1 00:00:01,627 --> 00:00:07,633 [jazz piano music] 2 00:00:28,153 --> 00:00:29,821 - Ultimately I came to the conclusion 3 00:00:29,821 --> 00:00:33,158 that all I must do is take care of the music. 4 00:00:33,158 --> 00:00:35,494 Even if I do it in a closet. - Mm-hmm. 5 00:00:35,494 --> 00:00:37,287 - See, and if I really do that, 6 00:00:37,287 --> 00:00:39,373 somebody's gonna come and open the door of the closet 7 00:00:39,373 --> 00:00:41,250 and say, "Hey, we're looking for you," you know? 8 00:00:41,250 --> 00:00:47,256 [jazz piano tunes] 9 00:00:54,805 --> 00:00:58,058 - People are interested in who he was. 10 00:00:58,058 --> 00:01:00,018 What was he like? 11 00:01:00,018 --> 00:01:03,855 Damned if I know, really, 12 00:01:03,855 --> 00:01:05,274 but all the information 13 00:01:05,274 --> 00:01:08,986 that's really important is in the music. 14 00:01:18,745 --> 00:01:22,833 - He had such a great sound from the piano 15 00:01:22,833 --> 00:01:25,836 of his own sound, okay? 16 00:01:25,836 --> 00:01:27,296 And it was pretty. 17 00:01:27,296 --> 00:01:29,881 It was pretty, and deep, 18 00:01:29,881 --> 00:01:32,801 and he was able to get through the piano 19 00:01:32,801 --> 00:01:35,012 how he felt, I believe. 20 00:01:35,012 --> 00:01:37,264 I mean, that's what we all strive for. 21 00:01:37,264 --> 00:01:40,809 - The most powerful thing that he taught me 22 00:01:40,809 --> 00:01:44,938 was to search only for truth and beauty. 23 00:01:49,151 --> 00:01:50,569 - That was Bill. 24 00:01:50,569 --> 00:01:52,946 He knew his destination, 25 00:01:52,946 --> 00:01:54,156 and it was jazz, 26 00:01:54,156 --> 00:01:56,700 and there were gonna be no detours. 27 00:01:56,700 --> 00:02:02,789 [jazz piano music] 28 00:02:25,645 --> 00:02:28,690 - Go by bus, by plane, by car, by train. 29 00:02:28,690 --> 00:02:30,317 Go! 30 00:02:30,317 --> 00:02:32,903 [imitating drums and cymbals] 31 00:02:32,903 --> 00:02:34,905 New York, New York. 32 00:02:34,905 --> 00:02:36,907 A city so nice they had to name it twice. 33 00:02:36,907 --> 00:02:38,241 [chuckling] 34 00:02:38,241 --> 00:02:39,826 - New York, New York, 35 00:02:39,826 --> 00:02:41,745 what they call a somethin' else town. 36 00:02:41,745 --> 00:02:43,538 Yeah, if you can't make it in New York City, man, 37 00:02:43,538 --> 00:02:45,165 you can't make it nowhere. 38 00:02:45,165 --> 00:02:47,084 So where do people come to scuffle? 39 00:02:47,084 --> 00:02:48,251 Right here. 40 00:02:48,251 --> 00:02:54,257 [jazz music] 41 00:02:55,300 --> 00:02:57,010 - It was either late 1954 42 00:02:57,010 --> 00:02:59,304 or early 1955, somebody told me 43 00:02:59,304 --> 00:03:01,723 that Jerry Wald was holding auditions. 44 00:03:01,723 --> 00:03:05,352 So I figured I'd go over there and see if I could get the gig. 45 00:03:08,230 --> 00:03:11,733 And when I got there, Bill Evans was playing piano. 46 00:03:11,733 --> 00:03:15,821 He was auditioning, and I overheard somebody say, 47 00:03:15,821 --> 00:03:16,947 "That's Bill Evans. 48 00:03:16,947 --> 00:03:18,323 "He's from Plainfield, New Jersey. 49 00:03:18,323 --> 00:03:20,909 He's supposed to be really good." 50 00:03:20,909 --> 00:03:22,994 And I started listening and I said, "Wow, he is. 51 00:03:22,994 --> 00:03:24,663 He's great. I really like." 52 00:03:24,663 --> 00:03:26,206 I said, "I hope I get the gig, 53 00:03:26,206 --> 00:03:28,458 and I hope he gets the gig. I'd like to play with him." 54 00:03:28,458 --> 00:03:29,501 And so it happened. 55 00:03:29,501 --> 00:03:30,961 He got the gig, and I got the gig, 56 00:03:30,961 --> 00:03:31,837 and that's when we met. 57 00:03:31,837 --> 00:03:37,008 [upbeat jazz piano] 58 00:03:37,008 --> 00:03:38,218 - My first year in New York, 59 00:03:38,218 --> 00:03:41,138 I'm living in a $75 a month apartment. 60 00:03:41,138 --> 00:03:43,557 I'm working three nights a week way out in Brooklyn, 61 00:03:43,557 --> 00:03:46,977 which required, like, three subway trains, 62 00:03:46,977 --> 00:03:50,730 working three nights out there playing society music for $55. 63 00:03:58,113 --> 00:04:01,908 I was in my little apartment on 83rd Street, 64 00:04:01,908 --> 00:04:04,077 just big enough for my piano and bed, you know, 65 00:04:04,077 --> 00:04:05,954 just woodshedding in that apartment. 66 00:04:05,954 --> 00:04:07,873 I think those were the most productive 67 00:04:07,873 --> 00:04:09,749 three or four years of my life. 68 00:04:11,460 --> 00:04:13,086 - Yeah, that was his pad, 69 00:04:13,086 --> 00:04:16,298 and the piano was right over here, 70 00:04:16,298 --> 00:04:17,674 and that's the window. 71 00:04:17,674 --> 00:04:20,343 He's looking out onto West End Avenue. 72 00:04:20,343 --> 00:04:21,845 And it was a mess. 73 00:04:21,845 --> 00:04:24,306 The kitchen was piled with newspapers up to the ceiling, 74 00:04:24,306 --> 00:04:27,017 and there was a path to the sink and the refrigerator. 75 00:04:27,017 --> 00:04:29,060 - We became really close friends, man. 76 00:04:29,060 --> 00:04:31,062 I was--you know, we used to hang out a lot together. 77 00:04:31,062 --> 00:04:34,733 We played with Tony Scott, clarinet player. 78 00:04:34,733 --> 00:04:40,530 [jazz clarinet music] 79 00:04:41,740 --> 00:04:44,201 - Tony Scott really admired what Bill did. 80 00:04:44,201 --> 00:04:46,745 Anywhere he wanted to go, he said, "Go ahead," you know, 81 00:04:46,745 --> 00:04:48,872 and Bill said, "I got you," you know? 82 00:04:48,872 --> 00:04:54,878 [jazz piano music] 83 00:05:01,218 --> 00:05:04,971 - I want to build my music from the bottom up, 84 00:05:04,971 --> 00:05:06,765 piece by piece. 85 00:05:06,765 --> 00:05:09,017 And I just have a reason 86 00:05:09,017 --> 00:05:12,437 that I arrived at myself for every note I play. 87 00:05:19,653 --> 00:05:22,697 - I never heard him make a harmonic mistake. 88 00:05:22,697 --> 00:05:23,865 Never. 89 00:05:23,865 --> 00:05:26,660 Not one wrong note. 90 00:05:35,794 --> 00:05:37,212 - Bill could play anything, man. 91 00:05:37,212 --> 00:05:40,048 He would--you could put any kind of music in front of him. 92 00:05:40,048 --> 00:05:42,759 He could read that-- classical music or whatever. 93 00:05:42,759 --> 00:05:44,219 I mean, he'd play the shit out of it, man. 94 00:05:44,219 --> 00:05:45,303 I mean, he was playing piano 95 00:05:45,303 --> 00:05:47,347 since he was four or five years old. 96 00:05:47,347 --> 00:05:53,311 [slow jazz piano] 97 00:05:59,943 --> 00:06:02,988 - My brother was two years older. 98 00:06:02,988 --> 00:06:06,157 He started piano before I did. 99 00:06:06,157 --> 00:06:11,246 - Dad was playing, and Bill would be under the piano, 100 00:06:11,246 --> 00:06:14,040 so fascinated with the sound. 101 00:06:16,126 --> 00:06:19,296 He was lost in music as a child. 102 00:06:24,301 --> 00:06:29,848 [bombastic classical music] 103 00:06:29,848 --> 00:06:32,058 Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky. 104 00:06:32,058 --> 00:06:35,687 I can't ever remember anybody that was not Russian, 105 00:06:35,687 --> 00:06:38,607 you know, on the phonograph. 106 00:06:42,319 --> 00:06:45,822 - My mother was raised in the Russian church. 107 00:06:45,822 --> 00:06:47,657 When we had dinner, they would sing, 108 00:06:47,657 --> 00:06:49,534 you know, a lot of Russian music. 109 00:06:49,534 --> 00:06:54,247 At one point, my mother bought us stacks of old music. 110 00:06:54,247 --> 00:06:57,834 [classical piano music] 111 00:06:57,834 --> 00:06:59,169 But after dinner every night, 112 00:06:59,169 --> 00:07:01,671 I would sit with the stack of old music, 113 00:07:01,671 --> 00:07:02,922 and I would go through it, 114 00:07:02,922 --> 00:07:06,843 and whatever I couldn't read I'd put aside for later. 115 00:07:08,803 --> 00:07:11,931 And by the time I was nine, I was quite a good sight reader. 116 00:07:16,645 --> 00:07:22,651 [jazz piano music] 117 00:07:24,027 --> 00:07:27,030 - Bill loved Harry, and Harry admired Bill. 118 00:07:27,030 --> 00:07:29,908 They were close. They really were close brothers. 119 00:07:32,577 --> 00:07:37,624 - My dad was like, "You'll come through me before you dare, 120 00:07:37,624 --> 00:07:40,418 dare bully my brother." 121 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:44,005 - My brother made me very aggressive, 122 00:07:44,005 --> 00:07:45,548 and I wouldn't take no shit from nobody 123 00:07:45,548 --> 00:07:48,843 because he used to pound on me, and we'd scrap. 124 00:07:50,387 --> 00:07:53,598 - They must've had some hard times with their parents. 125 00:07:53,598 --> 00:07:56,309 My grandfather was a drinker. 126 00:07:56,309 --> 00:07:59,145 He was very cruel to my grandmother. 127 00:08:02,649 --> 00:08:06,486 It was like they could kind of hold each other 128 00:08:06,486 --> 00:08:09,072 when their parents couldn't. 129 00:08:10,990 --> 00:08:12,033 - When I think about it now, 130 00:08:12,033 --> 00:08:13,827 I don't know what kind of a person 131 00:08:13,827 --> 00:08:17,038 I would've been or whether-- if it hadn't been for him. 132 00:08:22,877 --> 00:08:28,967 [rapid jazz piano] 133 00:08:32,303 --> 00:08:35,807 I just got all very excited about jazz when I was about 13, 134 00:08:35,807 --> 00:08:38,184 and then I started to hear jazz. 135 00:08:41,146 --> 00:08:43,189 There was Earl Hines. 136 00:08:45,608 --> 00:08:48,486 And Nat Cole to me was a major jazz pianist. 137 00:08:48,486 --> 00:08:54,492 [jazz saxophone] 138 00:08:54,492 --> 00:08:57,245 Besides all the arrangers and horn players 139 00:08:57,245 --> 00:08:58,663 and people that you could mention, 140 00:08:58,663 --> 00:08:59,956 you know, hundreds. 141 00:08:59,956 --> 00:09:05,962 [jazz brass music] 142 00:09:12,844 --> 00:09:14,929 I got into a high school rehearsal band, 143 00:09:14,929 --> 00:09:17,265 and so I was playing jazz practically from the beginning, 144 00:09:17,265 --> 00:09:20,060 and I was 13, 14, you know, 15. 145 00:09:20,060 --> 00:09:23,521 [Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing"] 146 00:09:23,521 --> 00:09:26,065 - In those days, it was the middle of the war, 147 00:09:26,065 --> 00:09:28,902 basically, and my father was looking for good players 148 00:09:28,902 --> 00:09:30,820 to round out his band. 149 00:09:30,820 --> 00:09:34,866 - There's Bill Evans. Myself--that's Connie Atkinson. 150 00:09:38,578 --> 00:09:40,413 - I learned mostly on the job, you know, 151 00:09:40,413 --> 00:09:42,540 and then I started to learn about changes 152 00:09:42,540 --> 00:09:44,501 and harmonics and what-- 153 00:09:44,501 --> 00:09:47,253 how a tune was built harmonically. 