Chick Corea: Further Explorations of Bill Evans

Jun17
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

chickCoreaHere is a cool 2000 Chick Corea interview with Marius Nordal from Downbeat. The interview was conducted just as the pianist was about to commemorate the 20th anniversary of jazz piano hero Bill Evans‘ death with a major two-week engagement called “Further Explorations” at New York’s Blue Note. Corea covers a number of Bill Evans related talk, and also manages to cover other topics as well. From the interview:

Nordal: Bill Evans generally had a gentle, lyrical approach to the piano – you’re often more dynamic, energetic and rhythmic. Did he influence your compositions or concept of touch and sound on the piano when you were developing musically? 

Corea: It was Bill’s sound that I loved as soon as I heard it. He knew how to touch the piano gently and elicit such a beautiful and recognizable tone from the instrument. Up to that time, most jazz pianists were accustomed to playing inferior instruments: old, out of tune, out of regulation and generally beat up. That was the “club piano.” But Bill was aware of the fine sound that a well-prepared grand could deliver. It’s odd that Art Tatum is the only pianist I know of before Bill that also had that feather-light touch – even though he probably spent his early years playing on really bad instruments.

Bill’s harmonic sense and approach to the standards certainly made a big impression on me. I was more encouraged to produce a beautiful sound on the piano.

Click here to read Chick Corea: Further Explorations of Bill Evans  

—Peter Blasevick

 

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For Kenny Barron’s 70th Birthday, A 2005 DownBeat Feature and WKCR Interviews From 1991 and 2004

Jun14
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

kennyBarron

To mark the Kenny Barron‘s just passed birthday (June 9th), Ted Panken posted a pair of interviews they did on WKCR — a Musician’s Show in 1991 and an appearance promoting a week in a club in 2004—and the first of two interviews Panken conducted with the great pianist for a DownBeat profile. From the interviews:

“Each bandleader I worked with had a different style,” Barron says. “For example, Dizzy’s band was very tight and precise. I learned to keep stuff in reserve, not play everything you know all the time. Yusef [Lateef] was looser, the music was freer; you could play out, as far as you wanted to go. Ron [Carter] likes hills and valleys; I learnedto use dynamics. Stan [Getz] and I shared a love for lyricism. We fed each other. He was one person who could play a ballad and really make you cry.”

Click here to read For Kenny Barron’s 70th Birthday, A 2005 DownBeat Feature and WKCR Interviews From 1991 and 2004

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Chick Corea: Five Decades of Music In a One-Hour Interview

Jun12
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

It’s the great Chick CoreachickCorea‘s birthday today! In this 2010 interview with Russ Davis at the Chamber Music America 2010 conference in New York, Chick discusses everything from who gave him that lasting nickname “Chick” to how he and Herbie Hancock learned to avoid stepping on each other’s toes while playing in a duo setting to how he got “roped into” projects as diverse as doing Mozart duets with vocalist Bobby McFerrin and playing live on the Grammy Awards show with rock band The Foo Fighters and so much more.

—Peter Blasevick

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Mulgrew Miller, R.I.P. (1955-2013) — A Downbeat Article and Several Interviews

Jun03
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

mulgrewMillerWe are all saddened by the passing of the pianist Mulgrew Miller. He was a great artist and was as generous and kind as a man could be the couple of occasions I had to speak with him during my travels at William Paterson University where he headed up the Jazz Studies program.

Here is a tribute by Ted Panken, a collection of interviews from 1988, 1994, and 2005. From the piece, Miller discusses the music of James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Al Green:

“It still hits me where I live,” he says. “It’s black music. That’s my roots. When I go home, they all know me as the church organist from years ago, so it’s nothing for me walk up to the organ and fit right in. I once discussed my early involvement in music with Abdullah Ibrahim, and he described what I went through as a community-based experience. Before I became or wanted to become a jazz player, I played in church, in school plays, for dances and for cocktail parties. I was already improvising, and always on some level it was emotional or soul or whatever you want to call it. I was finding out how to connect with people through music.”

Click here to read Mulgrew Miller, R.I.P. (1955-2013) — A Downbeat Article and Several Interviews

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Two part Jack Reilly Interview 2003

May16
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Acclaimed for his solo jazz concerts and trio dates in the US and in Europe, Jack Reilly is a vibrant exhilarating pianist. His recordings and books—three volumes on jazz improvisation entitled Species Blues and the nationally acclaimed book The Harmony of Bill Evans—confirm the scope of Jack ‘s talents and versatility.

jackReillyThis interview was conducted by pianist (and BillEvansWebpages webmaster) Jan Stevens in the music room of Jack’s home in the New Jersey shore area. A long and complex discussion of Bill Evans music followed. From the interview:

J.S. So, tell us when you first met Bill Evans, and maybe you can give us a couple of details.

REILLY: Well, I should say I first heard him in ’52. I was in the U.S. Navy; he was in the Army. We both were stationed at the Washington D.C. School of Music. That’s where you go if you’re a musician, and in the service and they teach you music for military functions, dance band stuff, etc. And I just happened to be walking down a hall, and I heard this incredible piano playing coming from a practice room, and I looked through the peep hole in the door, and it’s this guy who looked like a librarian playing, sounding like Teddy Wilson, Bud Powell, George Shearing. But he had his own linear concept going already and it was cookin’ like mad. And it was only solo piano! He was practicing, and I stood there for about 10 minutes or so and wound up getting captain’s [unintelligible] for neglecting to go to my class. Of course it was a school, you know, we all had to take classes, except Bill, they just let him do whatever he wanted ’cause he was so advanced at the time.

