"Everybody talks about my harmonic conception. But if I really worked hard in this domain, it's because I did not have good ears". (Bill Evans)

Evans' focus settled on traditional jazz standards and his own original compositions. In an interview with Rubin and Enstice for the book "Jazz Spoken Here" (Da Capo Press, 1994) Evans stated, "I respect the American popular song very much and some of the masters that have composed in that form ... and I studied this very hard, analytically and diligently as I was growing.... There's still explorations that I haven't begun to make yet into handling these things." He was a master in interpreting standards, he made arrangements, reharmonized them and rephrased the melodic lines. He was able to create alterations to a tune’s original harmony in short order, often in the studio just before recording a tune. His reharmonizations are so beautiful that when playing standards, most musicians use his changes, rather than the original ones. Saxophonist Cannonball Adderley stated: "Bill Evans has rare originality and taste and the even rarer ability to make his conception of a standard seem the definitive way to play it." Jazzpianist Warren Bernhardt said of Bill Evans "Everything he plays seems to be the distillation of the music, he never states the original melody. Yet his performance is the quintessence of it." By analysing the devices Evans used for the interpretation of the original melodies of the standards were: diminution and augmentations, rhythmic displacements, drop voicings, inner lines, rubato, substitute chords, voice leading, chord anticipations, fills, chromatic approach chords, left hand lines, melody with thirds, fourths, fifths and sixths, contrary motion and use of changing key centers. Evans effectively combined all of these devices together to produce his own original, significant, and influential solo piano style. ("An analysis of Bill Evans' approach to playing the melody of selected jazz ballads", thesis by M.I. Can Cankaya, William Paterson University, 2009).

Bill Evans talking about the Great American Songbook (NPR 2008):

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Bill Evans took post-graduate studies in composition at the Mannes College of Music during the periode in which he recorded his first album as a leader. Initially Evans was underrated as a composer, his talents in this area being "overshadowed by the genius of his playing". He was however a productive composer and wrote more than 50 compositions. His compositions were closely tied to his improvisational style. In his third year at high school he wrote already his first composition "Very Early", a tune in waltz time. Over the years, many of this tunes became prime jazz standards, like “Waltz For Debby” and “Turn Out the Stars”. Most compositions have been recorded several times and were part of Bill Evans' trio and solo repertoire. Bill Evans was a gifted and sensitive composer, his compositions are among the richest and most original compositions in jazz, laced with beautiful, lush alterations and passing chords. His work has been interpreted by other pianists in countless ways through the years. He took his place alongside the great masters of composition, demonstrating all of the style characteristics that have distinguished him as one of the most innovative pianists in jazz. His compositions often utilized a few basic formulas or patterns combined into a complex structure over which he then improvised. He composed throughout his career, but especially in the last years before his untimely death his compositions as well as his playing showed more harmonic richness. Several compositions were written as theme and variations over an ostinato bass like "Peace Piece", while another took the form of a fugue like the classical counterpoint in the intro melody of "Fudgesickle Built for Four", a long-forgotten Evans obscurity on the "Loose Blues" album from 1962.

Bill Evans was not the inventor of the waltz in the jazz idiom. Fats Waller composed “Jitterbug Waltz” when he was 38 years old in 1942. But Bill Evans developed as a specialist in this genre and composed "Jazz in 3/4 Time" like "Waltz For Debby", "Very Early", "B Minor Waltz" and "The Two Lonely People". He played also standards and compositions by other composers like the waltzes "Elsa" and "How My Heart Sings" from Earl Zindars. Chicago-born Earl Zindars graduated from DePaul University and went on to earn a Masters Degree in Music Composition from Northwestern University. He became well-known for the close and fruitful working friendship and musical empathy with Bill Evans, who played and recorded his compositions along his entire musical career. He composed for Bill "Sareen Jurer", "How My Heart Sings", "Elsa", "Mother of Earl", "Soirée", "Lullaby for Helene". Evans particularly favored the waltzes "Elsa" and "How My Heart Sings", which evolved into jazz standards over the pianist's productive recording career. "Bill Evans always said he was a 3/4 person", Earl told me "and I likewise agreed, that I was, too". "For me, his harmonic, melodic and rhythmical invention surpassed any and all contemporary jazz pianists. He had a magical, almost mystical communication with the piano and music, and he had the ability to draw tone from the instrument and make it sing, especially in his ballads" (Interview by Leda Hanin with Earl Zindars as an alumni of the DePaul School of Music).

One song in particular should be mentioned: "Quiet Now". Bill Evans was not the composer. Pianist and psychiatrist Denny Zeitlin wrote this enduring ballad , that became a longtime favorite of Bill Evans and a staple of his life sets and recordings. He recorded the song for the first time in 1967 on his second overdubbed album "Further Conversations With Myself" (Verve), and named his 1970 album "Quiet Now" (Affinity) after this Zeitlin composition. Bill Evans played this exquisite in almost every concert for around 20 years. Listen to Denny Zeitlin's comment on this fact.