154 00:09:47,253 --> 00:09:50,048 ["Tuxedo Junction" playing] 155 00:09:50,048 --> 00:09:52,342 - I remember the first time we were playing "Tuxedo Junction," 156 00:09:52,342 --> 00:09:54,761 and I remember just putting in a little blues sound, 157 00:09:54,761 --> 00:09:56,971 and it was such a thrill to do something of my own 158 00:09:56,971 --> 00:09:58,515 that was not written. 159 00:09:58,515 --> 00:10:00,391 - He worked like crazy. 160 00:10:00,391 --> 00:10:05,730 Bill would have at least an hour and a half of practicing 161 00:10:05,730 --> 00:10:08,691 before he went to high school, 162 00:10:08,691 --> 00:10:10,735 and he played all the time. 163 00:10:10,735 --> 00:10:13,822 - The next train will be stopping at Netherwood, 164 00:10:13,822 --> 00:10:17,951 Fanwood, Westfield, Cranford, Roselle... 165 00:10:17,951 --> 00:10:20,954 [train bell sounding] 166 00:10:20,954 --> 00:10:25,834 [slow jazz piano] 167 00:10:25,834 --> 00:10:30,296 - What it really is, is a endless kind of dues. 168 00:10:33,341 --> 00:10:37,470 The whole thing of working three or four nights 169 00:10:37,470 --> 00:10:41,057 through high school, waiting for trains late at night 170 00:10:41,057 --> 00:10:43,685 in lonely stations, you know. 171 00:10:49,524 --> 00:10:51,192 [train whistle blaring] 172 00:10:51,192 --> 00:10:55,613 [jazz music] 173 00:10:55,613 --> 00:10:58,032 When I started playing with older musicians 174 00:10:58,032 --> 00:10:58,992 in central Jersey, 175 00:10:58,992 --> 00:11:01,661 a band led by a man named Buddy Valentino. 176 00:11:01,661 --> 00:11:04,163 - Bill Evans played with Buddy Valentino... 177 00:11:04,163 --> 00:11:05,415 - Right. - And that's-- 178 00:11:05,415 --> 00:11:07,292 I met him over there. 179 00:11:09,961 --> 00:11:11,963 - Russ Locandro, a saxophone player, 180 00:11:11,963 --> 00:11:12,839 got a little job 181 00:11:12,839 --> 00:11:14,841 at a place called the Idle Hour 182 00:11:14,841 --> 00:11:17,010 in West Point Pleasant, New Jersey. 183 00:11:17,010 --> 00:11:20,221 - Just the three of us-- Bill and Connie and myself. 184 00:11:21,973 --> 00:11:25,643 Bill's piano was very, very tasty. 185 00:11:25,643 --> 00:11:28,479 In fact, those arrangements on there were mostly his ideas. 186 00:11:28,479 --> 00:11:29,564 I may be wrong. 187 00:11:29,564 --> 00:11:35,570 [jazz piano music] 188 00:11:37,030 --> 00:11:38,865 Tasty. 189 00:11:38,865 --> 00:11:40,867 [snapping fingers] 190 00:11:41,951 --> 00:11:44,913 - He's already getting his voice. 191 00:11:44,913 --> 00:11:49,208 Very, very rhythmic, the phrasing. 192 00:11:54,672 --> 00:12:00,720 [classical piano music] 193 00:12:03,556 --> 00:12:08,144 - The main feature at Southeastern was the classics. 194 00:12:10,563 --> 00:12:13,149 Bill played Gershwin, 195 00:12:13,149 --> 00:12:16,027 Rachmaninov, Villa-Lobos. 196 00:12:16,027 --> 00:12:19,197 He played with such ease. 197 00:12:19,197 --> 00:12:24,744 There was an expressive, natural expressiveness there. 198 00:12:30,583 --> 00:12:32,794 - Bill used to play-- 199 00:12:32,794 --> 00:12:35,296 get up in the morning and play the piano. 200 00:12:35,296 --> 00:12:39,801 [jazz piano music] 201 00:12:39,801 --> 00:12:43,096 He'd get in that practice room in the music building, 202 00:12:43,096 --> 00:12:45,014 and he'd play for hours. 203 00:12:53,356 --> 00:12:54,732 - I used to hear him all the time. 204 00:12:54,732 --> 00:12:57,026 He would walk down the hall and knock on the door, 205 00:12:57,026 --> 00:12:59,654 and he'd say, "Bring your brushes." 206 00:12:59,654 --> 00:13:03,116 Well, and I'd scramble and get my brushes and follow him. 207 00:13:03,116 --> 00:13:04,867 He would go sit in a room, 208 00:13:04,867 --> 00:13:06,911 and he'd just cook, man. That was... 209 00:13:06,911 --> 00:13:11,749 [upbeat jazz piano] 210 00:13:11,749 --> 00:13:14,711 - When he went to Southeastern, he went down there 211 00:13:14,711 --> 00:13:16,963 to really work on his jazz. 212 00:13:16,963 --> 00:13:19,132 - There was a piano teacher here, Gretchen McGee, 213 00:13:19,132 --> 00:13:21,384 and she taught us music theory. 214 00:13:21,384 --> 00:13:24,512 - Gretchen McGee, she was, you know, really a good teacher. 215 00:13:24,512 --> 00:13:27,056 I owe a great deal to her. 216 00:13:47,035 --> 00:13:49,454 - Harry went down to Southeastern, 217 00:13:49,454 --> 00:13:52,999 and while Bill was just such a great scholar, 218 00:13:52,999 --> 00:13:56,544 Harry really wanted to have fun, you know what I'm saying? 219 00:13:56,544 --> 00:14:00,006 And really slept through the classes most of the time. 220 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:05,136 They were as different as night and day. 221 00:14:05,136 --> 00:14:08,139 Bill, tall, so introverted. 222 00:14:08,139 --> 00:14:12,185 Harry, short and convivial and outgoing. 223 00:14:14,687 --> 00:14:17,190 - Bill was clean-cut, handsome. 224 00:14:17,190 --> 00:14:20,276 Even with glasses, he was a very nice-looking young man. 225 00:14:20,276 --> 00:14:24,655 - Bill was a good guy, and the girls loved him. 226 00:14:30,536 --> 00:14:33,039 - The last two years I was here were perhaps-- 227 00:14:33,039 --> 00:14:35,875 I think without a doubt the happiest years of my life. 228 00:14:44,425 --> 00:14:48,054 Jazz is the most central and important thing in my life. 229 00:14:48,054 --> 00:14:54,060 [jazz piano music] 230 00:15:06,072 --> 00:15:10,368 Then I moved to New York, got an apartment. 231 00:15:10,368 --> 00:15:15,540 At that time, I made a pact with myself. 232 00:15:15,540 --> 00:15:17,125 I mean, if the world didn't show me 233 00:15:17,125 --> 00:15:19,168 that, you know, somehow-- 234 00:15:19,168 --> 00:15:20,878 - Something was happening, yeah. 235 00:15:20,878 --> 00:15:23,089 - So I gave myself till I was 30. 236 00:15:25,091 --> 00:15:31,389 [jazz music] 237 00:15:31,389 --> 00:15:34,976 - Let's welcome Miles Davis and the Quintet. 238 00:15:34,976 --> 00:15:36,727 [cheers and applause] 239 00:15:36,727 --> 00:15:37,854 - Ladies and gentlemen, 240 00:15:37,854 --> 00:15:40,857 how about a big hand there for Art Blakey? 241 00:15:40,857 --> 00:15:42,316 Thank y'all! 242 00:15:42,316 --> 00:15:47,029 [upbeat jazz music] 243 00:15:47,029 --> 00:15:48,739 - He caught Miles at Birdland, 244 00:15:48,739 --> 00:15:50,867 or played here in Birdland, 245 00:15:50,867 --> 00:15:53,286 the Half Note with the Five Spot. 246 00:15:53,286 --> 00:15:55,705 I think I heard him out there for the first time. 247 00:16:00,585 --> 00:16:01,836 Sonny Clark. 248 00:16:01,836 --> 00:16:06,424 [jazz piano music] 249 00:16:06,424 --> 00:16:07,550 John Coltrane. 250 00:16:07,550 --> 00:16:12,972 [smooth jazz saxophone] 251 00:16:12,972 --> 00:16:14,682 All of these guys, what they were putting out 252 00:16:14,682 --> 00:16:16,934 was so much the life force. 253 00:16:16,934 --> 00:16:18,352 They had tapped it. 254 00:16:18,352 --> 00:16:20,980 They told me the truth. They showed me the truth. 255 00:16:20,980 --> 00:16:22,398 They played their truth. 256 00:16:22,398 --> 00:16:28,404 [rapid jazz piano] 257 00:16:28,404 --> 00:16:30,698 - I grew up in the era of hard bop, 258 00:16:30,698 --> 00:16:33,868 and my first real hero piano player was Horace Silver. 259 00:16:33,868 --> 00:16:37,330 - Horace Silver's solo on "Soft Winds." 260 00:16:49,258 --> 00:16:50,718 - I loved Bud Powell. 261 00:16:50,718 --> 00:16:53,262 - Bud Powell comes in, and he's just blazing. 262 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:04,190 - It didn't matter much how much he could play like Bud Powell. 263 00:17:04,190 --> 00:17:08,611 You know, finally he had to play like Bill Evans. 264 00:17:14,533 --> 00:17:17,495 - At the time, Tony Scott and I were rooming together, 265 00:17:17,495 --> 00:17:19,914 so Bill showed up, and Bill was playing, 266 00:17:19,914 --> 00:17:23,417 and I pushed the record button on this wire recorder, 267 00:17:23,417 --> 00:17:25,419 and it turned out to be pretty good, 268 00:17:25,419 --> 00:17:28,381 and I thought, "I wonder if Orrin Keepnews 269 00:17:28,381 --> 00:17:30,925 would be interested in Bill Evans." 270 00:17:30,925 --> 00:17:34,845 - Mundell had a demo tape, 271 00:17:34,845 --> 00:17:37,848 which he played over the telephone. 272 00:17:37,848 --> 00:17:41,811 So that was the first time I ever heard Bill Evans. 273 00:17:44,772 --> 00:17:50,778 [upbeat jazz music] 274 00:17:56,200 --> 00:18:01,414 Bill was working at some of these small downtown clubs, 275 00:18:01,414 --> 00:18:03,833 and I stopped into some of these places 276 00:18:03,833 --> 00:18:06,794 and started to listen to Mr. Evans. 277 00:18:11,632 --> 00:18:12,633 - He was--he was-- 278 00:18:12,633 --> 00:18:14,176 he was really spanking the piano. 279 00:18:14,176 --> 00:18:17,888 I mean, he was really being heard and playing. 280 00:18:17,888 --> 00:18:19,932 - And it seems like he was someplace 281 00:18:19,932 --> 00:18:23,144 between maybe Bud Powell and Lennie Tristano. 282 00:18:23,144 --> 00:18:25,855 Between bebop, but extending it a bit. 283 00:18:25,855 --> 00:18:28,983 - He was an up-and-coming young guy that, you know, say, 284 00:18:28,983 --> 00:18:30,568 "Hey, that's a good piano. Get him." 285 00:18:30,568 --> 00:18:31,861 You know, that kind of stuff. 286 00:18:31,861 --> 00:18:33,863 - We played with Don Elliott, 287 00:18:33,863 --> 00:18:36,240 who played a mellophone and vibraphone. 288 00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:37,992 Tony Scott--there's a record, 289 00:18:37,992 --> 00:18:42,079 a Tony Scott record that I'm on with Bill Evans. 290 00:18:42,079 --> 00:18:45,333 That's, like, strictly 4/4 time, swing. 291 00:18:45,333 --> 00:18:47,209 - Right, right. - Swingin' like a motherfucker. 292 00:18:47,209 --> 00:18:53,215 [jazz music] 293 00:19:03,434 --> 00:19:06,395 And then, I guess he got the offer to make a recording 294 00:19:06,395 --> 00:19:08,522 for Riverside Records at the time, 295 00:19:08,522 --> 00:19:09,982 and he asked me to do it, 296 00:19:09,982 --> 00:19:12,276 and the bass player was Teddy Kotick at that time. 297 00:19:21,827 --> 00:19:25,998 - That trio album was critically very well-received, 298 00:19:25,998 --> 00:19:29,835 but our total sales in the first year 299 00:19:29,835 --> 00:19:32,797 was 800 copies. 300 00:19:35,841 --> 00:19:38,844 About a year after the first record came out, 301 00:19:38,844 --> 00:19:41,931 Miles Davis became aware of him. 302 00:19:41,931 --> 00:19:45,976 - Miles was about the music, first and foremost, 303 00:19:45,976 --> 00:19:49,105 and he was really passionate about-- 304 00:19:49,105 --> 00:19:52,066 to him, he was serious about that. 305 00:19:52,066 --> 00:19:53,901 I loved him for that. 306 00:19:56,445 --> 00:20:00,908 - Miles in the 1950s was fast becoming the guy 307 00:20:00,908 --> 00:20:04,995 who was bearing a standard for jazz in general. 