Alone

Some may argue that jazz needs to be a collective art; created in spontaneity between several artists. Of all of Bill’s recordings, I am most moved by his solo efforts. This holds true for other pianists for whom I hold a deep reverence, such as Keith Jarrett. His album The Melody At Night, With You is some of the most heart-breaking playing that I’ve heard. I digress. Perhaps we should listen to Bill explain his penchant for solo playing:

He continues this thought while being interviewed by Mike Hennessey:

An exemplary recording of Bill, alone with a piano, is aptly entitled, Alone; on it, he shares some of the most emotionally vulnerable playing to date.

Here’s the discography:

Bill Evans Solo

Bill Evans (p)

NYC, September 23, 1968

Midnight Mood (2 fragments) Medley: All The Things You Are / Midnight Mood

Verve 833 801-2, 314 589 319-2, 314 527 953-2

* Bill Evans – Alone (Verve 833 801-2)
* Bill Evans – Alone (Verve 314 589 319-2)
* The Complete Bill Evans On Verve(Verve 314 527 953-2)

Bill Evans Solo

same personnel

NYC, October 8, 1968

106583	A Time For Love	Verve V6 8792, V3HB 8841
	A Time For Love (alt. take)	Verve 833 801-2, 314 527 953-2
	Midnight Mood (alt. take)	Verve 314 589 319-2

* Bill Evans – Alone (Verve V6 8792, 833 801-2, 314 589 319-2)
= The Complete Bill Evans On Verve (Verve 314 527 953-2)
* Bill Evans – Return Engagement(Verve V3HB 8841)

Bill Evans Solo

same personnel

NYC, October 21, 1968

106581	Here’s That Rainy Day	Verve V6 8792
106584	Midnight Mood	Verve V6 8792, V3HB 8841
106582	On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever)	Verve V6 8792
106580	Never Let Me Go	-
	The Two Lonely People	Verve 314 589 319-2
	Here’s That Rainy Day (alt. take)	-
	A Time For Love (alt. take)	-
	On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever) (alt. take)	-
	Never Let Me Go (alt. take)	-

* Bill Evans – Alone (Verve V6 8792, 833 801-2, 314 589 319-2)
= The Complete Bill Evans On Verve (Verve 314 527 953-2)
* Bill Evans – Return Engagement (Verve V3HB 8841

Sunday at the Village Vanguard – Alice in Wonderland Part III (mm.5-8)

Picking up where we left off..

Click to hear the first sixteen bars:

Measure 5

As is always the case in music theory, there are multiple ways to interpret chords and harmonic sequences (I joke with my students about it being called “music theory, not music fact!” In this bar, Bill plays a half-diminished chord with B as the root. This can be read as either a vii chord in the prevailing tonal center (C) or a super-tonic seventh chord in the relative minor (A); if you see it as the latter, than the subsequent measures fill out a ii-V-i. I will leave it as a leading-tone seventh chord in C, with the following harmonies acting as secondary dominants.

Measure 6

After the beautiful contrary motion between the hands, Bill arrives on a E7 chord, or a V7/vi. I love the voicing here – so quintessential-Bill!

Measure 7

The penultimate harmony, as we would expect, resolves on the vi chord. What I love is the way Bill’s voice-leading, in this case all of the pitches move down by step, keeps a sense of continuity.

Measure 8

The submediant (or tonic, if you are thinking in the temporary key of a-minor) moves to a Eb chord. This is the progression as it was originally written — so there should be no surprises here. What is wonderful is Bill’s quartal voicing of this tri-tone substitution: G3-C4-(added dissonance with the Db4)-C4-F4. It makes my heart ache — but thankfully.

MC

Andy Leverne on Bill’s Voicings

Above is an excerpt from Keyboard Magazine, where pianist and educator, Andy Leverne shared his ideas on how Bill approached rootless voicings (note his mention of good voice-leading!).

MC

Alice in Wonderland – Voice Leading (mm. 1-4)

I thought that I would include a voice-leading analysis along with the harmonic analyses from the other posts. Below, you will find a part extraction of the first four measures of “Alice in Wonderland.” I think that separating the lines into discrete parts (in this case, a choral arrangement) illustrates the voice-leading movement wonderfully.

Of particular interest is the step-wise motion that Bill employs within the context of each line. And, in the event of a leap, he follows it with step-wise motion (e.g. the Tenor part in measures one and two). I think that Bill was aware of this as he explains:

Sunday at the Village Vanguard – Alice in Wonderland Part II (mm.1-4)

As promised, here is an analysis of Alice in Wonderland; I will address fours bars at a time (mm.1-16).

Click to hear the first sixteen bars:

If you are familiar with this tune, you’ll notice that Bill’s version, in terms of harmonic movement, is exactly what we’d expect. So, how is it innovative? Let’s begin at the beginning!

