Bill Evans on the Creative Process and Self-Teaching

[dorfmeister]

Pianist Bill Evans interviewed by Steve Allen in 1966. Pretty interesting stuff.





http://www.animationarchive.org/?p=1413

[huw]

Thanks for that link. Bill Evans was a great influence (direct or indirect) on pretty much anyone who came after that time.

[mjh365]

Originally Posted by dorfmeister

Pianist Bill Evans interviewed by Steve Allen in 1966. Pretty interesting stuff.





http://www.animationarchive.org/?p=1413

Thanks for the post, I loved it. I think as students of whatever type of music we are striving to create or learn, that interview said something to me loud and clear. It's about the music. About taking the steps necessary to be able to speak the language. Here is a quote from the video that hit home with me. "Most people just don’t realize the immensity of the problem and either, because they can’t conquer it immediately, think they don’t have the ability; or they’re so impatient to conquer it that they never do see it through.".... It can't be said any better than that.

Is there a transcript of that interview?

[guitarjazz]

His interview on the Piano Jazz show is worth seeking out. I got to hear him in person the week Elvis died. He played beautifully but he didn't play Love Me Tender.

[ChampReverb]

Bill Evans is one of my all-time desert island faves.

-bEn r.

[Mandoboy]

Thanks, just ordered the Helsinki 1970 DVD from which this excerpt was ripped...

[JimGtr]

One of the standouts for me was how he talked about working everything into your subconscious (Video 3 starting at 2:40). So well stated and so true.

Thanks for sharing that. What a find.

[Mithy]

This is wonderful! Thanks for the post!

[HammyD]

Have watched that before. Great stuff. Thanks for posting that!

[yeahyeahyeah]

How to improvise 101:

"It’s better to do something simple that is real. It’s something you can build on. because you know what you’re doing. Whereas, if you try to approximate something very advanced and don’t know what you’re doing, you can’t build on it."


Thanks for posting that link!

[arthur rotfeld]

Originally Posted by yeahyeahyeah

How to improvise 101:

"It’s better to do something simple that is real. It’s something you can build on. because you know what you’re doing. Whereas, if you try to approximate something very advanced and don’t know what you’re doing, you can’t build on it."


Thanks for posting that link!

What a great point. I've been thinking about that since I first saw these clips fifteen years ago. Can't say I always live up to it, but still, words of wisdom.

[deeohgee]

Great stuff

[Johns7022]

Thank for the vids....glad the interviewer was there to corral B.E. back from talking riddles and direct him back to a simple melody, then layer....

[frdagaa]

Originally Posted by yeahyeahyeah

How to improvise 101:

"It’s better to do something simple that is real. It’s something you can build on. because you know what you’re doing. Whereas, if you try to approximate something very advanced and don’t know what you’re doing, you can’t build on it."


Thanks for posting that link!

yeah, been thinking about this a lot, too. Evans restates this sentiment a couple of times in different ways, and it's SO TRUE!

This is an analogy I came up with:
Suppose you wanted to sound like Shakespeare. Just about any adult could start spouting off "shakespearese" like "Wouldst thou but enter into thine humble being, fosaken like a rose unplucked, whilst I erstwhile mistaken might be?" But that crap is a poor imitation of the real thing. It might pass for the bard on a Saturday Night Live skit, but that's about it. You could practice it over and over and over again (without real study), and you might get some better at sounding like Shakespeare, but what you're building on is fundamentally flawed so you'd never really pull it off. To really do better, you'd have to seriously study 17th century English, learn correct vocab, study Shakespearean phrase structure, etc.

I look at so many areas of endeavor, and excellence is always achieved through incremental advancements built on top of firmly established fundamentals.

Time to go back and get some good jazz lines under my fingers in all 12 keys. Need to rely less on just throwing on an Abersold play-along and jamming out my poor shakespearese.

[jspax7]

Thanks for posting this!