308 00:20:04,995 --> 00:20:11,001 [jazz trumpet music] 309 00:20:12,837 --> 00:20:15,131 What he was doing, album by album, 310 00:20:15,131 --> 00:20:16,924 year by year, you know, 311 00:20:16,924 --> 00:20:20,136 who was in his group was a very important thing. 312 00:20:26,642 --> 00:20:28,936 - I loved the music 313 00:20:28,936 --> 00:20:33,858 'cause it was absolutely wild. 314 00:20:33,858 --> 00:20:34,900 [laughs] 315 00:20:34,900 --> 00:20:36,026 It was incredible. 316 00:20:39,989 --> 00:20:43,534 Miles would play this way 317 00:20:43,534 --> 00:20:44,910 and then that way, 318 00:20:44,910 --> 00:20:47,830 and Trane would play everything Miles played. 319 00:20:47,830 --> 00:20:49,582 Even play it backwards. 320 00:20:55,004 --> 00:20:57,006 And, you know, Red Garland. 321 00:20:59,008 --> 00:21:01,635 And Paul is... 322 00:21:04,054 --> 00:21:06,223 You know, Joe is--bam! 323 00:21:06,223 --> 00:21:07,933 [imitating drums] 324 00:21:15,274 --> 00:21:19,361 And Miles would be at the bar flirting with some chick, yeah. 325 00:21:23,949 --> 00:21:28,496 - And then in 1957, he starts to kind of tinker with it 326 00:21:28,496 --> 00:21:31,832 and take it apart. 327 00:21:31,832 --> 00:21:35,628 He's been after this alto player, Cannonball Adderley, 328 00:21:35,628 --> 00:21:37,087 gets him in the group. 329 00:21:37,087 --> 00:21:40,883 And he's got a new drummer named Jimmy Cobb, 330 00:21:40,883 --> 00:21:44,053 and Red starts not showing up in gigs. 331 00:21:46,347 --> 00:21:49,683 - And I was in my little apartment on 83rd Street. 332 00:21:49,683 --> 00:21:50,976 The phone rang one day, 333 00:21:50,976 --> 00:21:52,269 and it was Miles on the other end, 334 00:21:52,269 --> 00:21:54,021 saying could I make a weekend 335 00:21:54,021 --> 00:21:55,940 in Philadelphia with him at Pep's? 336 00:21:55,940 --> 00:21:58,025 Well, of course, you know, I was thrilled. 337 00:21:58,025 --> 00:22:01,028 - When they hired Bill, that was big news. 338 00:22:01,028 --> 00:22:02,530 You know, that was something. 339 00:22:02,530 --> 00:22:06,408 [jazz music] 340 00:22:06,408 --> 00:22:09,954 - Miles, I think, was when Bill kind of popped his cherry 341 00:22:09,954 --> 00:22:11,997 as far as getting on the road. 342 00:22:15,918 --> 00:22:18,212 - We just, you know, started the traveling tour. 343 00:22:18,212 --> 00:22:20,381 It was a monstrous challenge. 344 00:22:20,381 --> 00:22:22,758 This was an all-black band. 345 00:22:22,758 --> 00:22:24,885 - Miles Davis All Stars 346 00:22:24,885 --> 00:22:29,098 coming to you live from the Spotlight. 347 00:22:29,098 --> 00:22:31,850 - I was living right around the corner from the Spotlight, 348 00:22:31,850 --> 00:22:35,479 and he was telling me that it was really tough in Detroit. 349 00:22:38,649 --> 00:22:39,984 - We played black clubs. 350 00:22:39,984 --> 00:22:42,861 I got a lot of, you know, vibes, like, silent treatment, 351 00:22:42,861 --> 00:22:44,572 you know, not-so-silent treatment. 352 00:22:44,572 --> 00:22:46,490 "What's that white cat doing up there?" 353 00:22:46,490 --> 00:22:47,700 Kind of thing, you know? 354 00:22:47,700 --> 00:22:50,035 - And people like Cannon and Paul Chambers 355 00:22:50,035 --> 00:22:51,787 and whatnot would have to turn and say, 356 00:22:51,787 --> 00:22:54,248 "He's up there because Miles wants him up there." 357 00:22:54,248 --> 00:23:00,337 [slow jazz piano] 358 00:23:02,590 --> 00:23:07,094 - He gave Miles a sleekness 359 00:23:07,094 --> 00:23:11,015 and elegance again. 360 00:23:12,975 --> 00:23:14,893 It is elegant. 361 00:23:18,022 --> 00:23:19,940 - I think if you go to two tracks, 362 00:23:19,940 --> 00:23:21,275 "Stella by Starlight" 363 00:23:21,275 --> 00:23:23,027 and "On Green Dolphin Street," 364 00:23:23,027 --> 00:23:26,447 you start to feel the elegance 365 00:23:26,447 --> 00:23:28,699 that they're gonna be shooting for in "Kind of Blue." 366 00:23:28,699 --> 00:23:34,288 [jazz music] 367 00:23:35,789 --> 00:23:41,545 - You know, Miles was so sensitive to subtleties. 368 00:23:41,545 --> 00:23:45,174 I learned a lot from just, you know, listening to him. 369 00:23:50,971 --> 00:23:52,306 - Miles was like a witch doctor. 370 00:23:52,306 --> 00:23:53,974 He daunts you, you know? 371 00:23:53,974 --> 00:23:57,853 He pushes you as far as he can, you know? 372 00:23:57,853 --> 00:24:01,273 - This was a very heavy black pride band at that time, 373 00:24:01,273 --> 00:24:03,025 and Miles, he, you know, 374 00:24:03,025 --> 00:24:05,944 called me a white, you know, piano player. 375 00:24:08,447 --> 00:24:14,411 [jazz piano music] 376 00:24:56,912 --> 00:24:58,872 - Most of the guys then were playing 377 00:24:58,872 --> 00:25:00,916 some kind of macho bebop stuff, 378 00:25:00,916 --> 00:25:03,001 and Bill had the courage 379 00:25:03,001 --> 00:25:04,712 and the background 380 00:25:04,712 --> 00:25:06,046 to really open up the piano 381 00:25:06,046 --> 00:25:08,507 and listen really carefully 382 00:25:08,507 --> 00:25:10,926 and just play gorgeous chord voicings 383 00:25:10,926 --> 00:25:12,219 and that sort of things. 384 00:25:16,306 --> 00:25:17,975 And Bob Brookmeyer, Jim Giuffre, 385 00:25:17,975 --> 00:25:20,728 and I worked at the Cafe Bohemia, 386 00:25:20,728 --> 00:25:23,272 and Bill was working with Miles Davis' group. 387 00:25:23,272 --> 00:25:27,067 - Miles Davis playing for you from the Cafe Bohemia. 388 00:25:27,067 --> 00:25:28,026 - One Sunday, we came in, 389 00:25:28,026 --> 00:25:31,155 and we couldn't get Bill to get on the bandstand. 390 00:25:31,155 --> 00:25:32,990 He was sitting in the corner. 391 00:25:32,990 --> 00:25:34,908 "No, I can't play good. I can't do this." 392 00:25:34,908 --> 00:25:37,327 "Come on, Bill, get your ass up there," you know? 393 00:25:37,327 --> 00:25:39,163 "Oh, I can't," you know? 394 00:25:39,163 --> 00:25:45,169 [jazz piano music] 395 00:25:46,962 --> 00:25:52,050 He didn't always feel that he was a great piano player. 396 00:25:59,975 --> 00:26:01,935 - So you want to be able 397 00:26:01,935 --> 00:26:06,940 to deal with the work, 398 00:26:06,940 --> 00:26:10,694 but not feel the pain? 399 00:26:11,862 --> 00:26:15,324 Heroin is particularly well-suited to that. 400 00:26:24,124 --> 00:26:26,084 - There was this nice, 401 00:26:26,084 --> 00:26:28,712 obviously very talented, 402 00:26:28,712 --> 00:26:30,255 very funny kid, 403 00:26:30,255 --> 00:26:34,802 and then almost imperceptibly he became a junkie. 404 00:26:39,014 --> 00:26:40,057 - I asked Bill about that. 405 00:26:40,057 --> 00:26:41,475 I said, "You get started on smack, man? 406 00:26:41,475 --> 00:26:44,061 It was a dumb thing to do." He says, "Yeah, I know." 407 00:26:44,061 --> 00:26:47,439 He said, "The first time I took smack, I didn't rush. 408 00:26:47,439 --> 00:26:49,024 "I just stayed right there. 409 00:26:49,024 --> 00:26:51,193 There's no voices going off in your head." 410 00:26:57,825 --> 00:27:00,244 - I remember seeing him. 411 00:27:00,244 --> 00:27:02,871 He was walking south on 7th Avenue, 412 00:27:02,871 --> 00:27:05,958 and I was not going to go over. 413 00:27:05,958 --> 00:27:09,628 I knew he would hit me up for money. 414 00:27:13,048 --> 00:27:17,594 - It was no longer just a shirt and tie 415 00:27:17,594 --> 00:27:19,179 when I met him, you know? 416 00:27:19,179 --> 00:27:23,559 Everything was serving the beast, you know? 417 00:27:23,559 --> 00:27:25,561 I hated to see that, you know? 418 00:27:38,115 --> 00:27:41,368 - I think what I really got from the experience with Miles 419 00:27:41,368 --> 00:27:46,498 was returning more confidently to my own identity 420 00:27:46,498 --> 00:27:49,501 and realizing that I had to really be myself. 421 00:27:51,587 --> 00:27:55,215 - The subject is...jazz. 422 00:28:01,722 --> 00:28:03,599 - And Bill was playing "Billy the Kid," 423 00:28:03,599 --> 00:28:05,267 which he had just recorded. 424 00:28:13,442 --> 00:28:15,986 Bill was just beginning to have his problems. 425 00:28:15,986 --> 00:28:17,112 We talked. 426 00:28:17,112 --> 00:28:22,534 As a matter of fact, he began to date my assistant. 427 00:28:25,579 --> 00:28:28,665 - I met Peri here in New York. 428 00:28:28,665 --> 00:28:32,794 She was very cool, very cool. 429 00:28:34,922 --> 00:28:37,925 She knew everything about jazz, everything. 430 00:28:37,925 --> 00:28:40,427 - Peri was great. 431 00:28:40,427 --> 00:28:42,971 Peri was a wonderful woman. 432 00:28:47,017 --> 00:28:48,977 - Peri was very much in love with Bill. 433 00:28:48,977 --> 00:28:50,979 That is a fact. 434 00:28:52,564 --> 00:28:54,274 - She wanted to get married with Bill. 435 00:28:54,274 --> 00:28:55,609 I thought she was great for him. 436 00:28:55,609 --> 00:28:57,778 She loved him, man. 437 00:29:10,874 --> 00:29:13,085 - I got fascinated with jazz, 438 00:29:13,085 --> 00:29:15,671 and I heard Bill on record, 439 00:29:15,671 --> 00:29:17,714 and it just totally transformed my life. 440 00:29:17,714 --> 00:29:20,926 - One of my favorite Bill Evans records is "Everybody Digs." 441 00:29:20,926 --> 00:29:24,972 - Bill's second album: "Everybody Digs Bill Evans." 442 00:29:39,653 --> 00:29:41,571 It was clear to me and all my friends 443 00:29:41,571 --> 00:29:43,740 that this was the piano player. 444 00:29:54,835 --> 00:29:57,504 - You know, when he's playing that "I'm So Lucky to Be Me," 445 00:29:57,504 --> 00:29:58,922 I thought, "My God, this is 446 00:29:58,922 --> 00:30:01,425 the most beautiful music I've ever heard." 447 00:30:01,425 --> 00:30:04,469 He's just so connected to his heart. 448 00:30:14,521 --> 00:30:17,232 - People think technique is playing fast, 449 00:30:17,232 --> 00:30:20,777 and Bill could do that. 450 00:30:20,777 --> 00:30:24,698 But technique is also being able to play beautifully slowly, 451 00:30:24,698 --> 00:30:27,242 and Bill could do that. 452 00:30:31,997 --> 00:30:32,998 - It goes-- 453 00:30:32,998 --> 00:30:34,708 [singing] Bom, bom 454 00:30:34,708 --> 00:30:36,918 Chord, chord. 455 00:30:36,918 --> 00:30:42,924 [soft jazz piano] 456 00:30:48,055 --> 00:30:51,016 And the piece starts to unfold. 457 00:30:55,854 --> 00:30:59,858 He just draws you along as he tells 458 00:30:59,858 --> 00:31:02,819 this increasingly complicated 459 00:31:02,819 --> 00:31:07,991 and tension-building story. 