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Bill Evans | Essential albums and listening guide
Explore Bill Evans through Portrait in Jazz. Discover what to listen for and follow related styles to your next record.
Bill Evans
Meet the artist
A pianist whose introspective harmony and sensitive touch profoundly influenced later jazz piano. He brought close attention to harmonic color and the decay of each note.
In his trios, bass and drums help shape melodies and direction, creating a conversation among three listeners. Beneath the quiet surface are subtle rhythmic displacements and shifting tensions. Familiar standards acquire a different light, showing how touch, timing and space can deepen improvisation as much as overt virtuosity.
Where to start listening
Begin with the piano melody, then turn to the responses from bass and drums. Heard as a three-way conversation, even the quiet passages are full of movement.
1960Portrait in Jazz
Bill Evans
The first studio album by Bill Evans’s celebrated trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. Its treatment of the bass as an equal voice helped establish a model for the modern jazz trio.
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1961Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Bill Evans
A live recording at the Village Vanguard with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. Listen to the conversation between piano, bass and drums.
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1962Waltz for Debby
Bill Evans
A live recording at the Village Vanguard with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. Listen to the conversation between piano, bass and drums.
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Years follow the Atlas catalogue. Recording dates, original release dates and digital reissue dates may differ.