[jazz piano music playing]
- That's beautiful.
[music continues]
- These were Bill Evans' changes,
which this guy orchestrated for string orchestra,
with me playing piano and Sam playing flute.
[soft jazz piano music playing on stereo]
This is '87. - Wow.
[music continues]
- They overdubbed the strings.
I did an album with Sam Most called "Any Time Any Season."
And I did Bill's changes to "Spring is Here."
[lively jazz music]
I was with Shelly Manne and Monty.
We did a trio for about two and a half years,
up until the time he passed away.
Shelly was terrific. I mean, he was a terrific guy.
[music continues]
And I went with Sarah Vaughan in '68.
That's me and Sarah at the Blue Note in New York.
We worked with Sarah at Mr. Kelly's and the London House
with Carmen McRae.
[music continues]
This is me and Benny Carter at Catalina's.
I went to Japan with him on a tour with a big band.
Dizzy was on it.
I settled here in L.A. in '72.
[jazz piano music]
We lived in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
When I got to play a piano that was in tune,
I couldn't believe it. [chuckling]
I was so used to playing this out-of-tune piano my mother had.
She was a piano teacher,
and she started me off when I was four or five.
You know, I was playing concerts by about six or seven
at the Carnegie Recital Hall.
You know, so I was sort of like a child prodigy.
[music continues]
I studied classical piano for about ten years
till I was 14.
Then I took up the saxophone,
which my father hated.
[music continues]
I even have a picture of me holding the saxophone.
I picked it up.
Within four months, I was playing my first job
for $5, yeah.
[music continues]
[chuckles] Piano, sax, and drums.
[claps hands]
I'm still in touch with some of these guys, you know.
[jazz piano music playing]
I went to the Vanguard,
and I used to go there every night, you know,
and listen, and I had a chance to talk to him
about Scalafaro.
You know, it was like being in the presence of genius.
You know, to me, he was like a frickin' genius.
He could play flawlessly.
[jazz piano music]
I started listening to Bill from 1959--
"Explorations" and "Portrait in Jazz."
Then I got hip to "New Jazz Conceptions,"
and then earlier from that,
the "All About Rosie" thing that he did with George Russell.
[lively jazz music]
I could hear the tone he was getting from the piano,
which is number one-- the tone.
So he had that basic classical training to begin with
that solidified his approach to how to play the piano.
[lively jazz piano music playing]
You know, and he worked really hard.
He didn't have, like, a natural talent for jazz, you know?
He had to develop everything from the ground up, you know,
like chord by chord by chord,
which is, like, you know, building a house,
like, you know, one stone at a time, you know?
When I first heard him, like, in, you know, 1960, '61,
when he was really playing good,
when he did the "Portrait in Jazz" album,
after he got with Eddie Gómez,
the tempos used to go through the roof.
It's like the drugs taking over.
[light jazz piano music]
He didn't breathe anymore like he used to on the early record--
No, he left spaces.
Especially if you listen to the "Explorations" album,
it's beautiful.
You know, all those solos are beautifully constructed.
And even "Portrait in Jazz" is a masterpiece of an album.
I mean, the whole group was just at the apex
of great jazz, you know.
And it wasn't contrived or anything like that.
It was really spontaneous,
which is what jazz is supposed to be, you know?
[soft jazz piano music]
And I went to the '66 concert at Town Hall
to see Bill with Chuck Israels and Arnie Wise,
and we were thrilled to be there, you know.
The place was packed.
And he did a beautiful version--
He did "Make Someone Happy."
I also transcribed his changes to "Spring is Here"
from the album.
I mean, how he does...
[jazz piano music playing]
You know, I mean, those changes--
you can't improve on that.
[light jazz music]
You know who wrote "Blue and Green"?
Was Bill Evans, and Miles took the credit,
'cause Miles used to put his name
on a lot of other people's material.
[jazz music]
"Kind of Blue"...
[jazz piano music playing]
I mean, that sounds a lot like Bill.
[music continues]
Miles couldn't have come up with that--
the way he extended the harmonies that he uses.
Like... [jazz piano music playing]
That's a G-minor 11th, you know?
[music continues]
I mean, his whole harmonic thing was so...
sophisticated and beyond the scope of most piano players
at that time, you know?
[light jazz music]
Bill had a tremendous harmonic sense.
When he used substitutions,
they were always the right substitution.
It was like a bridge from one phrase to another,
you know, and he knew, like, exactly the right harmonic thing
to use,
and that's evident in all his re-harmonizations.
[light jazz piano music]
I saw him at the concert space in Redondo Beach--
the Maiden Voyage.
So I went to see him, and I sat next to him on the break,
and that's when he had Marc Johnson and Joel Barber.
[music continues]
I had him here at the house. He played this piano.
When he was at the Roxy-- this was really funny--
you know, at the Roxy on Sunset Boulevard.
You know, it's like a rock-and-roll joint.
And they booked him in there.
He had Philly Joe Jones and George Mraz.
So, after that, I invited him to the house.
And we went up to the studio, and my wife then--
she made breakfast for us,
and we were sitting out there chatting.
And I had the piano out there.
and I played him a couple of tunes
that I think he, you know, might want to do.
And then I took him back over the hill,
because the next day he was going to the trotters,
'cause he liked to play the trotters.
So I dropped him off there, you know.
And he was such a sweet guy.
I mean, you know, I could spend, like, weeks
talking to him about things, you know?
He was so interesting, you know, and so intelligent, you know?
[jazz piano music playing]
Well, I would say in the 20th century,
we had Art Tatum.
But I think overall...
musicianship, in terms of sight reading, repertoire,
execution, and spontaneity, was Bill Evans.
But Bill had this beautifully--
cross between classical training and technique
that he knew how to make the melodies sing
out of the piano,
which is not an easy thing to do.
And most people don't know about that, you know.
To them, it's Greek, you know.
[jazz piano music playing]