460 00:31:21,963 --> 00:31:26,384 And he strings you out until you are about to break 461 00:31:26,384 --> 00:31:29,513 and then resolves it and moves it back in again. 462 00:31:39,898 --> 00:31:42,776 - And you listen to that-- man, it's so damn beautiful, 463 00:31:42,776 --> 00:31:44,152 man, it'd make you want to cry. 464 00:31:47,489 --> 00:31:51,743 - Somehow Bill just spoke to me in a way 465 00:31:51,743 --> 00:31:55,622 that I hadn't heard anybody talking. 466 00:32:06,508 --> 00:32:10,345 [upbeat jazz music] 467 00:32:10,345 --> 00:32:13,265 - One of the stories that comes out of "Kind of Blue" 468 00:32:13,265 --> 00:32:17,227 is this two brothers exploring music together. 469 00:32:17,227 --> 00:32:20,689 That is the Miles Davis, Bill Evans story. 470 00:32:20,689 --> 00:32:23,150 - I was with Miles for a good part of '58, 471 00:32:23,150 --> 00:32:24,943 and he called me to do that album, 472 00:32:24,943 --> 00:32:26,945 which happened about three or four months 473 00:32:26,945 --> 00:32:28,905 after I left the band. 474 00:32:34,035 --> 00:32:37,080 - Bill and Miles decide in early '59, 475 00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:40,250 we're gonna explore this idea of modal jazz, 476 00:32:40,250 --> 00:32:43,837 staying on one scale for a long period of time. 477 00:32:43,837 --> 00:32:47,007 That sort of sets the stage for "Kind of Blue." 478 00:32:55,140 --> 00:32:59,019 - "Kind of Blue" was 1959, and that's what was going, 479 00:32:59,019 --> 00:33:00,937 that's what was going on, baby. 480 00:33:00,937 --> 00:33:02,731 It was Jack Kerouac and Lenny Bruce, 481 00:33:02,731 --> 00:33:04,024 and everybody was hip and cool, 482 00:33:04,024 --> 00:33:06,026 and, you know, and "Kind of Blue" was-- 483 00:33:06,026 --> 00:33:07,986 especially with "So What," it was kind of like-- 484 00:33:07,986 --> 00:33:08,987 [snaps fingers] 485 00:33:08,987 --> 00:33:10,113 This kind of thing, 486 00:33:10,113 --> 00:33:11,781 because they weren't in a hurry. 487 00:33:11,781 --> 00:33:12,949 They were relaxed. 488 00:33:12,949 --> 00:33:14,367 They were loose, you know? 489 00:33:14,367 --> 00:33:20,373 [jazz piano melody] 490 00:33:34,804 --> 00:33:36,640 - "Kind of Blue" is its own thing. 491 00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:40,894 You really hear the individual spirit 492 00:33:40,894 --> 00:33:42,938 of Cannonball Adderley, 493 00:33:42,938 --> 00:33:45,106 John Coltrane, Miles, 494 00:33:45,106 --> 00:33:46,983 and of course Bill Evans. 495 00:33:46,983 --> 00:33:52,989 [Miles Davis' "So What"] 496 00:33:58,954 --> 00:34:02,540 - Miles was one of the few jazz soloists 497 00:34:02,540 --> 00:34:04,167 who listens to his accompaniment, 498 00:34:04,167 --> 00:34:06,878 and there's almost a feeling of a dialogue, 499 00:34:06,878 --> 00:34:09,381 and it's a marvelous quality. 500 00:34:09,381 --> 00:34:15,345 [jazz saxophone solo] 501 00:34:21,643 --> 00:34:23,103 - When you listen to "So What," 502 00:34:23,103 --> 00:34:25,063 and Cannonball comes in, he does his thing, 503 00:34:25,063 --> 00:34:26,523 and he's right straight down the line. 504 00:34:43,373 --> 00:34:45,875 And then Trane's doing his thing with the sheets of sound, 505 00:34:45,875 --> 00:34:47,919 and then here comes Bill Evans. 506 00:34:47,919 --> 00:34:50,964 [jazz piano music] 507 00:34:50,964 --> 00:34:52,257 Mostly chorus. 508 00:35:00,390 --> 00:35:02,892 With Bill Evans, Miles heard something. 509 00:35:02,892 --> 00:35:04,978 You know, Miles, he heard something in Trane, 510 00:35:04,978 --> 00:35:07,689 and he knew how to put those elements together. 511 00:35:07,689 --> 00:35:09,774 Miles Davis was a genius. 512 00:35:16,531 --> 00:35:18,491 "Flamenco Sketches"-- you know, the root of that 513 00:35:18,491 --> 00:35:21,411 is "Peace Piece," Bill Evans' "Peace Piece," just kind of-- 514 00:35:36,051 --> 00:35:38,845 - If you're gonna do Bill Evans' greatest moments, 515 00:35:38,845 --> 00:35:40,930 his solos--all of his solos 516 00:35:40,930 --> 00:35:43,099 on "Kind of Blue" would have to be on there. 517 00:35:54,569 --> 00:35:57,030 - It is elegant. 518 00:35:57,030 --> 00:36:00,408 "Blue in Green" is an exercise in elegance. 519 00:36:04,704 --> 00:36:07,040 - Bill wrote much of the material, 520 00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:09,250 even though it's credited to Miles. 521 00:36:10,627 --> 00:36:11,836 - He was over to see Miles. 522 00:36:11,836 --> 00:36:13,296 They were planning the session, 523 00:36:13,296 --> 00:36:18,009 and Miles gave him two chord changes, 524 00:36:18,009 --> 00:36:21,012 and Miles said, "What would you do with that?" 525 00:36:22,055 --> 00:36:24,516 And Bill said, "I went home, and I wrote 'Blue in Green.'" 526 00:36:49,874 --> 00:36:53,420 - "Kind of Blue" is the result of two musical architects: 527 00:36:53,420 --> 00:36:55,964 Miles Davis and Bill Evans. 528 00:37:08,226 --> 00:37:10,812 - When you listen to Miles and Bill Evans playing together, 529 00:37:10,812 --> 00:37:12,188 this was a marriage made in heaven. 530 00:37:12,188 --> 00:37:17,318 It was just, like, so right. 531 00:37:17,318 --> 00:37:19,279 It was so perfect. 532 00:37:24,492 --> 00:37:26,161 - It's a masterpiece. 533 00:37:26,161 --> 00:37:27,996 It's a masterpiece. 534 00:37:27,996 --> 00:37:30,248 - The unforgettable experience of playing 535 00:37:30,248 --> 00:37:33,960 with these fantastic musicians. 536 00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:35,837 I'm very thankful about it. 537 00:37:51,978 --> 00:37:54,355 - Of all the relationships he had with women, 538 00:37:54,355 --> 00:37:57,317 probably the one I knew the best was Ellaine. 539 00:37:57,317 --> 00:38:00,737 - He said he was on mescaline, and he looked across the room, 540 00:38:00,737 --> 00:38:02,655 and this lady just went like-- [exclaims] 541 00:38:02,655 --> 00:38:03,865 Like this, and that was Ellaine, 542 00:38:03,865 --> 00:38:05,909 and it was love at first sight. 543 00:38:09,537 --> 00:38:10,997 - She was small. She was dark. 544 00:38:10,997 --> 00:38:12,248 She was Jewish. 545 00:38:12,248 --> 00:38:14,792 - Nervous energy, always smoking. 546 00:38:16,836 --> 00:38:18,796 - She was a very sweet girl. 547 00:38:18,796 --> 00:38:20,215 Very nice, very intelligent. 548 00:38:24,385 --> 00:38:26,346 - They hit it off, and, you know, 549 00:38:26,346 --> 00:38:27,889 they started living together and stuff. 550 00:38:27,889 --> 00:38:30,892 - I think Bill and Ellaine had a very, very deep relationship. 551 00:38:30,892 --> 00:38:33,603 You know, I think he loved her a lot, 552 00:38:33,603 --> 00:38:35,188 and I think she loved him a lot, 553 00:38:35,188 --> 00:38:38,066 but at the same token, what came first? 554 00:38:38,066 --> 00:38:39,901 The music. 555 00:38:41,653 --> 00:38:43,571 - Bill's career path continues. 556 00:38:43,571 --> 00:38:45,865 He sets up his first great trio. 557 00:38:47,909 --> 00:38:49,744 Paul Motian on drums. 558 00:38:50,954 --> 00:38:52,914 Scotty LaFaro on bass. 559 00:38:52,914 --> 00:38:54,624 - In my first meeting with Scott, 560 00:38:54,624 --> 00:38:56,709 I heard this tremendous talent 561 00:38:56,709 --> 00:38:57,919 that was bubbling over. 562 00:38:57,919 --> 00:38:59,295 Everything was bubbling out, 563 00:38:59,295 --> 00:39:02,841 and this was a very unique and exceptional talent. 564 00:39:06,970 --> 00:39:09,889 - Scotty was just really hanging out at the Lighthouse, 565 00:39:09,889 --> 00:39:13,059 just going out to clubs and sitting in. 566 00:39:13,059 --> 00:39:16,980 [upbeat jazz music] 567 00:39:16,980 --> 00:39:18,565 - Somebody told me about him, and they said 568 00:39:18,565 --> 00:39:22,944 he's playing down at the Hermosa Beach Lighthouse. 569 00:39:22,944 --> 00:39:24,320 And so I wanted to check the guy out. 570 00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:30,410 [jazz bass music] 571 00:39:33,204 --> 00:39:35,957 It was like, "Who is this guy?" 572 00:39:40,128 --> 00:39:41,879 - Scotty used to play with three fingers. 573 00:39:41,879 --> 00:39:45,008 I mean, he played the bass sort of almost like a guitar. 574 00:39:45,008 --> 00:39:47,802 Nobody played the bass like Scotty. 575 00:39:47,802 --> 00:39:48,845 Just didn't exist. 576 00:39:53,933 --> 00:39:54,976 - And he played with Monk, 577 00:39:54,976 --> 00:39:56,603 and he played with Victor Feldman, 578 00:39:56,603 --> 00:39:59,480 and he'd studied Sonny Rollins' music, and so-- 579 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:01,733 [whistles] 580 00:40:01,733 --> 00:40:04,068 He was brilliant, 581 00:40:04,068 --> 00:40:05,653 just brilliant. 582 00:40:05,653 --> 00:40:06,946 - He would get up in the morning, 583 00:40:06,946 --> 00:40:09,073 and he would pick up the bass. 584 00:40:09,073 --> 00:40:11,659 He would start, like, at 9:30. 585 00:40:11,659 --> 00:40:13,911 I would say, "Can't we do something else in the mornings 586 00:40:13,911 --> 00:40:15,455 other than you picking up the bass?" 587 00:40:15,455 --> 00:40:17,290 He goes, "What? What can we do?" 588 00:40:17,290 --> 00:40:19,167 And I said, "We could go to bed." 589 00:40:19,167 --> 00:40:21,169 [laughing] You know? 590 00:40:21,169 --> 00:40:22,879 - I mean, he never had the bass out of his hand. 591 00:40:22,879 --> 00:40:25,256 He would practice all day long. 592 00:40:28,426 --> 00:40:31,054 - Bill, he had a gig at Basin Street, 593 00:40:31,054 --> 00:40:34,891 and Scott LaFaro sat in when I was playing with Bill, 594 00:40:34,891 --> 00:40:38,603 and that shit really clicked, really clicked. 595 00:40:38,603 --> 00:40:44,609 [jazz music] 596 00:40:49,030 --> 00:40:51,658 And so then that became a trio. 597 00:40:55,828 --> 00:40:57,538 - Bill Evans, everybody. 598 00:40:57,538 --> 00:40:59,999 Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro, Paul Motian. 599 00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:07,048 - We played in Birdland opposite Count Basie Big Band, man. 600 00:41:07,048 --> 00:41:08,883 I mean, that place was packed. 601 00:41:08,883 --> 00:41:10,051 It was like a madhouse. 602 00:41:14,972 --> 00:41:17,850 We knew what we were doing, man, and we were having a ball. 603 00:41:17,850 --> 00:41:20,019 - That's all they wanted to do, those guys. 604 00:41:20,019 --> 00:41:21,437 They wanted to just play. 605 00:41:28,778 --> 00:41:29,904 - Well, you hear Scott with other groups. 606 00:41:29,904 --> 00:41:31,114 He sounds good. 607 00:41:31,114 --> 00:41:33,908 You hear Scott with Bill Evans and Paul Motian. 608 00:41:33,908 --> 00:41:35,284 Then he sounds amazing. 