Bill Evans Recommendations For Beginner

[sonofslimegod]

Hello, I am new to jazz piano after 9 years of studying jazz through the guitar.  I’ve been looking for a good recording to absorb and transcribe and Bill Evans’s Portrait In Jazz album seems to come to mind.  Would that be a good resource for a beginning jazz pianist?

[j_tour]

I think "Waltz for Debby" is a fantastic tune, and surprisingly can hold some challenges for a simpler piece.  Many live recordings by Bill exist, as well as transcriptions.

Granted, it used to be back in the day that playing in triple meter was considered pretty da**, oh wait, this is a childrens' forum, so I'm supposed to have so pretty gosh darn heck a lot, ultra-avant-garde in jazz, but I don't think it's been that case since the 1950s.

My apologies.

Regards,

Nellie.

ETA, Yeah, there's no question Portrait in Jazz is fundamental.  I believe most of it's been transcribed, fairly accurately IIRC.

I believe he does "Blue in Green" on that one, which might line up with your sense of chord voicings on the fretboard.

If I had to pick one and only one Bill album to concentrate on, though, I'd just stick with Explorations.

I don't have the CDs in front of me now, to remember what tunes he did on which album, but while something like "Nardis" is not that difficult a tune, it gives you so much space to explore that, if you're at all like me, you'll just stay stuck playing the form and not really doing the tune in a free manner, taking liberties with voicings and soloing with a kind of...freedom.  While, obviously, staying to the form.

The heads to all his tunes are easy enough, it's just IMHO being able to find something interesting to play over them that isn't just copying Bill.

"Five"'s a good one — at least to me that's one of the more challenging rhythm-changes tunes.  (EEETA that's off Bill's album "New Conceptions in Jazz," as is the original, abbreviated form of "Waltz For Debbie," but "WFD" is a jazz standard recorded by...well, pretty much everybody knows that tune.)

EETA Well, to go back to back to your larger point, I'd back to Bud Powell.  "Anthropology," his covers of Monk tunes, "Parisian Thoroughfare," all the classics.  One of the foundations where Bill got his stuff.  Don't worry, you'll get to play Monk soon enough, or at least your version of his tunes, but I'd hold off on that for now.

I'd still do "Waltz for Debbie," though"