Jazz Nights (13)

On Friday, December 9th at 8 pm, Jazz Nights 13 will present the Orrin Evans Trio - Evans on piano, Byron Landham on drums, and Madison Rast on bass.

Now, full disclosure: I really like Orrin Evans' playing, and am especially pleased that he will be with us in Princeton next month. "Hot House," the monthly preview of what's happening in New York, said in 1998, when Mr. Evans must have been all of 23 or 24, he's "The clear-cut best pianist of his time." I wouldn't argue.

Mr. Evans is a "local," born in Trenton and raised in Philadelphia. He studied classical piano with Charles Pettaway and jazz piano with Kenny Barron. Not a bad education! He grew up in a home filled with artists - his mother is a classically trained vocalist, and his father was Donald T. Evans, a playwright of distinction who taught at local universities, including Princeton, for many years. It is possible that some of you remember Donald Evans as the Recreation Coordinator of the Princeton Youth Center. Orrin Evans and his CDs have won many awards, and are consistently favorably reviewed. He currently is on the music faculty of the Germantown Friends School, and his home is still poly-artistic - he is married to vocalist Dawn Warren.

I first heard Orrin Evans at the semi-finals of the 1999 Monk Competition in DC. By the way, those semis make a great outing. Unlike the finals, which are a media event, the semis are informal (and free!). You hear about 12 musicians competing for the four finalist places, and it is just a wonderful time. That year, the list of competitors was especially stellar. Eric Lewis is Wynton Marsalis' current pianist, and Jeb Patton, Helen Sung, Sam Yahel, and John Stetch are among the young artists currently building splendid careers. By the way, you'll have a chance to hear Mr. Stetch, another of my favorites, at a JazzNights evening next September. Mr. Evans finished second to Mr. Lewis, but is now in my opinion the most interesting of that fine group. Over the succeeding six years, his work has refined, deepened, and become more abstract. His playing remains often percussive, and he still favors repeated notes or short phrases that build remarkable tension, but he's fully capable of a beautiful ballad, and tour-de-force jazz and "songbook" standards. Rhythm-a-ning seems a favorite of his, and there is a spectacular long version of the Cole Porter tune, I Love You, on "Deja Vu."

He seems to favor old, rarely played tunes that have fallen into disuse. Rocking Chair, That Old Feeling, and I Want to Be Happy are typical examples. But they surely do not re-emerge in Evans' work in old-style treatments. Rocking Chair is on "Grown Folk Bizness" as a dazzling solo performance in which Evans never, strays far from the melody, or at least very close variations on it. At times, the tune becomes a duet between his two hands; it is spectacularly understated, and very effective. Another example, I Want to Be Happy, has appeared in a number of versions, first (?) on CD in 1999 on "Listen To The Band" and then again on "Deja Vu," in 2002. I also heard it live at the Deer Head Inn in January of 2002. It has become a strikingly abstract tune in which Mr. Evans and his cohorts deconstruct the melody, taking the song apart, leaving only its bones visible. Hard edge and highly abstract sections alternate with lyrical passages, and there is a marvelous interlude on the "Deja Vu" version in which Mr. Evans and drummer Byron Landham switch roles, with the piano keeping time with a repeated phrase as Landham improvises. The duet resolves into a quiet, ethereal vision of the melody, stated almost straight at first, but with each phrase ending in a right-hand riff that is developed by itself, finally fading to silence. I recall the 2002 live version as even more "modern" - "a weird incarnation" I wrote at the time, "with touches of Tristano (?) resolving to lyric OE, single notes, and out." Tristano? I can't detect much of Lennie now - I wish I could re-hear that Deer Head version!

Playing with Mr. Evans are two long-time associates and regulars on the Philadelphia and beyond jazz scene, Byron Landham on drums and Madison Rast on bass. This trio has often worked together and in fact has recently recorded a January 2005 live CD at Millsaps College. In this setting you'll hear them especially well! We'll see you there.

Recommended CDs:

Easy Now, Criss Cross 1259 (2005). Evens' tribute to his father with Ralph Bowen (alto and soprano) J. D. Allen (tenor), Mike Boone (b), Eric Revis (b), Rodney Green (d) and Byron Landham (d).

Deja Vu, Imani Records (2002), Evans, Landham, and Matthew Parrish (b).

Meant to Shine, Palmetto (2002), Evans, Revis, Bowen, Sam Newsome (soprano), and Gene Jackson (d).

Listen to the Band, Criss Cross 1195, (1999) Evans, Bowen, Newsome, Duane Eubanks (tp), Reid Anderson (b), and Nasheet Waits (d).

Grown Folk Bizness, Criss Cross 1175 (1998), Evans, Bowen, Newsome, Rodney Whitaker (b), and Ralph Peterson (d).