609 00:41:35,284 --> 00:41:37,954 - Bill and Scotty, they had-- they just had a thing 610 00:41:37,954 --> 00:41:39,956 where they had this kind of interaction 611 00:41:39,956 --> 00:41:43,751 where there was really a real communication 612 00:41:43,751 --> 00:41:45,002 between the piano and the bass. 613 00:41:45,002 --> 00:41:46,754 Before that, it was trios. 614 00:41:46,754 --> 00:41:49,799 It was a piano player with bass and drum accompaniment. 615 00:41:49,799 --> 00:41:51,551 This thing was like three people 616 00:41:51,551 --> 00:41:53,678 making, like, one instrument. 617 00:41:53,678 --> 00:41:56,305 - Almost a collective dialogue. 618 00:42:12,488 --> 00:42:16,451 - But Paul kept it all together. 619 00:42:16,451 --> 00:42:18,327 Paul was wonderful. 620 00:42:28,504 --> 00:42:29,881 - Our first record-- that is, 621 00:42:29,881 --> 00:42:32,508 the "Portrait in Jazz" on Riverside, 622 00:42:32,508 --> 00:42:35,970 you hear a type of interplay and things which we discovered. 623 00:42:35,970 --> 00:42:38,598 - "Portraits," where we play "Witchcraft" 624 00:42:38,598 --> 00:42:41,851 and "Autumn Leaves"-- that's great. 625 00:42:41,851 --> 00:42:43,102 I love that record. 626 00:42:52,987 --> 00:42:55,406 - Scotty thought Bill was absolutely brilliant. 627 00:42:55,406 --> 00:42:56,949 You know, they had a special relationship. 628 00:42:56,949 --> 00:43:00,036 They, you know, started discussing Eastern philosophies. 629 00:43:00,036 --> 00:43:04,832 - Scott was always at a high pitch of intensity. 630 00:43:04,832 --> 00:43:06,959 He was a constant inspiration to me. 631 00:43:06,959 --> 00:43:08,169 - Bill was doing some drugs 632 00:43:08,169 --> 00:43:09,962 when we were playing with Scott LaFaro. 633 00:43:13,007 --> 00:43:16,302 - Bill and his old lady lived up on West End Avenue. 634 00:43:18,888 --> 00:43:20,473 And it was kind of in the wintertime, 635 00:43:20,473 --> 00:43:22,475 and the landlord put all their furniture 636 00:43:22,475 --> 00:43:24,727 out on the sidewalk. 637 00:43:24,727 --> 00:43:26,020 Everything was chaotic. 638 00:43:26,020 --> 00:43:27,605 They didn't know where they were gonna go, 639 00:43:27,605 --> 00:43:29,941 didn't have any money and, you know, that kind of scene. 640 00:43:31,901 --> 00:43:34,070 - Bill was screwing up, you know, 641 00:43:34,070 --> 00:43:35,321 with the drugs and stuff, 642 00:43:35,321 --> 00:43:37,907 and Scotty didn't understand it. 643 00:43:39,909 --> 00:43:41,494 - One night, he really put Bill down, man. 644 00:43:41,494 --> 00:43:43,037 He said, "You ought to go and look in the mirror, man." 645 00:43:43,037 --> 00:43:45,039 He said, "What the fuck are you doing, man?" 646 00:43:45,039 --> 00:43:45,832 He said, "You were playing great." 647 00:43:45,832 --> 00:43:46,958 He said, "Now"-- he said, 648 00:43:46,958 --> 00:43:48,417 "You aren't playing good at all." 649 00:43:48,417 --> 00:43:50,837 So I mean, he let him know. You know, he would say it. 650 00:43:50,837 --> 00:43:53,422 - Bill was just so strung out those days. 651 00:43:53,422 --> 00:43:57,802 As much as he wanted to quit... 652 00:43:58,886 --> 00:44:00,263 He couldn't. 653 00:44:00,263 --> 00:44:02,306 He had inner demons. 654 00:44:02,306 --> 00:44:08,312 [jazz music] 655 00:44:12,733 --> 00:44:14,735 - The "Explorations" album, for instance, 656 00:44:14,735 --> 00:44:15,820 I wasn't gonna release. 657 00:44:15,820 --> 00:44:18,281 We had a very, very bad feeling 658 00:44:18,281 --> 00:44:20,575 within the group that night for reasons 659 00:44:20,575 --> 00:44:22,660 which I won't bother to explain. 660 00:44:30,835 --> 00:44:33,004 - "My Haunted Heart," that's an amazing song. 661 00:44:33,004 --> 00:44:34,380 The way Scott-- 662 00:44:34,380 --> 00:44:36,674 Scott can break your heart with notes he's playing, 663 00:44:36,674 --> 00:44:38,175 and it's just amazing. 664 00:44:44,599 --> 00:44:46,851 - And "Explorations" is just like a seminal record, 665 00:44:46,851 --> 00:44:48,853 not just for Bill Evans but in jazz. 666 00:44:48,853 --> 00:44:51,898 You listen to "Elsa" and "Israel" 667 00:44:51,898 --> 00:44:54,108 and "Sweet and Lovely." 668 00:44:54,108 --> 00:44:56,819 That record is just--mwah. 669 00:45:17,882 --> 00:45:19,008 - Sunday afternoon 670 00:45:19,008 --> 00:45:22,678 and Sunday night of the final day 671 00:45:22,678 --> 00:45:25,139 of a Bill Evans Trio engagement 672 00:45:25,139 --> 00:45:29,018 at the Village Vanguard was completely recorded. 673 00:45:35,107 --> 00:45:36,943 - It's the first actual records I bought, you know, 674 00:45:36,943 --> 00:45:37,985 in vinyl 12-inch discs. 675 00:45:37,985 --> 00:45:39,946 "Waltz for Debbie," "Sunday at the Vanguard." 676 00:45:39,946 --> 00:45:41,447 And I heard on "Sunday at the Vanguard," 677 00:45:41,447 --> 00:45:43,532 and just from the downbeat, you know, 678 00:45:43,532 --> 00:45:44,992 the air in the club and everything 679 00:45:44,992 --> 00:45:46,285 and just fell in love with it. 680 00:45:46,285 --> 00:45:52,291 [soft jazz music] 681 00:45:58,297 --> 00:46:00,800 - I remember sitting in the back, be hanging there. 682 00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:02,551 Scotty would be there, Paul, 683 00:46:02,551 --> 00:46:04,261 and Bill would be sitting there usually, 684 00:46:04,261 --> 00:46:05,846 and he had this little book, 685 00:46:05,846 --> 00:46:08,683 a little music book, and I remember him-- 686 00:46:08,683 --> 00:46:11,394 he'd be writing down the changes to some tune 687 00:46:11,394 --> 00:46:13,646 that he wanted to play or something, you know? 688 00:46:21,070 --> 00:46:22,905 - "Waltz for Debby." That says it. 689 00:46:22,905 --> 00:46:26,283 Here's a man who, early in his career, 690 00:46:26,283 --> 00:46:30,663 just reached and came out with a gem like this. 691 00:46:36,877 --> 00:46:40,006 This is a gorgeous piece of music. 692 00:46:48,305 --> 00:46:49,932 - It was a feeling that came across. 693 00:46:49,932 --> 00:46:51,892 The treatment of those pieces, 694 00:46:51,892 --> 00:46:54,770 they were really playing for each other. 695 00:47:04,989 --> 00:47:06,699 - People listen to those records, 696 00:47:06,699 --> 00:47:08,993 and they see how good everything was, 697 00:47:08,993 --> 00:47:11,203 but if you didn't hear it live... 698 00:47:11,203 --> 00:47:12,705 [laughs] 699 00:47:12,705 --> 00:47:14,915 Listen, you can't-- there's no comparison, man. 700 00:47:14,915 --> 00:47:16,876 If you were sitting here when we were playing, 701 00:47:16,876 --> 00:47:19,045 you'd really get it. 702 00:47:19,045 --> 00:47:20,004 You'd get a message. 703 00:47:20,004 --> 00:47:22,214 [laughing] 704 00:47:22,214 --> 00:47:24,175 - No matter what he did before that and after that, 705 00:47:24,175 --> 00:47:26,469 the Vanguard sessions, you know, 706 00:47:26,469 --> 00:47:28,971 they'll be still out there before everything falls away. 707 00:47:28,971 --> 00:47:31,807 They'll still be there, yeah. 708 00:47:31,807 --> 00:47:34,769 [applause] 709 00:47:34,769 --> 00:47:39,815 [jazz music] 710 00:47:39,815 --> 00:47:41,776 - There was the Sunday night after the session, 711 00:47:41,776 --> 00:47:43,360 the recording session, the end of the gig. 712 00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:44,862 I'm packing up the drums, 713 00:47:44,862 --> 00:47:46,405 and I said to Bill and Scott, 714 00:47:46,405 --> 00:47:48,949 I said, "Hey, man, let's work more. 715 00:47:48,949 --> 00:47:50,159 Let's--we can do more." 716 00:47:50,159 --> 00:47:52,953 You know, we could be-- and they both agreed. 717 00:47:52,953 --> 00:47:54,121 They said, "Yeah, this-- 718 00:47:54,121 --> 00:47:55,664 everything's really clicking now." 719 00:47:58,834 --> 00:48:02,838 - They were so wired from that evening, people talking, 720 00:48:02,838 --> 00:48:04,715 rapping, doing everything. 721 00:48:04,715 --> 00:48:07,301 Scotty was just thrilled. 722 00:48:07,301 --> 00:48:08,803 So was Bill. 723 00:48:08,803 --> 00:48:12,932 - Whoever knew that that day would be such an important day? 724 00:48:13,933 --> 00:48:15,810 - That day was the last time 725 00:48:15,810 --> 00:48:17,853 that these two guys played together. 726 00:48:20,523 --> 00:48:22,817 - And then, like, a couple weeks after that, 727 00:48:22,817 --> 00:48:24,777 I get this phone call from Bill. 728 00:48:27,780 --> 00:48:28,823 - I think at that time, 729 00:48:28,823 --> 00:48:30,908 Scotty had been out on the road, 730 00:48:30,908 --> 00:48:32,618 I hadn't seen him for a while, 731 00:48:32,618 --> 00:48:35,830 and I had no idea that he went to these friends up in-- 732 00:48:35,830 --> 00:48:38,165 around Geneva, where he was from. 733 00:49:06,610 --> 00:49:08,821 - It's a pain that never goes away. 734 00:49:08,821 --> 00:49:11,824 [crying] 735 00:49:17,371 --> 00:49:21,125 - He was a kid. He was 25 when he died. 736 00:49:21,125 --> 00:49:24,003 He was a great guy. I loved him. 737 00:49:24,003 --> 00:49:26,130 He was one of my best friends. 738 00:49:26,130 --> 00:49:29,800 - Memories, and tears, and, you know, some-- 739 00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:31,218 one of those kind of things 740 00:49:31,218 --> 00:49:33,804 that you don't forget forever. 741 00:49:33,804 --> 00:49:36,223 You know, you just don't forget it forever. 742 00:49:36,223 --> 00:49:38,058 That's the love of my life. 743 00:49:44,481 --> 00:49:46,150 - I loved Bill, man, and I loved Scott, 744 00:49:46,150 --> 00:49:47,318 and we got along great. 745 00:49:47,318 --> 00:49:49,403 It was a wonderful time. 746 00:49:54,575 --> 00:49:57,036 - I mean, I just can't comprehend death. 747 00:49:57,036 --> 00:49:58,579 I just can't comprehend it. 748 00:49:58,579 --> 00:50:01,707 As far as I'm concerned, he's alive. 749 00:50:01,707 --> 00:50:03,751 He's not here at this moment. That's all. 750 00:50:03,751 --> 00:50:06,837 But I can't comprehend death. 751 00:50:13,719 --> 00:50:19,683 [slow jazz piano] 752 00:50:27,566 --> 00:50:29,860 - Bill was out of it. 753 00:50:29,860 --> 00:50:31,362 Scotty was gonna be someone 754 00:50:31,362 --> 00:50:34,365 he would probably miss the rest of his life. 755 00:50:34,365 --> 00:50:36,617 - He didn't want to play for a while. He was really down. 756 00:50:36,617 --> 00:50:38,202 So was I, man. 757 00:50:40,829 --> 00:50:43,249 - Bill was floundering without management, 758 00:50:43,249 --> 00:50:45,918 and I found him a manager, Helen Keane. 759 00:50:48,254 --> 00:50:51,215 - My mom was totally centered on Bill. 760 00:50:51,215 --> 00:50:54,385 There was just this... 761 00:50:54,385 --> 00:50:57,930 this flow between them, this--this connection. 