Renowned Jazz pianist Bill Evans has had quite a number of releases and reissues after his premature death in 1980. But so far, there hasn’t been a release that spans his complete career.
Now, Craft Recordings is set to rectify this with the release of Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956–1980), a five-CD box set and digital album. It will feature over 60 tracks that spotlight, as UDiscover notes, “Evans’ unique perspective on the piano both as a leader and co-leader.”
This extensive set also includes a previously unreleased live performance of “Up with the Lark” from 1975, captured at Oil Can Harry’s in Vancouver, B.C. This recently unearthed concert recording will also be issued as a standalone album, titled On a Friday Evening, which will be available on 2-LP, CD, and digital formats.
Everybody Still Digs Bill Evans: A Career Retrospective (1956–1980) spans the pianist’s Riverside, Milestone, Fantasy, Verve, Warner Bros., and Elektra/Musician catalogs, and features Evans’ work with Tony Bennett, Cannonball Adderley, Kenny Burrell, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Eddie Gomez, Shelly Manne, and Lee Konitz, among many others.
Evans is considered one of the most influential artists in the history of Jazz, and was known for “his conversational interplay within his trios, his lyrical compositions, and his matchless approach to the piano.”
He was quite a prolific artist who released over 50 albums as a leader, garnering 7 Grammy Awards, 31 Grammy nominations, and 2 inductions into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 1994, he was honored posthumously with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
