Books: Biographies of Bill Evans

Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings

Peter Pettinger

Yale University Press - 384 pages

By Doug Ramsey

Bill Evans, one of the greatest creative musicians of the century, lived only to the age of 51. In the last half of his life, in a triumph of will and the creative impulse, he maintained iron discipline as an artist while he let heroin and cocaine drag him to destruction. His friend Gene Lees called Evans’ death “the slowest suicide in history.” Pettinger’s book weaves together analysis of Evans’ music with facts of his life before and after he became a narcotics addict. An English concert pianist and university music teacher, Pettinger died before the book was published.

The serious listener with a complete Bill Evans collection should set aside a few weeks to read this book, making time for frequent trips to the CD player or turntable. It would require discipline almost as great as Evans’ to ignore the urge to hear the recordings that Pettinger discusses as he tracks Evans’ progress through his brilliant career. Pettinger’s strength as a listener and analyst makes this an essential book about Evans, but is not the ultimate Evans biography. Pettinger does not explore in depth the pianist’s complex personality and his relationships with family, friends and fellow musicians. Still, even his dry recitations of facts and occasional speculation about behavior motives stir anyone who admires Evans’ music and recoils from the pain of the junkie existence he chose in his mid-twenties. There remain important biographical questions about his measured decision to take up heroin; about his experience in the Miles Davis band; about the psychological and spiritual effects of the deaths of bassist Scott LaFaro, his father and brother; about the conflicting influences of his heritage, his upbringing and the values of the bebop life.
This author, however, concentrates on musical development, and his contribution to Evans scholarship is invaluable. Pettinger pays detailed attention to Evans’ improvisational style, particularly to the harmonic genius of his approach to chords and voicings. His discussions and descriptions are musicianly and precise, as in this passage about a private recording made when Evans was 18:
“Already he was able to sustain a string of block chords underneath a newly created top line. Rhythmically, he began to insert broad triplets into a solo, a very personal touch. Harmonically, he kept things simple, departing from the triad to embrace sixths and thirteenths, occasionally adding the slightly more adventurous sharp fourth. In introductions, vocal backings, and solos alike, each component was earnest. For Evans, even at that age, there was no such thing as the glib, ready-made gesture. In the clarity of the thinking, and the simplicity of the material and its presentation, lay a shining promise for the future.”
Only rarely does Pettinger’s precision desert him; pianists may understand a term like “crushed note” (used in describing Evans’ solo on “Cork ën Bib” with Lee Konitz). Most of us civilians need explanation and illustration. Notated musical examples can give even a layman an appreciation for context and structure, but the book has only three. Pettinger pays attention, often detailed, to virtually every record Evans made. The 40-page discography lists 168 LPs, CDs, boxed sets and video tapes and includes obscure sideman dates from his early career. The book is well indexed. There is no bibliography, but the chapter notes provide references.
Pettinger’s picture of Evans the musician is distinct, that of the man less focused. This fine book will be part of the foundation for Evans scholars to come.
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by Amazon.com Review

Perhaps it was a white jazz musician's need to negate his very ordinary American boyhood, or maybe it was in the genes he inherited from his alcoholic father--no one can be quite sure--but Bill Evans, one of the most influential American jazz pianists ever, was a drug addict. He picked up his habit shortly after joining the Miles Davis Sextet in the 1950s, but it took Evans more than 20 years to be swallowed by the abyss of heroin, methadone, and cocaine. Sitting at the piano in the shadow of Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones--the era's paragons of cool--could not have been easy for the retiring musician who suffered harsh ribbing at the hands of both bandmates and fans. Ironically, as the drugs distorted Evans's body and soul, his fingers coaxed ever more sublime music from his keyboard. Biographer Peter Pettinger was himself a professional pianist and a longtime listener of Evans, so he is expert at articulating the nuances of the music. He is perceptive too in exploring the forces that imbued in one life so much beauty and so much pain. The result is a book that is both a memorial to a burdened man and an homage to his transcendent music.

by From Publishers Weekly
If anyone deserves a good, accessible jazz biography, it's Bill Evans, the classically trained pianist who bridged the gap between bop and cool jazz and influenced a generation of ivory ticklers. Evans left an indelible stamp on the history of jazz piano, and as a white man in a world populated mostly by black musicians, he merits special consideration. Unfortunately, Pettinger's dessicated analytical biography doesn't do justice to Evan's tumultuous, often brilliant life. The main problem here is that the author, himself an internationally renowned British concert pianist, is more interested in the piano player than in the man. After hitting some of the standard biographical notes (Evans was born in Plainfield, N.J., in 1929; talent for the piano appeared early), Pettinger dispenses with personal insights to such a degree that his book becomes more critical discography than biography. Intimates of Evans aren't described physically or characterized emotionally but are simply wrung dry of their musical content then pushed offstage. Interviews with contemporaries do provide memories of Evans, but they are often banal. In relating a life filled with romantic disappointment, extreme drug abuse and assorted illnesses that contributed to his early death in 1980, Pettinger paints only a pallid portrait of the man behind the music. Yet Pettinger is eminently qualified to assay Evan's evolution as a pianist, and students of Evans's music will no doubt enjoy the author's references to Evans's scores and academic excursions: e.g., "These four-note scale groups move down in thirds (a typical feature of the pianist's right-hand style) and they go five times into each half of the middle eight." In the end, though, fans of Evans's music may be left cold. 40 b&w photos. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bill Evans: Everything Happens To Me - A Musical Biography

