Bill Evans – Everybody Digs Bill Evans (1959)

When you start exploring jazz of the 50s and 60s, it's quite easy to see who the superstars from that period were. You just look at the players on the albums and usually the players who appear on most well-known albums can be considered the superstars of jazz. Bill Evans is clearly one of them. In addition to his own albums, he has played piano on several other jazz superstars' albums. Everybody Digs Bill Evans is his second album as the band leader. At this point his best albums were still ahead of him, but this album showed already many signs that he was to become one of the best jazz pianists on the planet. As a rising jazz star it was probably not possible to get much higher praise than to get stars like Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley praise your talents in your album cover. The album cover might not be the most innovative, but it sure gives confidence in the quality of the record.



Bill Evans normally plays in trios on his own albums. Here he's collaborating with bass player Sam Jones and the drummer Philly Joe Jones. The good thing about trios is that your instrument can really be heard properly. I like big bands and bigger jazz bands in general, but to truly appreciate someone's skills as a player, trios are the best combos to show off your talents. Bill Evans plays lots of beautiful jazz ballads, some of which have become standards to be played over and over again by other artists.

When this album was being recorded, it had already been more than two years since Evans' previous album as a band leader. Evans' producer had tried to get him to record something earlier but Evans has commented that he didn't have anything to say before this album, which is why he didn't release anything before. I think this is a very good reply. At least today, many musicians are pressured to release music on a very fast schedule when they're considered popular. This often leads to hurried albums that are not very good. So, I do appreciate that Evans wanted to get something special together before releasing a new album. After this one, he didn't take quite as much time to release new albums and it feels like it's because this is when he found his sound.

Fairly soon after the release of this album Evans also played piano on Miles Davis' album Kind of Blue, the best selling jazz recording of all times. It's quite incredible what the line-up is on that album. Miles Davis obviously on trumpet, Bill Evans on Piano, Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane on saxophones, Jimmy Cobb on drums and Paul Chambers on bass. This is an incredible star line-up in jazz. No wonder this album has such an amazing reputation.

These kinds of recordings I should of course have on vinyl, but this was in fact one CD in the box of 5 original recordings by Bill Evans. I bought this box, because it was a cheap way for me to get some brilliant jazz in mp3 format. I do like these kinds of collections where the albums are original classics. I don't see a point in buying jazz compilations unless they're something really special or rare, but I see a lot of point in buying original album series, because I think the concept of an album is very important in jazz. The albums normally have a unique mood to them and the collaborations between different artists have a huge impact on the sound of the album.

I like how Evans takes clear influences from genres like hardbop and cool jazz, but his recordings are more relaxed than those. I'm not sure what the musical style would be that would be most appropriate for this album, so I just used the not very helpful genre tag 'Jazz'.

I can only imagine how great it would've been to see some of these jazz greats perform live in the late 50s or early 60s. While you do get really brilliant jazz musicians even today, it's very rare that they become such superstars as they did back in the day. Also, the sounds must've been astonishing back in the day when it was all new and exciting. This is my favourite era of jazz and even if many bands have copied this style over and over again over the years, the excitement of creating something completely new is not there.

Listen to the album on Spotify.