Born August 16, 1929 in Plainfield, New Jersey, Bill Evans was one of the most influential pianists in jazz history. His legacy is built upon the recordings he made with his original trio. Formed at the end of 1959 by bassist Scott LaFaro, drummer Paul Motian and Evans, who had just left the Miles Davis Sextet, the trio began recreating standards and composing new material for what would become the trio's debut album, Portrait in Jazz (1960). The band toured and recorded several radio broadcasts in May and April, which were released as illegal bootlegs that year. Evans was kept off the road when he contracted hepatitis, and he retreated to his parents’ house in Florida. Once he recovered, he reconvened with LaFaro and Motian and embarked on a series of recordings which became the album Explorations (1961). After a collaboration with Oliver Nelson (The Blues and the Abstract Truth), the Bill Evans Trio performed at the Village Vanguard in New York. Two separate albums - Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby - were recorded on the same evening of June 26, 1961. Ten days after the Village Vanguard performances, bassist LaFaro was killed in a traffic accident on July 6. Evans fell into depression for several months, which was only heightened by his addiction to heroin. By October, he began to play live again. Having recruited double bassist Chuck Israels, the trio collaborated on Herbie Mann’s Nirvana album while Evans also recorded a duo album with Jim Hall (Undercurrent). The Bill Evans Trio released two albums in 1962: Moon Beams and How My Heart Sings! Motion appeared on the album Trio ’64 but was replaced by Larry Bunker. The trio received a new lease on life in 1966 when Eddie Gomez replaced Israels and they recorded a series of albums including California Here I Come (1967), Autumn Leaves (1969), Momentum (1972), Symbiosis (1974), On a Monday Evening (1976), and You Must Believe in Spring (1977). Evans had worked with other musicians in other formations including duos and quintets and recorded his final studio album, We Will Meet Again, in 1979. The title track had been written for his brother, Harry Evans, who had committed suicide shortly before the recoding of the album. Bill Evans died on September 15, 1980 due to years of drug addiction and ill health. He was 51 years old.