Keith Shadwick

Backbeat Books - 208 pages

By C. Michael Bailey
Years before Brad Meldau thought to redefine the jazz piano trio, Bill Evans defined it in the first place. In piano jazz history, Bill Evans influenced every major pianist to come after him. Before Evans, influentially, only Bud Powell can be spoken of in the same breath. Following Peter Pettinger's 1999 Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings, British saxophonist/author Keith Shadwick offers his more musically-oriented biography in Bill Evans - Everything Happens to Me.
Shadwick, much in the same way that Jack Chambers did in Milestones: the Music And Times of Miles Davis, focused his attention on all of the recording sessions Evans professionally participated in and the phases of Evans's career, demarcated primarily by his different trios and sideman work. This helps accent in a critical way the development of Evans art. The book is packed with borderline technical analyses, but not so technical that a true fan cannot pick up what the author is talking about. This is to Shadwick's credit. His focus on the creative life of Evans enriches the currently available canon on the pianist. He highlights Evans's work with Tony Scott, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, and Evans's own three major trios.
My single desire for this book would have been more intensive attention to Evans's personal life surrounding his recordings. Art Pepper, in his autobiography, Straight Life, recounts the dissolute chaos surrounding his recording his masterpiece, Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section. Bill Evans - Everything Happens to Me would have benefited from inclusions like this, but at the same time that makes Pettinger's book that much more desirable and any true fan should own both books.
The book is beautifully annotated and contains many photographs of Evans throughout his career. My single complaint with this otherwise fine rendering of the life of Bill Evans is that its formatting and layout (and not to mention its 8 pt. typeface) are not kind to the presbyotic over-40 crowd. Sans this complaint, Bill Evans - Everything Happens to Me represents a significant addition to the Evans library.

Bill Evans: Ritratto D'Artista Con Pianoforte/ The Pianist As An Artist

Enrico Pieranunzi

Stampa Alternativa - 159 pages

includes a CD:

"Evans Remembered" by Enrico Pieranunzi Sextet, Piano Solo & Duo

By Kyle Simpler
Many professional musicians possess a great talent, but only a few achieve a level of true greatness. The legendary pianist, Bill Evans definitely fits into this second category. Evans left an indelible mark on the history of jazz. Even now, twenty-two years after his death, his recordings still influence musicians around the world. Unfortunately, his talent was counterbalanced by a dark side, which manifested itself in self-destruction. Throughout his life, he was tortured by self-doubt and loneliness. To combat his inner-struggle, Evans became dependent on drugs.
With Bill Evans, The Pianist as an Artist, Enrico Pieranunzi provides a compelling look at this influential musician. Pieranunzi, a talented pianist himself, provides an insightful glance into the life of Bill Evans. More than simply providing biographical data, though, he shows how Evans became an such important figure in contemporary jazz. The Pianist as an Artist also discusses the drugs and psychological problems, but doesn't dwell on them. Rather than sensationalizing Evans' problems, Pieranunzi praises his musical accomplishments.
Anyone with even a moderate interest in jazz knows that Evans played on Miles Davis' landmark album, Kind of Blue. Of course his career and subsequent influence went far beyond this album alone. The Pianist as an Artist provides an in-depth study of Evans' career, which easily appeals to anyone from an average listener to a seasoned academic. Here Pieranunzi proves that he is equally adept at writing as playing.
Pieranunzi obviously covers some of Evans' most important work, including his trio recordings with bassist Scott LeFaro and Drummer Paul Motian. This trio would prove to be a major period in Evans' career. The interplay among these musicians allowed Evans to explore new musical territory. The Pianist as an Artist also shows that in spite of his quiet and intellectual demeanor, Evans definitely knew how to swing.
Evans possessed a unique talent, which deserves consideration. During a period when jazz was frequently becoming more abstract, Evans offered a structural counterbalance. His background in classical music allowed him to explore the depth of traditional jazz music. He believed that "freedom in music only makes sense when there is a solid foundation; otherwise you get lost in arbitrary disorder and reduce the aesthetic of the piece."
Accompanying the text, The Pianist as an Artist also contains a companion CD. Here Pieranunzi does more than present a musical tribute to Evans; this CD enhances the text, allowing a new dimension of understanding. Pieranunzi's skill as a musician proves to be a valuable asset in understanding Evans' place in jazz history.