Bill Evans

William John Evans was an American jazz pianist whose introspective harmonies, singing right-hand lines, and trio-as-conversation philosophy reshaped jazz piano in the second half of the twentieth century. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey in August 1929 to a Welsh-American father and Russian-Ruthenian mother, he began piano at six, took up violin and flute, and graduated from Southeastern Louisiana College in 1950 before army service interrupted a young performing life.

After settling in New York in 1955 and earning a master's degree from the Mannes School of Music, Evans worked with George Russell and Tony Scott. In 1958 Miles Davis hired him for the sextet that recorded Kind of Blue in 1959, on which he co-wrote "Blue in Green" and shaped the modal voicings that opened a new chapter in jazz.

His own first significant trio, with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, recorded Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby over a single afternoon in June 1961, ten days before LaFaro died in a car crash. Evans rebuilt with Chuck Israels, then with Eddie Gomez and Marty Morell through the 1960s and 70s, and won seven Grammy Awards across his career.

Persistent heroin and later cocaine addiction shadowed his life. He died of cirrhosis, hepatitis, and bronchopneumonia in New York in September 1980, aged fifty-one. You Must Believe in Spring appeared posthumously in 1981.

The given name Bill, an English short form of William, comes from the Germanic Wilhelm, joining wil meaning "will" or "desire" and helm meaning "helmet" or "protection." Carried into England by the Conqueror in 1066, it travelled with him through smoky New York clubs to a place at the centre of modern jazz.