Evans Bill, actually William John Evans, *16 August 1929 Plainfield (New Jersey), †15 September 1980 New York, American jazz pianist and composer. He graduated from Southeastern Louisiana College and from 1958, studied piano at the Mannes School of Music in New York. He played, among others: with Tony Scott (1955), G. Russell, M. Davis (1958). Since 1956, he has been performing and recording with his own trio (Bill Evans Trio) and as a soloist. One of the most outstanding contemporary jazz pianists. Initially, he was influenced by the piano school of L. Tristan (album New Jazz Conceptions, 1956); during his cooperation with M. Davis, he changed his playing style. He is a creator of lyrical expressiveness; his music is characterised by exceptional suggestiveness of expression and a specific sound atmosphere. He uses a language that is moderately modern, but highly individual. In his trio, he promoted the excellent double bassist Scott La Faro. Evans played an extremely important, although rarely appreciated, role in shaping jazz pianism over the last twenty years.
