Bill Evans

Bill Evans (1929-1980) came out of Plainfield, New Jersey with classical training and a deep love of Debussy and Ravel. His break came with the Miles Davis sextet, where his sound and harmonic ideas shaped Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz record ever made.

The trio he formed with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian rewrote the rules of the format: three equal voices in conversation instead of a soloist with accompaniment. The live recordings from the Village Vanguard in June 1961, made days before LaFaro died in a car accident, remain some of the most loved jazz albums ever issued.

Evans' rootless chord voicings, his singing melodic lines and his introspective way with a ballad became the harmonic vocabulary of modern jazz piano. Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau all build on ground he laid.