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The most historically significant contributions of the Evans trio recordings were to loosen the common practises of the bop style rhythm section which had become standard during the 50s, walking bass, drummer playing ride rhythms and snapping shut hi-hat cymbal on the second and fourth beats. In the Bud Powell-style trio is the amount of rhythmic and melodic interaction between bassist and pianist relatively limited because the pianist fills up most of the spaces with lines of his own. By contrast what Bill Evans did not play, is his thoughtful and restrained manner of playing and masterful use of silence, which allowed bass and drums players to interact as much as they did, emancipating the piano, bass and drum roles. “Music itself is some sort of silence, because it imposes silence on noises and before all else the most unbearable of these noises are words. Music is the silence of words, like poetry is the silence of prose (Vladimir Jankélévitch, a French philosopher and musicologist in “Somewhere in the Unfinished”). What distinguishes the music of Bill Evans from all or almost all other music genres is its poetic dimension. A form of communication that says as much by what it doesn't say as by what it does. Bill Evans is always engaged in a duet with silence, and the silence says as much as he says. Evans' essence was defined by his tastful economy of expression. The notes he chose not to play were fully as crucial as the ones he did. He was the master of the silent note, both in his reharmonizations of traditional jazz standards and his own original compositions.

One of the best ways to study Evans' approach is to look at transcriptions which are note-for-note renderings of his playing. More than 20 songbooks with a collection of transcriptions of compositions by Bill Evans are published by TRO, The Richmond Organization Inc. and available through Hal Leonard Corporation and the play-a-long album by Jamey Aebersold, together with a CD with stereo channel separation of piano, bass and drums. Nevertheless Win Hinkle, publisher of "Letter From Evans", presented at the Bill Evans Jazz Festival in Louisiana in 2005 a lecture entitled “Do Transcriptions Really Tell The Bill Evans Story”? Win Hinkle compared commercially available notated transcriptions with the actual recordings and attempted to determine just what can and cannot be captured by traditional music notation.

Pianist Kenny Werner about Evans transcriptions:

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Pascal Wetzel, a French pianist and teacher, made for more than 35 years note-for-note transcriptions of compositions and standards played by Bill Evans. Four books of his work on Bill Evans' music have been released at this time, three of them being devoted to his own compositions, following a book of standards: "The Artistry of Bill Evans" (CPP/Belwin, 1989), "Bill Evans Fake Book" (TRO, 1996), Bill Evans" at Town Hall" (TRO, 2004) and "The Mastery of Bill Evans" (TRO, 2006). From his website: "At the beginning it was a way to understand the sound of his voicings, his harmonic system, his personal treatment of the standards, the architecture of his own compositions, and the amazing mixing of control and emotion at the same time which characterized his interpretations. And I discovered a magic world, a music whose perfection was really astonishing, being unwritten: I realized the music that I got on paper was richer than I could imagine when simply listening."

Jack Reilly is a pianist, composer and educator in both the jazz and classical genres, who made an extensive in depth analysis of Bill's harmonic development of several Evans tunes in his book "The Harmony of Bill Evans" (Hal Leonard Corporation, 1994). In March 2010 a second volume has been released, including a CD. In this volume, he provides a deeper appreciation and understanding of Evans' compositions. It includes two important theory chapters, plus ten of Bill's most passionate and melodically gorgeous works. The voicing charts for all ten songs are more complex than volume one and pianistically more demanding, yet always worth the effort. In volume two he makes an analysis of Evans first composition "Very Early". From the accompanying audio CD two short tracks: the melody with chords and the voicings. (Published here with permission of Jack Reilly).

Very Early: Bill Evans (Moon Beams, 1962)	Download Adobe Flash Player
Very Early: Melody with chords (Jack Reilly)	Download Adobe Flash Player
Very Early: Voicings (Jack Reilly)	Download Adobe Flash Player

Jed Distler is composer, pianist, broadcaster, writer, and presenter. In 1980 he was asked by Bill Evans to help edit and transcribe his piano solos for publication. The transcriptions for the album "Conversations with Bill Evans" (Decca, 1997) by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet are largely from Jed Distler. Other sheetmusic from him is "Bill Evans : Rare Transcriptions Vol 3" including "Reflection in D" by Duke Ellington and "Bill Evans 4" including "Waltz for Debby", "Turn Out The Stars", "One for Helen" and "Time Remembered". He is artistic director of ComposersCollaborative inc. and reviewer of Gramophone and Classicstoday.com. He was one of the organizers of the thirtieth anniversary of Bill Evans’ passing on September 15, 2010 at the Cornelia Street Café in New York, together with poet Bill Zavatsky and Laurie Verchomin, last girlfriend of Bill Evans and author of "THE BIG LOVE ~ Life and Death with Bill Evans". A recent album by him is "Meditate With the Masters" (Musical Concepts , 2011). Some of Jed's transcriptions as played by Bill Evans and used by Thibaudet for his Evans album can you find here: "Reflections in D", "Noelle's Theme" and "Hullo, Bolinas". (Published here with permission of Jed Distler).

