Bill Evans Trio - Lucky to be me

Album: Everybody digs Bill Evans (1958) Bill Evans: piano Sam Jones: bass Philly Joe Jones: drums Composition: Adolph Green, Betty Comden, Leonard Bernstein

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bill
• Evans
• Trio
• Lucky
• to
• be
• me

[Masakratorek1985]

Have U got notes for this song??

[Bruningable]

@Masakratorek1985  no, i´m afraid not.

[MrWolfmantim]

And to think Bill Evans was excluded from Ken Burn's Jazz 19 hour documentary. So much for Ken's credibility. Bill Evans was/is arguably the best jazz pianist.

[DunhillHilton]

Brilliant. Thank you.

[samblancato]

There's NOTHING like this today. Evans takes up songs that are so sweet in their sentiment and treats them with such intelligence and sensitivity - Songs like "Lucky to be me" can so easily be botched and then you're left with something maudlin and cloying. He brings a lot of himself to the keyboard and puts his stamp over the whole thing - but always in service of he song itself. He never high-jacks the song for some other agenda and that is part of his genius.

[samblancato]

@MrWolfmantim

I'm 52 and I've loved the music of Bill Evans since I was 16 but for what ever reasons, where I lived growing up, when I grew up - what ever - I've never really run across other people who really dug him very much. It's only in recent years with the internet and Facebook and all, where people share stuff. I just get such a charge when people post Bill Evans (what brought me to this page) videos.

[samblancato]

Evans was a genius. When I was 16 I was into Zeplin, Jethro Tull, and a bunch of other similar stuff. I heard Bill Evans' Riverside Album "Explorations" and a friend's house (his father was listening to it) and it just stopped me in my tracks. Within three months I lost most of my interest in all my records. I bought or taped several Bill Evans records and then other jazz stuff. Evens' music made a huge impression on me. My friends all just wondered why I was into "all this shit".

[exjazzbassbaz]

@mrwolfmantim.your right about ken burns he was way out with bill.he was a piano giant.the tragic events you point out must have contributed to bills state of mind.at the same time we have all his wonderful music to listen to.a blessing indeed.many thanks.

[MrWolfmantim]

@exjazzbassbaz Bill Evans' only sibling, his close brother Harry, commited suicide about a year before Bill dies. He also had a long time girlfriend who did the same a few years earlier than that. so I agree..... his last recordings at times sound like he is putting everything he has left in them.

[MrWolfmantim]

@uneedtherapy42 Thank you for the reply. It always helps, in the sea of phoniness and mediocrity of current art and entertainment, to hear from someone else who hears the absolute beauty, emotion, and intelligence in Bill Evans' music.

[uneedtherapy42]

@MrWolfmantim Ken Burns is the Bob Costas of documentary film makers.... that guy who is competent but you just find to also be a pain in the ass know-it-all... who like Bob Costas (who I am sure never played sports) never played an instrument yet is off-puttingly pedantic and prone to pontification. Bill Evans was jazz's answer to Debussy and Satie and I will listen to him forever. Your comment is great!! thanks man.

[exjazzbassbaz]

i get the feeling that bill had some sort of death wish.he put so much into his music in such a short time.heart and soul.his ballad playing was awesome.i would say unique.not forgetting he could swing with the best.a troubled soul but what a player.a lesson for young jazzers stay clean have a beer and get swinging.l.o.l..many thanks...

[predoje]

@MrWolfmantim I agree. After him comes Oscar Peterson and Art tatum.