A possibly heretical statement re Bill Evans' first trio

[JSngry]

Well, at least he had good teeth, or so it appears. Best junkie teeth I've ever seen, that's for sure!

[Steve Reynolds]

Well, at least he had good teeth, or so it appears. Best junkie teeth I've ever seen, that's for sure!

Might not be real. I know quite a few older recovering addicts with perfect looking teeth. Most of them are not original.

[sgcim]

Well, at least he had good teeth, or so it appears. Best junkie teeth I've ever seen, that's for sure!

That's a laugh. By the late 60s he had lost almost every tooth in his mouth. Some British dentist couldn't believe how bad his mouth looked, and gave him a whole new set of teeth for free. On "The Bill Evans Album" there's a picture of his new set of teeth somewhere on the back cover.

A friend of mine said there was a video of how he looked before he got his new teeth, and it's pretty ghastly.

It might be on "The Universal Mind of Bill Evans", featuring the world's two most dysfunctional brothers together, for the first and only time.

You can see the weird dynamic going on between the two brothers; how Harry is kind of putting words in his zonked out brother's mouth, and BE seems to be having a little problem with his mobility...

When Helen Keane took over his career, she literally took care of everything for him. All he had to do was play.

[Milestones]

I don't think I knew just how messed-up Bill Evans was. He would make a good subject for a film biopic--drugs, racial issues, suicide, early death, connection to greats like Miles Davis. I keep hearing there is supposed to be a film in the works on Chet Baker. But why not Bill Evans?

I give the man credit for not having extended time off the scene (like Art Pepper, Chet Baker, Joe Pass, Frank Morgan, and several others) and that the quality of his work rarely suffered.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Milestones

[JSngry]

Chet could rock the sunglasses and the junkie phrasing and the prom tux, that's why he gets the movie.

[Scott Dolan]

Man, Chet Baker. Now THERE'S someone woefully absent from my collection. I did have a few LP's, but those all went bye bye when we moved up here from Florida.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Scott Dolan

[sgcim]

Yeah, I don't see the chicks going wild for the dude above when they could have Chettie to fantasize about.

There was a French film about Bill Evans. Maybe they got Jerry Lewis to play Bill.

Edited November 19, 2014 by sgcim

[Milestones]

Bill didn't look all that dorky in his later years.

Maybe Matt Damon as BE...adopt a look something like that in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

[fasstrack]

To get back to my OP: Well, I've come full circle. Listened to Portrait in Jazz yesterday and really enjoyed it. It's more of a traditional piano trio than the VV stuff, but there is interplay between Bill and Scott. The main thing is Bill is playing aggressively and reaching out. He seems to be developing the ideas explored on Everybody Digs Bill Evans, with horn-like lines and double-timing.

I'd put this recording high in the Evans canon, despite my earlier comments about the trio. Go figure.

[TedR]

That's what makes music listening, jazz in particular, such an adventure to me. At any given time views can change completely from what they had been about an album, a musician or a musical style or period. That's why it's a fun challenge for me to trust my own listening (difficult at times) and my own tastes without being swayed by overly negative opinions or sentiment that is expressed at any one time. Not to be misunderstood, I highly value guidance and recommendations from others who have a different frame of reference or have much more experience whether playing, listening and/or producing. But whether I "get something" now, later or never doesn't really matter. It's the effort that's the most rewarding.

[Larry Kart]

Bill didn't look all that dorky in his later years.

Maybe Matt Damon as BE...adopt a look something like that in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Steve Buscemi? Christopher Walken?

[Milestones]

To digress a bit, we appear to have two upcoming jazz biopics--one on Miles (Don Cheadle), the other on Chet Baker (Ethan Hawke).

Who else would be a good subject for a jazz biopic? This could include Bill Evans (or not).

I would like to see Charles Mingus and Art Pepper

[jazzbo]

I echo Mingus and would love to see a Monk pic. Perhaps based on "Crepescule w/Nellie"?

And a movie about Duke starring Lawrence Fishburne.

[JSngry]

Larry King as Symphony Sid.

You'll only hate it until you see it.

Then you'll wonder what took so long.

After that, you'll be delighted that it was finally done so that it will never have to be done again.

[erwbol]

I would rather not see Hollywood take on Monk. Just read today's Guardian to see what Hollywood is capable of.

Inventing a new slander to insult Alan Turing. "The wartime codebreaker and computing genius was pursued for homosexuality, but nobody – until film-makers came along – accused him of being a traitor"

[AllenLowe]

Boyce Brown. Would be way more interesting because there are so few preconceptions and stereotypes. No Hollywood Mr. Cool and no Hollywood Angry Black Man.

Edited November 20, 2014 by AllenLowe

[clifford_thornton]

Bill didn't look all that dorky in his later years.

Maybe Matt Damon as BE...adopt a look something like that in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Steve Buscemi? Christopher Walken?

Nick Nolte?

[T.D.]

Bill didn't look all that dorky in his later years.

Maybe Matt Damon as BE...adopt a look something like that in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Steve Buscemi? Christopher Walken?

Gary Busey (if he's still around)?

[Daniel A]

Joe Pesci?

[JSngry]

Just bend him in half.

[Larry Kart]

And Sharon Stone as Helen Keane.

[JSngry]

Johnny Depp as Harry Evans, Jeff Goldblum as Bill Evans, just to a straight re-creation of The Universal Mind.

With bonus commentary by Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish as Helen Keane, and with special introduction introduction by Morgan Freeman as "Roston" (voice only).

Directed by Rob Reiner and/or Ron Howard.

How does that not work?

[T.D.]

Bill Moody's jazz mystery novels seem pretty good: http://billmoodyjazz.com/books.html

I've read a couple, including the Chet Baker. Wardell Gray and Clifford Brown are featured in ones I haven't read.

Edited November 21, 2014 by T.D.

[Milestones]

It is, of course, really tough to get a good movie on jazz out of Hollywood. Even Bird was pretty much slammed (sometimes for good reasons), even with Clint Eastwood being the biggest jazz fan of any major Hollywood player.

[Scott Dolan]

I thought Bird was pretty good, but I'm a big Forest Whitaker fan. 'Round Midnight was decent enough as well.

But, I agree with your overall point because I doubt either were that interesting to non Jazz fans.