Quotes

“Bill had this quiet fire that I loved on piano. The way he approached it, the sound he got was like crystal notes or sparkling water cascading down from some clear waterfall.” Miles Davis on Bill Evans.

“When you play music you discover a part of yourself that you never knew existed.” — Bill Evans on art.

“No, I mean it,” he said. “You don’t understand. It’s like death and transfiguration. Every day you wake in pain like death, and then you go out and score, and that is transfiguration. Each day becomes all of life in microcosm.” — Bill Evans on drug addiction.

“Oh no,” she said, after she’d heard about sixteen bars, “oh no, not this one. This is the one that could break my heart.” — Helen Keane on hearing Bill Evans for the first time.

“Within a day or two of hearing Everybody Digs, I wrote Bill a fan letter. I recall saying that the album sounded like love letters written to the world from some prison of the heart.” — Gene Lees on the effect Evans music had on him.

“Jazz is not a what, it is a how. If it were a what, it would be static, never growing. The how is that the music comes from the moment, it is spontaneous, it exists at the time it is created. And anyone who makes music according to this method conveys to me an element that makes his music jazz.” — Bill Evans on jazz.

“Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned with feeling being the generating force.” — Bill Evans on the impetus behind making music.

“At the time I thought I was inadequate. I wanted to play more so that I could see where I was going. I felt exhausted in every way—physically, mentally, and spiritually. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the road. But I think the time I worked with Miles was probably the most beneficial I’ve spent in years, not only musically but personally. It did me a lot of good.” –– Bill Evans on working with Miles Davis.

“I suppose that Kind Of Blue  has been a far-reaching influence. But when we did the album we had no idea it would become that important. I have wondered for years just what was that special quality, but it is difficult for me as a contributor to be objective about it. Of course, just to record with a band like that was a special experience for me…There was always some kind of magic and conviction with Miles. Whatever he did became a point of departure for so many people.” — Bill Evans on the impact of Kind of Blue.

“He’s the Scriabin of jazz.” — Glenn Gould on Bill Evans.

“Bill brought a great knowledge of classical music, people like Rachmaninov and Ravel. He was the one who told me to listen to…Arturo Michelangeli…” — Miles Davis on Bill Evans.

“Boy, I’ve sure learned a lot from Bill Evans. He plays the piano the way it should be played.” — Miles Davis on Bill Evans.

“I had to work harder at music than most cats, because you see, man, I don’t have very much talent. Everybody talks about my harmonic conception. I worked very hard at that because I didn’t have very good ears.” — Bill Evans on his musical development.

“I think of all harmony as an expansion from and return to the tonic.” — Bill Evans on his concept of harmony.

“The need to know what he was doing, intellectually and theoretically, was one pole of the dichotomy of the remarkable combination of careful deliberateness and intuitive spontaneity, of logic and sensitivity, of mind and heart, that was Bill Evans the musician.” — Martin Williams on Bill Evans.

“Jazz pianists everywhere touched the keyboard differently after Bill came along.” — Gene Lees.

“I went through a lot of mental pains and anguish about choosing between jazz and classical. I realized that where I functioned was where I should be, and where I functioned was in jazz, so that was it.” — Bill Evans on his musical path.