MP3 Exclusives New Arrivals   Alt-Country Alternative Blues Electronic Jambands Jazz Metal Pop Punk R&B Rap/Hip Hop Reggae Rock   Top Downloads Features Archive Contests Control Panel MUSICBLITZ Alert!   METALBLITZ REGGAEBLITZ BLUESBLITZ Musician's Friend   Alt-Country Alternative Blues Electronic Jambands Jazz Hip Hop Metal Pop Punk R&B Reggae Rock   Getting Started Free Players	Welcome !      Bill Evans Remembered for his way with a ballad, Bill Evans was more than just jazz’s most famous gentle soul. His classical influences and complex harmonic ideas helped shape the post-bop ‘50s, and today he’s taken his place in the first rank of jazz piano legends. But all the theorizing never got in the way of Evans’ romantic soul, and his records are perennial picks for lovebirds and the loverlorn alike. A New Jersey native, Evans was nearly 30 by the time he first made his name on the Big Apple jazz scene -- he’d already graduated from Southwestern Louisiana University and pulled a stint with Uncle Sam. Evans worked with the great bassist Charles Mingus and in 1956 signed to Riverside, where he recorded some trio dates with drummer Paul Motain and bassist Scott LaFar. But he added immeasurably to his legacy when he joined trumpeter Miles Davis’ band in time for the making of Kind of Blue in 1959. The album, a moody masterpiece that’s perhaps the best-loved jazz record ever, was full of impressionistic modal pieces that perfectly suited Evans’ yearning style (he even co-wrote the ballad “Blue in Green” with Davis). Evans didn’t stay long with Davis, and the following year was back working with his trio, which had begun to refine the sort of group improvisiation Kind of Blue made famous. It came to a tragic end in 1961, however, when LaFaro was killed in a car crash soon after a groundbreaking series of shows at the Village Vanguard, and a devastated Evans went into seclusion. He returned in 1962 with a sympathetic collaborator, guitarist Jim Hall, but also surprised the jazz world the next year when he released Conversations With Myself, a solo piano album with Evans overdubbing up to three different piano parts. Evans’ trio -- which included drummer Philly Joe Jones for a while -- recorded and played live steadily throughout the rest of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Although he never regained the telepathic communication of his classic trio, Evans’ inspiration remained intact on efforts like 1974’s Symbiosis, which featured two long classical-style movements, and a duet album with singer Tony Bennett the next year. Heroin addiction took its toll on Evans, however, and he was only 51 when he died of a perforated ulcer in 1980. He left behind a final studio set dubbed We Will Meet Again; thanks to a growing appreciation for his wealth of ideas, jazz fans are meeting Evans and his legacy these days more than ever.     Bill Evans Very Early MP3 Jazz It doesn’t get any earlier than this one from Bill Evans: the piano man’s first-ever tune, played solo. A must for fans, a bust for casual listening.
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