762 00:50:57,930 --> 00:51:00,849 - Helen, she was very strong, and very good for Bill. 763 00:51:00,849 --> 00:51:03,310 He'd have been dead without her. 764 00:51:03,310 --> 00:51:06,313 I don't think Bill would have had the career he did without her. 765 00:51:09,817 --> 00:51:15,823 [rapid jazz piano] 766 00:51:17,032 --> 00:51:18,951 - So when it was time to start playing again, 767 00:51:18,951 --> 00:51:21,036 Bill got Chuck Israels. 768 00:51:21,036 --> 00:51:23,247 So Chuck started playing with us. 769 00:51:28,877 --> 00:51:31,422 - And we went to New York and worked at the Hickory House 770 00:51:31,422 --> 00:51:33,716 and then jobs at the Vanguard. 771 00:51:36,969 --> 00:51:39,054 This was the real deal for me. 772 00:51:39,054 --> 00:51:42,808 This was where I wanted to be, and there I was. 773 00:51:42,808 --> 00:51:48,814 [upbeat jazz music] 774 00:51:54,236 --> 00:51:55,863 - And that's when he got Larry Bunker, 775 00:51:55,863 --> 00:51:57,072 and then they went to Europe 776 00:51:57,072 --> 00:51:58,991 for the first time after that. 777 00:52:02,119 --> 00:52:04,538 - One of the most wonderfully integrated units 778 00:52:04,538 --> 00:52:06,915 in the history of jazz, the Bill Evans Trio. 779 00:52:20,095 --> 00:52:23,223 - In Europe, Bill could walk into a concert hall with, 780 00:52:23,223 --> 00:52:24,933 you know, 5,000 people, 781 00:52:24,933 --> 00:52:26,852 and you could hear a pin drop. 782 00:52:49,041 --> 00:52:50,125 - "My Foolish Heart." 783 00:52:50,125 --> 00:52:52,503 The way that he would do the voicings 784 00:52:52,503 --> 00:52:55,047 was such a complete marriage 785 00:52:55,047 --> 00:52:57,966 of harmony and counterpoint. 786 00:52:57,966 --> 00:53:00,052 Really authentic, 787 00:53:00,052 --> 00:53:01,637 very inspirational. 788 00:53:01,637 --> 00:53:02,638 Wow. 789 00:53:12,856 --> 00:53:15,484 - Bill was playing so beautiful. 790 00:53:15,484 --> 00:53:19,154 He had such a knowledge of what to do. 791 00:53:22,825 --> 00:53:24,952 Every modern piano player 792 00:53:24,952 --> 00:53:27,538 wants to arrive at the concept 793 00:53:27,538 --> 00:53:30,833 that Bill Evans did with the piano. 794 00:53:36,338 --> 00:53:39,299 [applause] 795 00:53:46,140 --> 00:53:50,060 - He was on the road a lot, 796 00:53:50,060 --> 00:53:52,187 but he did visit Baton Rouge. 797 00:53:52,187 --> 00:53:53,605 When he'd come visit us, you know, 798 00:53:53,605 --> 00:53:56,525 it was the two of them having conversations 799 00:53:56,525 --> 00:53:57,860 either at the piano... 800 00:53:57,860 --> 00:53:59,486 - Something like this for instance, maybe. 801 00:53:59,486 --> 00:54:03,282 [jazz piano tune] 802 00:54:03,282 --> 00:54:07,953 - Bill just adored the fact that Harry was a great teacher. 803 00:54:07,953 --> 00:54:12,624 Harry became the first music supervisor 804 00:54:12,624 --> 00:54:13,750 in Baton Rouge. 805 00:54:13,750 --> 00:54:15,836 - A schoolteacher in the day, 806 00:54:15,836 --> 00:54:16,879 and then at night, 807 00:54:16,879 --> 00:54:20,507 almost every weekend playing jazz. 808 00:54:20,507 --> 00:54:22,384 - I'll never forget that visit when you came down 809 00:54:22,384 --> 00:54:24,636 to my home in Louisiana, and I said, 810 00:54:24,636 --> 00:54:27,139 "Bill, show me those changes in harmonics, you know?" 811 00:54:27,139 --> 00:54:30,642 - "No, Har, I'm not gonna deprive you 812 00:54:30,642 --> 00:54:33,937 of the opportunity to discover it yourself." 813 00:54:33,937 --> 00:54:35,564 - That's--you're hitting home. 814 00:54:35,564 --> 00:54:38,025 - It was two jazz brothers 815 00:54:38,025 --> 00:54:39,985 talking to each other about jazz. 816 00:54:42,863 --> 00:54:44,072 - But there were gaps, 817 00:54:44,072 --> 00:54:47,034 sometimes several years where we didn't see him. 818 00:54:48,619 --> 00:54:49,912 - There were periods-- 819 00:54:49,912 --> 00:54:51,830 up and down periods in his life. 820 00:54:51,830 --> 00:54:53,916 You know, he was always fighting that demon. 821 00:54:55,876 --> 00:54:57,878 - In Bill's hotel room, 822 00:54:57,878 --> 00:55:00,255 Bill and Ellaine shooting up before the gig. 823 00:55:01,965 --> 00:55:04,676 Cooking some stuff in a bottle cap, 824 00:55:04,676 --> 00:55:07,429 pulling it in through a hypodermic needle. 825 00:55:07,429 --> 00:55:09,306 Come on, man! 826 00:55:15,187 --> 00:55:18,690 - In 1963, Harry went to Bill's apartment, 827 00:55:18,690 --> 00:55:21,818 and Harry pulled up his sleeve, 828 00:55:21,818 --> 00:55:23,862 and there were just needle marks all over. 829 00:55:29,034 --> 00:55:32,162 And Harry was obsessed to try to save his brother. 830 00:55:35,666 --> 00:55:40,045 Love, unconditional love. 831 00:55:54,893 --> 00:55:57,938 - Eddie was able to bring something else to the table. 832 00:55:57,938 --> 00:56:00,440 Eddie could play, you know? 833 00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:01,608 [laughing] 834 00:56:15,747 --> 00:56:17,541 - I had seven wonderful years. 835 00:56:17,541 --> 00:56:19,793 It was a very special period in my life. 836 00:56:19,793 --> 00:56:23,255 [jazz music] 837 00:56:23,255 --> 00:56:25,507 We worked maybe 45 weeks a year. 838 00:56:25,507 --> 00:56:28,635 Top of the Gate--that was kind of our home base gig. 839 00:56:32,472 --> 00:56:33,557 And then we'd fly to Europe 840 00:56:33,557 --> 00:56:35,892 and do three, four weeks in Europe. 841 00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:41,773 Maybe go out to the west coast for a couple of weeks. 842 00:56:45,193 --> 00:56:47,946 Maybe go to South America or maybe Canada. 843 00:56:53,035 --> 00:56:56,997 Bill was, like, a father figure as well as a musical mentor, 844 00:56:56,997 --> 00:56:58,832 and very nurturing. 845 00:56:58,832 --> 00:57:00,626 I feel really blessed 846 00:57:00,626 --> 00:57:04,046 to have spent that time with Bill and have him-- 847 00:57:04,046 --> 00:57:05,631 that kind of relationship. 848 00:57:17,017 --> 00:57:20,437 - "Conversations With Myself" was a spectacular session. 849 00:57:26,526 --> 00:57:28,904 When he would play the Vanguard, I was there every night. 850 00:57:28,904 --> 00:57:32,032 We became fast friends. 851 00:57:32,032 --> 00:57:33,492 - First time I met Bill, 852 00:57:33,492 --> 00:57:34,951 he invited me down to the Vanguard, 853 00:57:34,951 --> 00:57:36,745 and he wrote out a couple tunes for me 854 00:57:36,745 --> 00:57:38,246 right in the break. 855 00:57:38,246 --> 00:57:41,124 That's how kind he was to a guy he'd just met, 856 00:57:41,124 --> 00:57:43,126 and I thought that was 857 00:57:43,126 --> 00:57:45,253 the real, genuine article. 858 00:57:46,963 --> 00:57:50,550 - Bill was introverted, quiet, funny, 859 00:57:50,550 --> 00:57:53,804 and those pictures of him crouched over the piano 860 00:57:53,804 --> 00:57:56,723 are a pretty accurate portrait of his personality. 861 00:58:01,144 --> 00:58:05,399 [lively piano music] 862 00:58:05,399 --> 00:58:08,819 - Bill asked me about doing a duet recording with him. 863 00:58:13,115 --> 00:58:15,701 It was as if he were in part of my brain. 864 00:58:15,701 --> 00:58:17,828 His sense of texture was just amazing. 865 00:58:26,545 --> 00:58:29,798 - Bill's touch--it's the sound he made at the piano. 866 00:58:29,798 --> 00:58:31,091 The ability to... 867 00:58:31,091 --> 00:58:37,097 [soft jazz tune] 868 00:58:50,902 --> 00:58:52,904 Just a complete command of 869 00:58:52,904 --> 00:58:54,865 the tonal colors on the piano, 870 00:58:54,865 --> 00:58:56,950 you know, like a great concert pianist. 871 00:59:13,341 --> 00:59:14,509 The harmonic choices, 872 00:59:14,509 --> 00:59:16,178 the way that the melody is singing, 873 00:59:16,178 --> 00:59:20,515 it all came out very uniquely Bill Evans. 874 00:59:31,860 --> 00:59:35,489 - He had that basic classical training to begin with 875 00:59:35,489 --> 00:59:38,200 that solidified his approach 876 00:59:38,200 --> 00:59:39,910 to how to play the piano. 877 00:59:39,910 --> 00:59:43,038 - Getting the sound out of the instrument 878 00:59:43,038 --> 00:59:44,247 with his fingers, 879 00:59:44,247 --> 00:59:46,374 and not anything else. 880 00:59:46,374 --> 00:59:48,835 - I guess everything that Bill did was informed by the fact 881 00:59:48,835 --> 00:59:50,003 that Bill was a composer. 882 00:59:50,003 --> 00:59:56,009 [Bill Evans' "Waltz for Debby"] 883 01:00:03,850 --> 01:00:05,393 - Bill loved Debby, you know, 884 01:00:05,393 --> 01:00:08,230 and when she was three, he wrote that tune, 885 01:00:08,230 --> 01:00:09,898 you know, "Waltz for Debby." 886 01:00:11,817 --> 01:00:15,070 - Being at the beach with him, going swimming, 887 01:00:15,070 --> 01:00:18,907 those were, like, happy, happy times. 888 01:00:25,539 --> 01:00:26,915 He always played it. 889 01:00:26,915 --> 01:00:30,710 You know, it was like, you're here in my heart. 890 01:00:30,710 --> 01:00:32,379 You're here in my heart. 891 01:00:43,557 --> 01:00:48,770 - There was a side of Bill that always yearned for family. 892 01:00:56,278 --> 01:00:58,321 - Bill had a unique voice. 893 01:00:58,321 --> 01:01:02,993 His compositions should rate with those of Chopin. 894 01:01:02,993 --> 01:01:04,744 It's the harmonies. 895 01:01:07,789 --> 01:01:10,959 "Turn Out The Stars"--that was written after his father died. 896 01:01:10,959 --> 01:01:16,965 [jazz piano music] 897 01:01:24,264 --> 01:01:26,099 Chopin wrote strictly for the piano. 898 01:01:26,099 --> 01:01:28,852 I think Bill wrote strictly for the piano. 899 01:01:40,155 --> 01:01:42,282 - That little notebook is, like, really fascinating, 900 01:01:42,282 --> 01:01:45,535 'cause he always had two or three of those in his pocket. 901 01:01:45,535 --> 01:01:46,912 You know, you'd be on the subway 902 01:01:46,912 --> 01:01:48,330 or in a restaurant, and all of a sudden, 903 01:01:48,330 --> 01:01:50,540 he'd whip out a notebook and start writing stuff. 904 01:01:50,540 --> 01:01:52,667 This is "Walkin' Up." I used to love that. 905 01:01:52,667 --> 01:01:58,673 [lively jazz piano] 906 01:02:18,443 --> 01:02:19,945 That's it. 907 01:02:19,945 --> 01:02:20,987 That's a tricky ending. 908 01:02:23,907 --> 01:02:26,743 - In 1970, 909 01:02:26,743 --> 01:02:29,871 Bill was at Kennedy Airport with his trio. 910 01:02:29,871 --> 01:02:31,623 They patted him down, 911 01:02:31,623 --> 01:02:33,750 and they found the syringe, and that was it. 912 01:02:33,750 --> 01:02:35,418 They went into the suitcases, 913 01:02:35,418 --> 01:02:38,421 and they found a huge stash of heroin. 