Measure 1

The song starts with a predominant, supertonic seventh chord, a ii6. Traditionally, we would expect some kind of Dmin7 chord; which, if you are familiar with Bill’s harmonic sensibility is what he plays. Looking at the left hand, you’ll notice the bass note is the 4th or 11th of a Dmin7 sonority. Bill creates, as he often does, a sense of tension between the G3 and A3. He completes the left hand voicing with the seventh of chord. In the right hand, he plays a F4, C5 and the melody note, G5. What’s missing?

As an aside, other pianists may have chosen a different a approach — especially in the left hand. For example, Bud Powell, who you’ll remember Bill cites as an early influence, may have played a shell-voicing of the root (D) with the 7th (C).

Measure 2

The tune continues with the dominant-7th chord, the G7. In the left hand, Bill beautifully voices the harmony with a (G3-Cb4) and a tri-tone (Cb4 – F4). This creates a characteristic dissonance for which Bill seemed to have an affinity. The Cb4 can be read as a flat-11, but really serves as the third of G7 chord. In the right hand, Bill chooses a flat-9 (Ab4), flat-5 (Db5) and the suspended melody note continues to ring; it ultimately resolves on the final beat.

Measure 3

As is conventional, the tune continues from the V7 chord to the tonic sonority in bar three. Bill voices the CMA7 chord with the seventh of the harmony as the bass note, creating a dissonance with the root, which lies a minor second above it. The third of the chord is voiced above the C4. The melody continues to descend from the F5 to E5. The bar concludes with the simultaneity of A4 and C5.

Measure 4

The left hand is simply a FMA7 chord in a rootless voicing, while the right rests on the melody note of G4.

More to come…

MC

Sunday at the Village Vanguard – Alice in Wonderland

Tune: Alice in Wonderland 

Year: 1951

Composer: Sammy Fain

Original Key: C major

Meter: 3/4

Below is a transcription of the first sixteen measures (the “A” sections):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will analyze the first sixteen bars over the next few days, which are rife with Bill’s idiomatic voicings and then provide a transcription of an excerpt from his solo (where Scotty and Paul share in the musical dialogue!)

MC

The Influences

In the following clip, Bill discusses his early influences. The interview was done in May 1980, just months before Bill’s death, by Steve Hillis.

Sunday at the Village Vanguard

I think I would like to delve into Bill’s playing by focusing on one album; in this case, the seminal Sunday at the Village Vanguard. I will choose one tune at a time and discuss his approach to it — I will include transcriptions to illustrate my points.

Sunday at the Village Vanguard was recorded live on June 25, 1961 at the Village Vanguard in New York City over five sessions (two matinee and three evening). The album has profound significance in the oeuvre of Evans and is well-remembered as the final performance by the original Bill Evans Trio. The group included bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian. LaFaro was tragically killed in a car accident eleven days after the recording, on August 6th.

Evans and producer Orrin Keepnews reportedly selected the tracks for Sunday at the Village Vanguard to best feature LaFaro’s virtuosity; these included two LaFaro compositions: “Gloria’s Step” and “Jade Visions.”

Here is an excerpt of an interview with Bill where he stresses the importance of that date:

Bill Evans – Sunday At The Village Vanguard  (Riverside RLP 376)

“Village Vanguard”, NYC, matinee 2, June 25, 1961

1. Solar

“Village Vanguard”, NYC, evening 1, June 25, 1961

2. Gloria’s Step (take 2)

3. My Man’s Gone Now

4. All Of You (take 2)

 ”Village Vanguard”, NYC, evening 2, June 25, 1961

5. Alice In Wonderland (take 2)

“Village Vanguard”, NYC, evening 3, June 25, 1961

6. Jade Visions (take 2)

 

The “Inner Things”

Image courtesy of Merryl Jaye Portraits ©

In a 1978 interview with Marian McPartland (in fact Bill was one of Marian’s first guests on her radio program, Piano Jazz), Marian queried, “How do you think your playing has changed since you first started? Is it deliberate or is it just happening to change?” Bill, being a very cerebral person who spent countless hours working on his aesthetic, replied, “Well it’s deliberate, ahh but I stay along the same lines…I try to get a little deeper into what I’m doing. As far as that kind of playing goes, [jazz playing rather than an earlier example where he played Waltz for Debbie without any improvisation or sense of swing], I think my left hand is a little more competent and uhh…of course I worked a lot on inner things happening like inner voices I’ve worked on.”

The entire interview can be found on NPR’s website for Piano Jazz:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92185496

I would like to explore the “inner things” of Bill’s version of Danny Boy. You can find my part extraction below. You should take note that most of the motion within the inner voices is by step and in the case of disjunct motion, Bill tends to follow the rules of good voice-leading.

Beginning with the anacrusis:

In the alto voice, Bill uses the 9th of the F9 chord to ascend in stepwise motion to the third of the chord. Meanwhile, in the tenor voice, he doubles the melody note with a Bb3 and subsequently descends to the A3 (this motion acts something like that of a Sus4). Keep in mind that although the motion seems to imply a suspension, I contend that Bill was using the Bb3 as a color tone to capitalize on a quartal sound. Also of note is that the fact that, although it is only within the context of two beats, Bill uses contrary motion between the alto and tenor voices — something that is paramount within counterpoint of the classical canon.

