Bill Evans this weekend. In concert from Stuttgart and recorded on December 3, 1979 by SWR4. He’s joined by Marc Johnson on bass and Joe LaBarbera on drums.
At the beginning of a several-week tour of the trio through the Pacific Northwest in the spring of 1979, Bill Evans learned that his brother, Harry, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, had died by suicide at age 52. This news shocked him deeply, and some of the concerts had to be canceled. His friends and relatives believe that this event precipitated his own death the following year.
Marc Johnson recalled: “This fateful trip marks … the beginning of the end. Bill’s willingness to play and work decreased noticeably after the death of Harry, actually it was just the music itself that held him upright. He fulfilled his obligations because he needed money, but these were the few moments in his life when he felt comfortable—the times in between must have been depressing, and he barely showed a willingness to live.”
In August 1979, Bill Evans recorded his last studio album, We Will Meet Again, featuring a composition of the same name written for his brother. The album won a Grammy award posthumously in 1981, along with I Will Say Goodbye.
Bill Evans has left his mark on such players as Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, Steve Kuhn, Warren Bernhardt, Michel Petrucciani, John Taylor, Vince Guaraldi, Stefano Bollani, Don Friedman, Marian McPartland, Denny Zeitlin, Bobo Stenson, Fred Hersch, Bill Charlap, Lyle Mays, Eliane Elias, Diana Krall, Ralph Towner, John McLaughlin, Lenny Breau, and Rick Wright of Pink Floyd, classical pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Denis Matsuev, and many other musicians in jazz and other music genres.
And on to the show . . .
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