914 01:02:38,421 --> 01:02:40,715 Bill told me that at that time, 915 01:02:40,715 --> 01:02:43,176 he was shooting up every 45 minutes. 916 01:02:45,220 --> 01:02:47,013 Bill went on methadone, 917 01:02:47,013 --> 01:02:49,474 which he kept up for a number of years, 918 01:02:49,474 --> 01:02:52,477 and he looked great. 919 01:02:57,190 --> 01:03:00,527 - Bill kind of went through the classic midlife crisis. 920 01:03:00,527 --> 01:03:01,987 You know, he grew a beard, and he-- 921 01:03:01,987 --> 01:03:03,822 and, you know, he got into clothes. 922 01:03:06,157 --> 01:03:09,202 - He always used to like to wear those flashy sport jackets. 923 01:03:10,870 --> 01:03:13,206 Looked like somebody from Hawaii, 924 01:03:13,206 --> 01:03:15,959 you know, a tourist. 925 01:03:15,959 --> 01:03:17,627 - Bill Evans comes out here, 926 01:03:17,627 --> 01:03:18,837 and they were at the Playboy Club. 927 01:03:18,837 --> 01:03:22,424 Standing next to me for at least 20 minutes was Bill Evans, 928 01:03:22,424 --> 01:03:24,342 but I didn't recognize him. 929 01:03:39,607 --> 01:03:42,819 - He lived in the Bronx. 930 01:03:42,819 --> 01:03:45,697 He lived with his first wife, 931 01:03:45,697 --> 01:03:47,574 really--or common-law wife, Ellaine. 932 01:03:51,202 --> 01:03:54,706 - Ellaine, she was a sweetheart, really. 933 01:03:54,706 --> 01:03:57,500 She was totally devoted to Bill. 934 01:04:00,795 --> 01:04:03,882 - She was with him all the way through the times 935 01:04:03,882 --> 01:04:05,425 when things were really, really bad, 936 01:04:05,425 --> 01:04:08,053 and they were literally on the streets. 937 01:04:08,053 --> 01:04:11,097 - I felt a lot of warmth and love toward her. 938 01:04:11,097 --> 01:04:13,141 You know, my whole family did. 939 01:04:13,141 --> 01:04:15,727 They knew she was an addict. They didn't care. 940 01:04:15,727 --> 01:04:17,520 They loved her. 941 01:04:17,520 --> 01:04:19,522 He wanted a child, 942 01:04:19,522 --> 01:04:22,525 and he couldn't have a child with Ellaine. 943 01:04:22,525 --> 01:04:26,321 And then he got hooked up with Nenette. 944 01:04:26,321 --> 01:04:28,281 - Working at Concerts by the Sea, 945 01:04:28,281 --> 01:04:29,991 Redondo Beach, he met her there. 946 01:04:29,991 --> 01:04:32,035 She was a waitress there in the club. 947 01:04:32,035 --> 01:04:35,038 Bill just, you know, he flipped over Nenette. 948 01:04:35,038 --> 01:04:36,623 You know, he took her back to New York, 949 01:04:36,623 --> 01:04:38,625 and went and told Ellaine that, you know-- 950 01:04:38,625 --> 01:04:41,211 she had no idea what was happening. 951 01:04:41,211 --> 01:04:44,672 So this came as a complete shock to her. 952 01:04:49,844 --> 01:04:51,554 - And I called her when I found out 953 01:04:51,554 --> 01:04:54,057 he was going to leave, you know, and said, 954 01:04:54,057 --> 01:04:56,476 "Come stay with us in Baton Rouge for a while," 955 01:04:56,476 --> 01:04:58,394 but she didn't. 956 01:04:58,394 --> 01:05:03,024 - I just don't think she could envision a life without him. 957 01:05:07,403 --> 01:05:09,572 [brake screeches] 958 01:05:09,572 --> 01:05:12,534 [horn blaring] 959 01:05:12,534 --> 01:05:14,702 - I was at work, and I get a call from Bill, 960 01:05:14,702 --> 01:05:18,998 and he said, "Ellaine is dead. 961 01:05:18,998 --> 01:05:21,584 She threw herself in front of a subway." 962 01:05:25,880 --> 01:05:27,549 - Oh. 963 01:05:29,008 --> 01:05:33,680 All of us, yeah. I was just heartbroken. 964 01:05:35,014 --> 01:05:36,975 - I remember going to the funeral. 965 01:05:36,975 --> 01:05:38,977 Bill was driving. 966 01:05:38,977 --> 01:05:41,688 You know, Bill took it really hard. 967 01:05:41,688 --> 01:05:47,694 [soft jazz piano] 968 01:06:00,707 --> 01:06:03,293 I think it was maybe a couple of months later, 969 01:06:03,293 --> 01:06:05,879 and here, you know, my next trip down to New York, 970 01:06:05,879 --> 01:06:07,964 I'm going to Bill's wedding, you know? 971 01:06:07,964 --> 01:06:11,050 - They got married in a big hotel in New York. 972 01:06:12,677 --> 01:06:16,973 - He was 43, and she was 27. 973 01:06:26,900 --> 01:06:28,526 - She did provide 974 01:06:28,526 --> 01:06:30,570 what he had wanted so badly: 975 01:06:30,570 --> 01:06:34,449 a beautiful, healthy child named Evan Evans. 976 01:06:44,834 --> 01:06:46,669 - They had the house in New Jersey, 977 01:06:46,669 --> 01:06:48,504 I think, just about that time. 978 01:06:48,504 --> 01:06:49,964 That was a good period in his life. 979 01:06:49,964 --> 01:06:51,132 I mean, really happy. 980 01:06:51,132 --> 01:06:53,092 About as happy as I'd ever seen him. 981 01:07:00,183 --> 01:07:03,019 - Here's a woman who gave him a marriage, 982 01:07:03,019 --> 01:07:05,063 who gave him a son. 983 01:07:07,941 --> 01:07:10,568 Who gave him a stepdaughter, Maxine, 984 01:07:10,568 --> 01:07:12,070 wonderful girl who loved Bill 985 01:07:12,070 --> 01:07:14,948 and whom Bill treated as his daughter. 986 01:07:18,952 --> 01:07:22,288 I think Nenette gave Bill another-- 987 01:07:22,288 --> 01:07:24,332 almost another ten years of life. 988 01:07:24,332 --> 01:07:30,338 [jazz piano music] 989 01:07:39,847 --> 01:07:41,724 - The musicians' world, 990 01:07:41,724 --> 01:07:44,102 everybody knew about Bill Evans. 991 01:07:44,102 --> 01:07:47,105 I mean, I had such respect, it was just-- 992 01:07:47,105 --> 01:07:49,983 it felt like I was recording with the symphony. 993 01:07:49,983 --> 01:07:52,735 [singing] The night 994 01:07:52,735 --> 01:07:58,574 Is like a lovely tune 995 01:07:58,574 --> 01:08:04,247 Beware, my foolish heart 996 01:08:04,247 --> 01:08:07,166 And Bill said, keep all the groupies away 997 01:08:07,166 --> 01:08:08,876 from the record date. 998 01:08:08,876 --> 01:08:11,838 Just you and I come in, 999 01:08:11,838 --> 01:08:12,964 you know, and Helen. 1000 01:08:12,964 --> 01:08:18,303 [singing] Take care, my foolish heart 1001 01:08:18,303 --> 01:08:21,848 What was fascinating to me was just to listen 1002 01:08:21,848 --> 01:08:26,269 to how he constructed the performances of each song. 1003 01:08:26,269 --> 01:08:29,355 It was the greatest music lesson I ever got. 1004 01:08:29,355 --> 01:08:35,445 [Bill Evans' "A Child Is Born"] 1005 01:08:37,488 --> 01:08:42,493 [singing] One small heart 1006 01:08:42,493 --> 01:08:47,707 One pair of eyes 1007 01:08:47,707 --> 01:08:52,045 One work of art 1008 01:08:52,045 --> 01:08:54,922 Here in my arms 1009 01:08:54,922 --> 01:08:57,216 I've recorded since 1950 1010 01:08:57,216 --> 01:09:00,303 with so many different great musicians and orchestras. 1011 01:09:00,303 --> 01:09:05,058 It was really the best involvement 1012 01:09:05,058 --> 01:09:07,518 I ever had with a musician. 1013 01:09:15,985 --> 01:09:19,781 - I was literally jumping off the floor in my hotel room. 1014 01:09:19,781 --> 01:09:21,032 I couldn't believe it. 1015 01:09:21,032 --> 01:09:22,158 I called up my dad, who's in California. 1016 01:09:22,158 --> 01:09:23,618 "Dad, guess what?" 1017 01:09:23,618 --> 01:09:26,037 You know, "I got this gig with Bill Evans," you know? 1018 01:09:26,037 --> 01:09:27,455 - Marc Johnson was 24, 1019 01:09:27,455 --> 01:09:29,874 and I was 30 when we joined Bill. 1020 01:09:34,587 --> 01:09:37,048 - Bill told me, the trio with Marc and Joe-- 1021 01:09:37,048 --> 01:09:39,008 he had the same feeling with that trio 1022 01:09:39,008 --> 01:09:40,885 that he had with Scott and Paul. 1023 01:09:40,885 --> 01:09:45,807 [jazz bass music] 1024 01:09:45,807 --> 01:09:47,558 - Bill loved Marc. He loved him like a son. 1025 01:09:47,558 --> 01:09:50,895 You know, I think he saw a lot of Scott LaFaro in Marc. 1026 01:09:50,895 --> 01:09:53,064 There was a spirit there that Bill recognized 1027 01:09:53,064 --> 01:09:55,817 and really, really enjoyed. 1028 01:09:55,817 --> 01:10:01,823 [lively jazz music] 1029 01:10:06,452 --> 01:10:08,121 - I saw he was playing at the Vanguard. 1030 01:10:08,121 --> 01:10:09,539 I wanted to say hello, 1031 01:10:09,539 --> 01:10:11,666 so I went in the dressing room 1032 01:10:11,666 --> 01:10:12,834 and I said, "How you doing?" 1033 01:10:12,834 --> 01:10:14,877 He said, "Well, you're a friend," 1034 01:10:14,877 --> 01:10:17,672 and he said, "I want to-- I want to tell you 1035 01:10:17,672 --> 01:10:19,674 before you're gonna hear this from other people." 1036 01:10:19,674 --> 01:10:22,552 But he said, "I'm using drugs again." 1037 01:10:22,552 --> 01:10:26,180 And he said, "Nenette found out, and she threw me out." 1038 01:10:26,180 --> 01:10:28,558 She was finding the syringes. 1039 01:10:28,558 --> 01:10:30,435 Here she is with little kids in the house. 1040 01:10:30,435 --> 01:10:33,187 And that was when the marriage really fell apart. 1041 01:10:44,157 --> 01:10:46,117 - Like many virtuoso pianists, 1042 01:10:46,117 --> 01:10:49,829 Bill had a selfishness. 1043 01:10:49,829 --> 01:10:51,581 He was a very selfish, 1044 01:10:51,581 --> 01:10:53,749 dedicated-to-himself kind of guy. 1045 01:10:55,918 --> 01:10:57,753 And Bill got very involved with people. 1046 01:10:57,753 --> 01:10:59,380 He got too involved with them, 1047 01:10:59,380 --> 01:11:01,966 and I think he hurt a hell of a lot of people. 1048 01:11:08,556 --> 01:11:12,018 - Bill absolutely adored Harry. 1049 01:11:20,067 --> 01:11:23,321 I didn't notice his getting sick until somebody said, 1050 01:11:23,321 --> 01:11:25,531 "Pat, I think something's wrong with Harry. 1051 01:11:25,531 --> 01:11:28,951 He's talking to himself at the piano." 1052 01:11:28,951 --> 01:11:31,746 - My father was diagnosed schizophrenic. 1053 01:11:34,332 --> 01:11:35,917 - He was on medication. 1054 01:11:35,917 --> 01:11:38,044 Finally I had to have him hospitalized. 1055 01:11:40,296 --> 01:11:44,300 - It was quite a shock going from music supervisor 1056 01:11:44,300 --> 01:11:46,886 to the state hospital. 1057 01:11:49,972 --> 01:11:53,184 Bill footed the bill to get the best treatment possible. 1058 01:11:55,853 --> 01:11:58,731 It was sad. He suffered terribly. 1059 01:12:01,734 --> 01:12:04,028 - I went to work, and I said, 1060 01:12:04,028 --> 01:12:06,781 "I better go check on him." 1061 01:12:06,781 --> 01:12:11,035 He'd gone out and got a gun and shot himself. 1062 01:12:20,419 --> 01:12:21,921 - We were on the bandstand, 1063 01:12:21,921 --> 01:12:25,007 and all of a sudden, the sound stops from the piano. 1064 01:12:26,634 --> 01:12:28,052 Waited, I gave it a pregnant pause, 1065 01:12:28,052 --> 01:12:30,346 and I looked up, and he's, like, standing up, 1066 01:12:30,346 --> 01:12:33,015 backing away from the piano with tears coming down his face. 1067 01:12:33,015 --> 01:12:34,642 He says, "I can't. I can't go on. 1068 01:12:34,642 --> 01:12:37,562 He was--he was too much a part of the music." 