Click here to read Two part Jack Reilly Interview 2003

—Peter Blasevick

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The Hal Galper Interview 2002

May13
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

halGalperPianist, composer, publisher, educator, and author Hal Galper has somewhere around 100 recordings to his credit, many as a leader. Best known for his work with Chet Baker, Cannonball Adderley, John Scofield and the Phil Woods Quintet, his recordings as a leader with Mike and Randy Brecker are considered among his best.

In continuing with a concentration on Bill Evans, here is an interview by Jan Stevens posted on the BillEvansWebpages which was conducted over a period of several weeks in April 2002 mostly in email, and after several phone conversations. In it, Galper shares his vast knowledge of and his love for the music of Bill Evans. From the interview:

What do you feel was Bill’s influence on your own playing personally, and how did that come about? And how did it change the way you approached voicings or perhaps rhythmic displacement ?

I was attracted to his harmonic conception but not his lines. I tried a few of his voicings but a truth I learned when I was copying Red Garland raised it’s ugly head again: what you play on any instrument will be dictated by the sound you get on it, i.e., one’s touch. When I played Red’s or Bill’s voicings, I had to either add or subtract notes to make them sound good with my hands.

Click here to read The Hal Galper Interview 2002

—Peter Blasevick

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Bill Evans with Martin Perlich 1978

May08
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Continuing with the Bill Evans theme this week, here is a two part audio interview with the great pianist conducted by the legendary interviewer Martin Perlich in 1978. From the introduction:

The interview with jazz immortal Bill Evans was special in many ways. Commissioned by Warner Brothers Records who had just created a Jazz and Progressive Music division, they wanted me to get Bill to talk about how close his music was to rock; “…sell it to the kids!” This was, of course, impossible, but gamely I stuck out my jaw, fielded his words of one syllable answers in the negative and went on to his experiences in classical music as a kid, and in Jazz, especially stories about Miles Davis. The most important “special” aspect was that I place my Nakamichi 500 next to him on his bed and took up a suitable position on the floor.

—Peter Blasevick

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Bill Evans in Molde, Norway, 1980

May07
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Bill Evans week at TNYDP!

In the summer of 1980, Evans’ last trio (with Marc Johnson, Joe LaBarbera) was in the midst of a European tour which had them for two weeks at the famed Ronnie Scott’s in London, as well as performances in Germany, Belgium, Norway and Italy. On August 9th, after a performance at the Molde Jazz Festival , the pianist granted a brief interview after the concert, filmed for Norweiegan television. (the interviewer’s name is not known). I’m linking to both the transcription (hosted at billevanswebpages.com)and the video interview.

Click here to read Bill Evans in Molde, Norway, 1980

—Peter Blasevick

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Bill Evans – Time Remembered: An Interview by Jean-Louis Ginibre

May06
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

After posting a couple hundred interviews with many different subjects over TNYDP’s first year, I am going to start digging a little deeper and focus on individuals a bit now. As the first interview I every posted was one with Bill Evans, he seems like the logical place to start.

billEvansIn 1965, Bill Evans toured Europe with bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker. Jean-Louis Ginibre, then Editor-in-Chief of the French monthly Jazz Magazine, spoke to Evans more than an hour, an hour in which “Bill, soft-spoken and ensconced in a large arm-chair, answered my questions candidly and articulately, without seeming bored or preoccupied. Most probably understanding my feeling ill-at-ease during the first few minutes of my visit, he made a concerted effort to be extremely charming.” This is a typically honest and intelligent talk with the legend, and. from the interview, here is Evans on his critics:

Jean-Louis Ginibre: Have you ever read sensible magazine articles about you?

Bill Evans: Yes, as a matter of fact, a couple of times I read some critics that got to me. I thought they were justified, and I modified certain sides of my playing accordingly. As far as I’m concerned, everybody’s right. It’s only a matter of viewpoint. Almost everything that has been written about me has been bright and sensible. The press has been good to me. Except a couple of articles out of two hundred, all of them have been very favorable. I’ve been very lucky.

Click here to read Bill Evans – Time Remembered: An Interview by Jean-Louis Ginibre

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In conversation with Sonny Rollins

Apr30
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Peter Blasevick

Today, a great 2009 interview with the legendary Sonny Rollins From Stuart Nicolson and Jazz.com. Topics the great tenor saxophonist covers here are greats Charlie Parker and Clifford Brown, his theory of improvisation, and more. From the interview, on improvising:

sonnyRollinsIn fact, in a way, improvisation is making the mind blank. When I’m playing, I’m in a trance. I’m not thinking of anything. Sometimes I’ve thought about a nice pattern I wanted to play, maybe a little riff on the song. It’s very clever and I’d think about it and go, ‘Oh yeah, this song I’ll put in this clever riff, it’ll really sound clever, everybody will think I’m clever!’ But I can’t do it, because when I think about putting it in someplace, the music has gone by so fast that it doesn’t work, so I just forget it. Just absorb it and it comes out at some weird time and for some weird reason from the subconscious, so I’ll play it, but don’t try to manage it and put it in to a solo. So that’s what I have learned about music about improvisation and it’s beautiful. I think somebody told me Miles [Davis] said something like that, he learns something and he forgets it because you can’t be creative if you know too much about what you’re doing.

Click here to read In conversation with Sonny Rollins

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