Meaure 1:

In the alto voice, Bill uses the ascending motion from the anacrusis to arrive at the tonic of the Bb (I) chord. Meanwhile, in the tenor voice, he uses the A3 from the previous measure as a lower neighbor tone to return to the Bb3 in measure 1. I assure you, these movements are not coincidental — Bill was very deliberate in choosing his voicings. The measure continues with a series of chordal skips in the alto voice: Bill moves from the Bb4 on beat one to F4 and ultimately D4 on the final beat. He chooses to keep the Bb3 within the tenor voice for the entire measure.

Measure 2:

This measure adds some more colorful voice-leading and consequently, harmonic movement. Notice how Bill, in the alto voice, leaps from the previous D4 of the first measure, to the G4 on the following downbeat. Leaps of this kind are generally considered to be improper in earlier modal counterpoint and are often looked as unfavorable in tonal counterpoint (unless the leap is followed by a stepwise motion in the opposite direction). I believe that Bill, temporarily forgoing the rules of voice-leading, uses this leap to accent the 13th of the Bb chord. Additionally, if you think in terms of the greater picture, Bill does, in fact, resolve the leap by descending (by step) to the F4 in measure 3. I would also like to point out how Bill forecasts, in somewhat of an imitative move, the leap in the melodic line: D5 to G5 to F5. Brilliant.

In terms of the tenor voice, as is the proper thing to do, Bill employs oblique motion: while the other voices are moving in conjunct or disjunct motion, the tenor voice remains stationary.

Measure 3

After a series of rests in the alto voice, Bill resolves (as previously mentioned) the G4 to the F4 in measure. However, in typical Evans fashion, he chooses to create a subtle dissonance between the G4 and F4. As an aside, author Ashley Kahn once mentioned, “he hits these chords that have such a dissonant effect — a little like Thelonious Monk, but quieter and smoother. He just sounds so startling different from what’s expected in jazz, yet so hip and modern at the same time.” Because Evans had such dynamic control of his instrument, he was able to produce the dissonance within the inner voices with such nuance.

As the alto voice remains somewhat stationary, Bill chooses to add movement to the tenor voice. He leaps across the barline from the previous D4 to the Bb3 on the downbeat of this measure. As is traditionally expected, he follows the leap with stepwise movement in the opposite direction:  he then ascends from the 5th of the chord on the first beat to the passing tone C4 — ultimately reaching the M7 of the Eb sonority.

Measure 4

This measure ends the first phrase of the tune and Bill, understanding this, evokes such a sense of lament and beauty.

The alto voice, due to the prominent movement of the outer voices, is grounded through oblique motion.

The tenor voice, after the stepwise ascent in measure 3, moves downward by step from D4 to C4. Bill also, in typical fashion, adds a tritone beneath the C4 with a Gb3. This quiet dissonance adds so much flavor to the inner voices, but primarily acts as the 7th of the presiding Ab7 chord.

MC

Bill Evans’s Sound

It is hard to definitively pin-down what the essential element is to Bill Evans’s sound. Is it the warm timbre that he is able to produce? Is it the way he phrases the melodic line? What about how he voices his chords? Or maybe it’s the rhythmic element that displaces the metric pulse?

Here’s a clip from NPR Jazz Profiles on Bill. Eddie Gomez, Bill’s bassist from 1966-1977, posits:

From Reading Jazz: A Gathering of Autobiography, Reportage, and Criticism from 1919 to Now edited by Robert Gottlieb,  The Poet: Bill Evans by Gene Lees:

The level of his dynamics was often kept low, like his speech. He was a soft player. But within that range, his playing was full of subtle dynamic shadings and constantly shifting colors.  Some physicists have argues that a pianist cannot have a personal and individual “tone” because of the nature of the instrument, which consists of a bunch of felt hammers hitting strings. So much for theory.

Bassist Marc Johnson, who played an integral role in Bill’s final trio, adds his perspective:

I received an email from Chuck Israels, another outstanding bassist who contributed to Bill’s oeuvre, shared:

I have done a lot of exploration of Bill’s music since that article was written and have discovered a number of interesting and useful things.  The voicings – those things that occupy the attention of most listeners (in no small way because they can be stopped in time and examined at leisure), are not the most interesting and unique aspect of Bill’s music.  There is far more personality to be found in his rhythm, dynamics and articulation – elements that flow by in real time and are more difficult to isolate, notate, and analyze.

 Chuck

The late pianist, and early influence on Bill, George Shearing comments on Bill’s rhythmic sensibility:

We talked about the complexity of rhythm and uh, he would leave me dead every once in a while by getting so involved in crossing from one bar to another…I was almost tempted to say “Where’s [beat] one?” But he would go ahead an scientifically explain it.

Bill illustrates this point during his interview with Marian McPartland:

MC