found love and to be myself
What a night
An expression of amazement at a past night
Suddenly you came in sight
I was surprised by your sudden appearance
Looking just the way I'd hope you'd be
You looked exactly how I imagined or hoped you would look
I'm so lucky to be me
I feel blessed to be myself and to have found someone like you
I am simply thunderstruck
I am astounded or overwhelmed
At this change in my luck
I am surprised by my sudden good fortune
Knew at once I wanted you
I knew immediately that I was interested in you
Never dreamed you'd want me too
I never expected that you would want me as well
I'm so proud you chose me from all the crowd
I feel honored that out of everyone, you picked me
There's no other guy I'd rather be
I do not want to be anyone else other than myself
Oh, I could laugh out loud
I am ecstatic and overwhelmed with joy
I'm so lucky to be me
I feel lucky and grateful to be myself and to have found someone like you
Yes, I'm so proud you chose me
I am proud and happy that you picked me
From all the crowd
Out of so many people
There's no other guy I'd rather be
I am satisfied with being myself
Oh, I could laugh out loud
I am so happy and grateful that I could burst into laughter
I'm so lucky to be me
I feel blessed and fortunate to be myself
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Adolph Green, Betty Comden, Leonard Bernstein
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Sam Blancato
Evans was a genius. When I was 16 I was into Zeplin, Jethro Tull, and a bunch of other similar stuff. I heard Bill Evans' Riverside Album "Explorations" and a friend's house (his father was listening to it) and it just stopped me in my tracks. Within three months I lost most of my interest in all my records. I bought or taped several Bill Evans records and then other jazz stuff. Evens' music made a huge impression on me. My friends all just wondered why I was into "all this shit".
Ignacio Clerici
Your Friends werent very sensitive, don't Worry, most people are not very good for music
Led Zeppagain
The part beginning at 3:14 genuinely gets me choked up every time. So beautiful.
Alex Bramer
same here :)
Mark Goodwin
Led Zeppagain Me too. the ending is purely emotionally breathtaking.
Alex Bramer
yass
pawdaw
+Led Zeppagain And me too. So sweet it hurts.
Wyatt Lewis
its insane
Sam Blancato
There's NOTHING like this today. Evans takes up songs that are so sweet in their sentiment and treats them with such intelligence and sensitivity - Songs like "Lucky to be me" can so easily be botched and then you're left with something maudlin and cloying. He brings a lot of himself to the keyboard and puts his stamp over the whole thing - but always in service of he song itself. He never high-jacks the song for some other agenda and that is part of his genius.
Sherry Smith
The only piano player Bill Evans listened to was the extraordinary Dave McKenna. Two geniuses.