Tuesday 5 August 2008

A Time For Love

I think at least part of the reason I like Bill Evans so much is that, like me, he was a skinny white guy in glasses. So many incredible jazz musicians are black that occasionally there's a temptation to imagine that jazz is reserved for black people, that white jazz musicians are somehow disrespectful or pretentious. Bill Evans was one of the first jazz pianists I listened to who wasn't black; and to hear him draw the same cascading music that I'd been at first entranced by out of the piano gave me courage to keep on trying.

Bill Evans was, of course, one of the most important jazz pianists of the 20th century, influencing all sorts of incredibly talented musicians who would go on to great things themselves (Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis). He had a prodigious recording career, making about 50 LPs under his own name and featuring on as many more as a sideman. Today's track is one of my favourites, and one that I keep telling myself I'll transcribe and learn, but have yet to. It's called A Time for Love and it's from his first solo LP, Alone.

A Time For Love

No comments: