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.
The Shadow Of Your Smile
Bill Evans Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When you have gone
Will color all my dreams
And light the dawn
Look into my eyes my love and see
All the lovely things you are to me
It was far, too high
A teardrop kissed your lips
And so did I
Now when I remember spring
All the joys that love can bring
I will be remembering
The shadow of your smile
In "The Shadow Of Your Smile," Bill Evans's delicate piano playing supports the mournful and bittersweet lyrics that speak to the passing of time and the loss of a significant other. The singer confesses that even after their partner has left, the "shadow" of their smile will continue to impact them and "color all their dreams." Despite the pain of parting, the singer also romanticizes the memory of their love and implores their partner to "look into [their] eyes" and see the beauty they bring to their life. The final stanza is the most poignant, as the singer remembers the happy moments of their love and all that it brought to their life but also understands that they will forever be marked by the shadow of their partner's absence.
One thing that makes "The Shadow Of Your Smile" stand out is the way it blends jazz with more conventional pop music structure. The song was written by composer Johnny Mandel and lyricist Paul Francis Webster for the movie The Sandpiper, and it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1965. Interestingly, while Mandel composed the melody, it was Paul Francis Webster who came up with the song's title: "The Shadow Of Your Smile" (previously, the song was known as "A Tear Drop Kissed My Lips"). In addition to Bill Evans's version, the song has been covered by countless artists, including Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Tony Bennett.
Line by Line Meaning
The shadow of your smile
The memory of your smile will stay with me even after you're gone.
When you have gone
Once you're no longer here with me.
Will color all my dreams
Will impact everything I dream about and think of.
And light the dawn
The thought of you will bring light to my days.
Look into my eyes my love and see
Please gaze into my eyes and understand how I feel.
All the lovely things you are to me
All of the wonderful qualities that make you so special to me.
Our wistful little star
Our hopes and desires that are hard to attain.
It was far, too high
It was difficult to reach or achieve.
A teardrop kissed your lips
A tear fell onto your lips.
And so did I
I, too, kissed your lips and shared your sadness.
Now when I remember spring
When I recall past moments of love and joy.
All the joys that love can bring
All the happiness that comes with being in love.
I will be remembering
The thoughts of you and the memories we shared.
The shadow of your smile
The lasting impression of your beautiful smile.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Johnny Mandel, Paul Webster
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@annacottage4536
Bill Evans gave everything he had, I could never get tired of listening to him, wonderful so wonderful. Many thanks for this, enjoyed it, shed a few tears too.
@c.thompson6638
Only from the mind of one of our great jazz pianists. Pure genius.
@jesusalbornoz6625
Bill Evans, sencillamente magnífico
@franzschaefer4002
Bill's take on this beautiful number is inspired and inspiring ...
@edwardconway27
that's why, no one can replace him, the best jazz pianist ever. his heart speaking thru his piano.
@theinkbrain
So beautiful - thank you for the upload.
@ytbmasterx7
この頃のエヴァンスは、どんな楽曲を演奏しても考えられないほどオリジナリティに溢れる芸術品を生み出す奇跡の人でした。
@crisfleurdumal
Lovely! Good way to start the day with!
@touaregkc
just imagine a situation where you are siting in a bar or restaurant, Bill and the trio is playing and you concentrate on your menu and drink and NOT the music.....as people in the background of this lovely tune do...
@singingisall
masterpiece!