Broken time: Bill Evans and Miles Davis

20 May, 2025 - Categories: music, jazz - Tags: Bill Evans, Miles Davis

By Steven Rosenberg

You'll get most of the story by listening to Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue," with the trumpeter's first classic quintet, and Bill Evans' "The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961," with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, but if you want to read about it, there is a lot of context for both in "Broken Time: 'Nardis' and the Curious History of a Jazz Obsession," by Steve Silberman.

"Kind of Blue" remains a great introduction to Miles Davis, Bill Evans, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley — and the styles of cool and modal jazz.

Lately I have spent a whole lot of time listening to the interplay of pianist Bill Evans, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian on "The Complete Village Vanguard." You can hear the bass better on these live recordings than you can on the few tracks this trio recorded in the studio. It's all about how piano and bass are not sticking to their established roles and instead creating something totally original.

Make sure when you listen that you can hear the bass. LaFaro died young (and tragically), and he's basically frozen in time on these recordings.

Despite heroin addiction, Evans went on to make many excellent recordings with other players, though none as classic as what came out of 1961's "Village Vanguard" sessions. I'd say most of Evans' other bassists were informed by LaFaro's work on "Village Vanguard," but nobody's a carbon copy.

To make sure you have all the Miles Davis with Bill Evans, check out the "Kind of Blue: Legacy Edition", which has a few tracks that didn't make the original album. The inclusion of Evans in the Miles Davis group is so rare, all is well worth studying.