In the late 50’s in the last great surge of innovation in Jazz, Bill Evans came on the scene and changed the way jazz was played and dramatically changed the landscape. His sensibility and his approach to jazz were daringly different.  He expanded the playing field by bringing in a lyricism that has roots in the romantic composers of the 19th Century.  He expanded the harmonic framework, creating a fresh approach to standards that caught everyone’s attention, musicians and listener alike.  Quite simply said by Bill Charlap in the film; “no one sounded like that before”. While many post bebop pianists were consumed with how fast they could play, Bill Evans showed up and showed the world how slow he could play.

In 1958 Evans joined the Miles Davis sextet and that band would go on to produce some of the most important music of the twentieth century.  Miles Davis’s 1959 album, “Kind of Blue” featuring John Coltrane, Cannonball Adder, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, Wynton Kelly and Bill Evans is a seminal recording and the largest selling jazz album of all time.  It’s the essence of jazz improvisation.  The two architects of that music were Miles Davis and his pianist Bill Evans.

In the early 1960’s Evans teamed up with bassist Scott Alfaro and drummer Paul Motian forming the Bill Evans Trio.  This group would soon revolutionize the concept of the jazz trio.  There was a collective interactive dialogue between the instruments that advanced the trio sound forever. That seminal Bill Evans trio has influenced every great jazz trio that followed.

Evans was also a great and prolific composer. “Waltz for Debby,” “Time Remembered” and “Turn out the Stars” are high water marks in jazz composition and frequently recorded by new artists.

As great as an artist as Evans was he was haunted by drug addiction, and his life had a lot of personal tragedies associated with it. A lot of jazz musicians in their interviews, try and put Bill’s life into perspective. Bill Evans was a enigmatic guy who always stay close to creating and striving for the great beauty of his music.

The players of the last great era of jazz are slowly leaving us.  Bruce Spiegel began interviewing musicians that played with Evans as well as those that have been influenced by him.  Sadly many that knew and played with Bill are no longer with us. Paul Motian, Billy Taylor, Tony Bennett, Jon Hendricks, Jim Hall, Bill Charlap, Eric Reed, Bob Brookmeyer, Chuck Israels, Warren Bernhardt, and Marty Morell, are just some of the people that Spiegel talked with in piecing together a narrative of Evan’s life, his successes, as well as his profound personal struggles.

Evans is one of the last great innovative jazz artists of the Twentieth Century. His ballad playing, his sense of touch, his harmonic and his  beautiful compositions will stand the test of time. Bill Evans: Time Remembered puts Evan’s legacy in perspective as well as showcases his music for a new generation of listeners.