Chuck Israels

Chuck Israels, the bassist of the Bill Evans Trio from 1961 till 1966 made a clarifying and thorough analysis of the music of Bill Evans in an article on his website. The article deals apart from his compositions about rhythm, tone color, melody, voicings and phrasing of Bill Evans. The article from his website is published here with permission of Chuck Israels. See also his interview with Sean Dietrich from Allaboutjazz: "Chuck Israels: Evans, Education and Philosophy". Chuck Israels: "The piano is an amazing instrument; a bunch of keys, levers, and hammers that are so sensitive that they respond differently to each player's touch. Few jazz pianists have developed the range and nuance that was an integral part of Bill's playing. One chord, or two or three notes over a three-inch speaker in a car radio and his touch is identifiable even as it is constantly changing". ("Time Remembered", record liner notes, Milestone Records, 1983)

Enrico Pieranunzi

Enrico Pieranunzi , who played and recorded with Evans' sidemen Paul Motian and Marc Johnson, wrote a book "Bill Evans: The Pianist as an Artist" (Continuum Books, 2004). He shows a great sensitivity to Bill's music and life and speaks knowledgably about the melodies, harmonies and style. "Even more than his harmonic conceptions and voicings, the depth and honesty of the interpretation of his music mean to me the essential legacy of Bill Evans". (Jazzman, November 1996) An interview about the book is published here with permission of Enrico Pieranunzi.

Sheet music and transcriptions

This link refers to a survey of songbooks, sheet music, play-alongs, transcriptions and stylistic collections of Bill Evans.

Several compositions of Bill Evans were dedicated to beloved persons in his environment:

"Waltz For Debby" for his three year old niece Debby, daughter of his brother Harry. "We Will Meet Again" for his brother Harry. "Peri's Scope" for his black girlfriend Peri Cousins. She joined Bill in tours of the southern US inquiring the various hotels to see if they accepted guests of both colors. "B Minor Waltz (For Ellaine) for his girlfriend Ellaine Horowitz. "For Nenette" for his wife Nenette Zazarra, whom he married in 1973. "Maxine" for stepdaughter Maxine, daughter from a previous marriage of Nenette. "Letter To Evan" for his son Evan, born in 1975. "Laurie" for his last girlfriend Laurie Verchomin. "We Will Meet Again" on the suicide of his older brother Harry. "Song For Helen" and "One For Helen" for his lifelong manager Helen Keane. "Knit For Mary F" for a friend, Mary Frankson , who was a big fan, who made beautiful sweaters for him and the Evans family. "Re: Person I Knew" perhaps an anagram of the name of his Riverside producer Orrin Keepnews. The song "N.Y.C.'s No Lark" on "Conversations With Myself" is an anagram for pianist Sonny Clark's name, like "Yet Ne'er Broken" for his cocaine supplier Robert Kenney. "Tiffany" is dedicated to drummer Joe LaBarbera's daughter when she was 10 days old. She later wrote a lyric herself to Bill’s melody.

Bill Evans' compositions, arranged alphabetically:

•  B Minor Waltz
•  Bill's Belle
•  Bill's Hit Tune
•  Blue In Green
•  C Minor Blues Chase
•  Carnival
•  Catch The Wind
•  Children's Play Song
•  Chromatic Tune
•  Comrade Conrad
•  Displacement
•  Epilogue
•  Five
•  For Nenette
•  Fudgesickle Built For Two
•  Fun Ride
•  Funkallero
•  Funny Man
•  G Waltz
•  In April
•  Interplay
•  It's Love - It's Christmas
•  Knit For Mary F
•  Laurie
•  Letter To Evan
•  Loose Blues
•  Maxine
•  My Bells
•  N.Y.C.'s No Lark
•  One For Helen
•  Only Child

•  Orbit
•  Peace Piece
•  Peri's Scope
•  Prologue
•  Quiet Now
•  Re: Person I Knew
•  Remembering The Rain
•  Show Type Tune
•  A Simple Matter Of Conviction
•  Since We Met
•  34 Skidoo
•  Song For Helen
•  Story Line
•  Sugar Plum
•  The Opener
•  Theme (What You Gave)
•  There Came You
•  These Things Called Changes
•  Tiffany
•  Time Remembered
•  Turn Out The Stars
•  T.T.T.
•  T.T.T.T.
•  The Two Lonely People
•  Very Early
•  Walkin' Up
•  Waltz For Debby
•  Waltz In Eb
•  We Will Meet Again
•  Yet Ne'er Broken
•  Your Story