1069 01:12:37,562 --> 01:12:41,399 And he had learned that day that Harry had committed suicide. 1070 01:12:50,908 --> 01:12:52,869 - Harry represented to him 1071 01:12:52,869 --> 01:12:54,579 his reason for being in music. 1072 01:12:54,579 --> 01:12:56,038 I mean, it was his older brother, 1073 01:12:56,038 --> 01:12:57,999 and he loved him and respected him. 1074 01:12:57,999 --> 01:13:01,085 And so this was a tremendous loss for Bill. 1075 01:13:13,347 --> 01:13:15,516 - Harry had just committed suicide, 1076 01:13:15,516 --> 01:13:19,604 and Bill wrote to me from the plane 1077 01:13:19,604 --> 01:13:22,231 on his way back from the funeral. 1078 01:13:22,231 --> 01:13:25,067 I met Bill at a club in Edmonton 1079 01:13:25,067 --> 01:13:27,903 five days after my 22nd birthday. 1080 01:13:30,531 --> 01:13:32,783 I just remember him standing at the doorway, 1081 01:13:32,783 --> 01:13:35,036 and then he leaned down, and he kissed my cheek, 1082 01:13:35,036 --> 01:13:39,582 and I'd never had a man do that. 1083 01:13:39,582 --> 01:13:43,002 I decide to go to New York and see Bill, 1084 01:13:43,002 --> 01:13:45,880 and then he just, like, took me right into his bedroom, 1085 01:13:45,880 --> 01:13:47,214 sat me down on the bed, 1086 01:13:47,214 --> 01:13:51,093 and it was a very intimate moment 1087 01:13:51,093 --> 01:13:54,096 of just getting to know someone 1088 01:13:54,096 --> 01:13:56,515 that you know is gonna have 1089 01:13:56,515 --> 01:13:59,060 a really big impact on your life. 1090 01:13:59,060 --> 01:14:04,899 [jazz piano music] 1091 01:14:11,072 --> 01:14:14,033 He was sitting at the piano, working on some stuff, 1092 01:14:14,033 --> 01:14:17,161 and he handed me this chart, and it had my name on it, 1093 01:14:17,161 --> 01:14:18,913 and he's like, "Well, I wrote your song. 1094 01:14:18,913 --> 01:14:21,457 It just kind of came out fully formed." 1095 01:14:26,796 --> 01:14:31,717 It's his way of connecting me to him. 1096 01:14:34,970 --> 01:14:37,556 He was writing tunes all the time, 1097 01:14:37,556 --> 01:14:39,892 and then he was working with that trio 1098 01:14:39,892 --> 01:14:42,061 that was his dream trio. 1099 01:14:42,061 --> 01:14:48,025 [jazz music] 1100 01:14:54,448 --> 01:14:58,786 - That fall, the trio really hit a peak, 1101 01:14:58,786 --> 01:15:00,079 the fall of '79. 1102 01:15:05,000 --> 01:15:07,044 He recorded in Paris. 1103 01:15:07,044 --> 01:15:10,965 That recording is probably the pinnacle of that trio. 1104 01:15:15,386 --> 01:15:16,595 - A couple of the recordings 1105 01:15:16,595 --> 01:15:18,597 are some of the last recordings that Bill did. 1106 01:15:18,597 --> 01:15:22,143 Sounded great to me, man, and I thought that--gee, I said, 1107 01:15:22,143 --> 01:15:24,395 "Bill's just playing his ass off again, man." 1108 01:15:24,395 --> 01:15:25,980 It seemed like he knew he was dying. 1109 01:15:25,980 --> 01:15:28,023 He knew he was gonna die. 1110 01:15:31,444 --> 01:15:33,571 - You know the tragedies in his life, obviously, 1111 01:15:33,571 --> 01:15:36,824 with Ellaine and then his brother Harry 1112 01:15:36,824 --> 01:15:38,826 and this, you know, his failed marriage. 1113 01:15:38,826 --> 01:15:41,912 I think he just kind of gave up on a certain level. 1114 01:15:41,912 --> 01:15:44,832 He just didn't-- he'd still play great. 1115 01:15:44,832 --> 01:15:46,000 He was still there for the music. 1116 01:15:46,000 --> 01:15:48,711 In fact, it seemed like he was living for that alone. 1117 01:15:48,711 --> 01:15:50,087 He was living for the music alone. 1118 01:15:58,053 --> 01:16:00,765 - I really believe that he wanted to kill himself. 1119 01:16:00,765 --> 01:16:02,516 That's what I believe. 1120 01:16:05,102 --> 01:16:07,646 - Every day was life and death. 1121 01:16:07,646 --> 01:16:09,940 Every day was Russian roulette. 1122 01:16:09,940 --> 01:16:14,612 He was probably shooting close to an ounce of cocaine a week. 1123 01:16:18,949 --> 01:16:21,494 - He said, "I don't know why I should stay alive." 1124 01:16:21,494 --> 01:16:24,789 And I said, "Well, what about your son?" 1125 01:16:24,789 --> 01:16:27,333 I said, "You got a little boy. 1126 01:16:27,333 --> 01:16:28,501 "What's gonna happen to him? 1127 01:16:28,501 --> 01:16:30,044 He's gonna grow up without a father?" 1128 01:16:36,467 --> 01:16:37,718 And Bill said, "Yeah." 1129 01:16:37,718 --> 01:16:38,844 He said, "Evan." 1130 01:16:38,844 --> 01:16:42,056 He said, "That's right, I could do it for Evan." 1131 01:16:42,056 --> 01:16:44,391 He said, "Thanks, thanks, man." 1132 01:16:44,391 --> 01:16:47,394 That was pretty much the last time I saw him. 1133 01:16:52,066 --> 01:16:54,735 - As things progressed through August, 1134 01:16:54,735 --> 01:16:57,905 he had moved into a very dark, dark place. 1135 01:16:57,905 --> 01:16:59,490 You can hear that in the music. 1136 01:17:05,496 --> 01:17:08,958 - Bill's physical exterior was pretty much falling apart, 1137 01:17:08,958 --> 01:17:10,960 but the power of his music 1138 01:17:10,960 --> 01:17:13,003 was still completely intact, 1139 01:17:13,003 --> 01:17:14,421 right to the bitter end. 1140 01:17:14,421 --> 01:17:16,048 - The last time I saw Bill, 1141 01:17:16,048 --> 01:17:19,343 I was doing the "Merv Griffin Show" in Los Angeles, 1142 01:17:19,343 --> 01:17:20,594 and he was on. 1143 01:17:20,594 --> 01:17:23,055 - One of the most influential piano soloists 1144 01:17:23,055 --> 01:17:26,475 in the jazz world today, the great Bill Evans, Bill? 1145 01:17:26,475 --> 01:17:27,685 [applause] 1146 01:17:27,685 --> 01:17:31,063 - I thought he looked terrible, and I asked him, 1147 01:17:31,063 --> 01:17:32,398 "Do you feel all right?" 1148 01:17:32,398 --> 01:17:35,150 And, you know, he kind of gave me a vague answer. 1149 01:17:35,150 --> 01:17:36,735 - I would like to do this, which I think 1150 01:17:36,735 --> 01:17:40,281 is a little more serious maybe for your audience. 1151 01:17:40,281 --> 01:17:43,033 It's just a rubato, and I won't improvise, 1152 01:17:43,033 --> 01:17:44,410 just play two choruses of medley. 1153 01:17:44,410 --> 01:17:47,413 It's now called "Your Story." 1154 01:18:02,720 --> 01:18:04,972 - It was a really peaceful day. 1155 01:18:04,972 --> 01:18:07,349 We drove into Manhattan. 1156 01:18:07,349 --> 01:18:09,059 Bill had actually made an appointment. 1157 01:18:09,059 --> 01:18:11,604 He wanted to get set up at a new methadone clinic. 1158 01:18:11,604 --> 01:18:13,480 - I remember sitting in the car, 1159 01:18:13,480 --> 01:18:15,190 and Bill laid down in the back seat. 1160 01:18:15,190 --> 01:18:17,067 Laurie was sitting up front with me. 1161 01:18:22,489 --> 01:18:24,033 - As he looked out into the street, 1162 01:18:24,033 --> 01:18:26,035 we had a few jokes. 1163 01:18:26,035 --> 01:18:27,745 We were having a few light moments, 1164 01:18:27,745 --> 01:18:29,413 and then pretty soon, like, there's, like, 1165 01:18:29,413 --> 01:18:31,957 a steady stream of blood coming from his mouth. 1166 01:18:31,957 --> 01:18:35,920 - Bill started to hemorrhage, and it was bad. 1167 01:18:40,132 --> 01:18:42,301 And I'm driving like a maniac, 1168 01:18:42,301 --> 01:18:44,470 and I'm blaring out the horn, and people are stopping, 1169 01:18:44,470 --> 01:18:45,763 and we cut through. 1170 01:18:45,763 --> 01:18:46,972 We pull into the emergency room. 1171 01:18:46,972 --> 01:18:51,685 I pick Bill up and carry him into the emergency room. 1172 01:18:57,524 --> 01:18:59,610 I called Helen, and I called Marc, 1173 01:18:59,610 --> 01:19:01,278 and they came right over, 1174 01:19:01,278 --> 01:19:04,031 and the four of us were actually together in a room 1175 01:19:04,031 --> 01:19:06,659 when the doctor came in and told us 1176 01:19:06,659 --> 01:19:08,661 that Bill didn't make it. 1177 01:19:15,250 --> 01:19:17,294 - It's a devastating moment, man. 1178 01:19:17,294 --> 01:19:18,963 [stammering] 1179 01:19:18,963 --> 01:19:21,340 It's the first person close to me 1180 01:19:21,340 --> 01:19:25,719 that I'd ever...lost. 1181 01:19:25,719 --> 01:19:31,725 - I felt really relieved and happy because-- 1182 01:19:31,725 --> 01:19:34,603 oh, 'cause I knew his struggle was over. 1183 01:19:50,202 --> 01:19:56,208 [somber piano music] 1184 01:20:00,462 --> 01:20:04,883 - When I go to Baton Rouge, they're both under an oak tree. 1185 01:20:15,185 --> 01:20:19,064 Sometimes I feel like Bill almost calls out. 1186 01:20:19,064 --> 01:20:21,734 I don't know why. 1187 01:20:25,029 --> 01:20:30,868 [lively jazz piano] 1188 01:20:37,082 --> 01:20:39,960 - Finally, we live with what Bill left behind, 1189 01:20:39,960 --> 01:20:42,046 which is all these wonderful recordings. 1190 01:20:58,854 --> 01:21:01,815 - Playing with Bill and Scott at that time, it was original. 1191 01:21:01,815 --> 01:21:04,360 I was just real-- you know, it was good. 1192 01:21:04,360 --> 01:21:05,819 [laughing] 1193 01:21:05,819 --> 01:21:07,863 - And when I think of Bill, I always just think about, 1194 01:21:07,863 --> 01:21:10,074 you know, beauty, you know. 1195 01:21:10,074 --> 01:21:11,533 It's beautiful, you know? 1196 01:21:21,877 --> 01:21:23,587 - That's what made Bill so special, you know, 1197 01:21:23,587 --> 01:21:26,006 'cause he was just so-- 1198 01:21:26,006 --> 01:21:27,716 it's an outpouring of his heart. 1199 01:21:27,716 --> 01:21:31,595 - This incredible poignancy, you know? 1200 01:21:31,595 --> 01:21:34,389 To my knowledge, nobody is making music like this. 1201 01:21:38,894 --> 01:21:42,272 - His courage to go deeply within himself 1202 01:21:42,272 --> 01:21:46,110 makes the music touch everybody in such a large way. 1203 01:21:50,072 --> 01:21:53,283 - Bill Evans, Monk, Art Tatum, same kind of thing. 1204 01:21:53,283 --> 01:21:55,577 They dared to be different. 1205 01:22:01,625 --> 01:22:03,961 - Just before he died, I got a call from him. 1206 01:22:03,961 --> 01:22:09,633 He said, "Just go with truth and beauty, 1207 01:22:09,633 --> 01:22:11,385 and forget the rest." 1208 01:22:11,385 --> 01:22:14,304 And ever since then, that's been the premise of my life. 1209 01:22:20,894 --> 01:22:24,273 - The influence that he had on jazz is-- 1210 01:22:24,273 --> 01:22:26,066 go on for another hundred years. 1211 01:22:30,571 --> 01:22:33,866 There was a uniqueness in him 1212 01:22:33,866 --> 01:22:36,368 that will transcend all time. 1213 01:22:56,889 --> 01:22:59,975 [applause]