Lets take a close look at some of my favorite chord voicings from his playing and learn how we can improve our playing. First, he comps for, and interacts with, other players as they solo. Each note is sometimes called a voice, especially when talking about the movement of the inner voices of a chord progression. Bill evans chord progressions was bill evans chord voicings alex maas. Bill evans was so creative in the way he chose voicings for chords. Taken from the album empathy and a couple of other compilations this version of danny boy is a sensitive long take on this great theme. Sep 28, 2017 the bill evans collection bill evans plays. As played by bill evans on the universal mind of bill evans tv special in 1966.
Twonote shell voicings some of my favorite chords to use in my left hand, especially in a solo piano context are shell voicings that contain only two yes i said. Prior to this, jazz pianists tended to use shell chords like the bud powell voicing we will learn in a future lesson or stride piano. Ill post on rooty voicings at some point, but here ill discuss learning the more advanced evans voicings, something i am in the middle of doing. The word voicings refers to the way in which a chord is spread out. The harmony of bill evans by jack reilly and bill evans sheet.
Rare transcriptions 2 song recording 1i hear a rhapsodywith jim hall undercurrent 2. The melody contains many of the interesting upper extensions and alterations which makes this a great tune to apply the theory. What aspects of music theory did bill evans understand. But you can actually apply the drop 2 method to any of the fournote voicings weve looked at. Rootless left hand piano voicings earl macdonald composer. Left hand rootless voicings are closely associated with the piano style of pianist bill evans 19291980. And, as youll soon learn from pianist bill evans, the dominant chords in a minor ii v can be varied in a multitude of ways, even from chorus to chorus. Im aware that bill evans often spoke vehemently of blue in green being his own composition. Basic rootless piano voicings by chris fitzgerald ex. Ive snabbed the pdfs and extracted the following transcriptions from various issues. Yes the chords have bill evans written all over them, perhaps miles had some say in the melody. Download pdf jazz piano masterclass the drop 2 book free. The basic approach is to take the third and sixth voicings aka fourway close and drop the second from top tone down an octave. Of course, the bill evans sound had to do with not only his voicings, but his innovative use of rhythm, his touch, some use of harmonic substitution, and other techniques, many derived from 20th.
Being a pianist grants us the advantage of being able to hear harmony and melody while playing alone. Can you point directly to where bill evans has anything to do with these voicings. See new and popular bill evans songs, uploaded by musescore users, connect with a community of musicians who love to write and play music. Listen click music player stream music chord voicing beautiful melody, fantastic chord voicing, demands jazz piano excellence. His reluctance the trouble with billand, as much as anything, that was the cause for our deciding to record him livewas always persuading bill to play at all. Jan 30, 20 a basic component of most jazz pianists toolbox is the socalled bill evans or rootless or sometimes lefthand voicings. These fournote rootless voicings, pioneered by bill evans, are the staple repertoire of jazz pianists and should be memorised and played in until they become part of the subconscious. One of the critical defining factors of evans voicings as they are generally known and understood is their density, and the ab aspect. Jazz piano solos series volume 19 kindle edition by evans, bill, edstrom, brent. Regardless, your question about left handed rootless voicings. This pdf serves as a compliment to a free lesson that i created emphasizing the rewards of. Take advantage of this by singing slowly to hear the tension and release of. Rootless chord voicings were developed in the 1950s by pianists like bill evans, wynton kelly and ahmad jamal.
Many feel that people who improvise or play jazz are special. General information this booklet is designed to give you the basics which you will need in order to learn the art of improvising in music. Blue in green from the miles davis album kind of blue ballad miles davis assignment. Introduce the idea of voicings that within the context of a single chord include a. Throughout the head and much of the solo chorus, evans uses closeposition voicings in the left hand. Bill evans tenderly pdf, 4 pages from the album everybody digs bill evans. Fournote voicings these fournote rootless voicings, pioneered by bill evans, are the staple repertoire of jazz pianists and should be memorised and played in until they become part of the subconscious. Transcriptions bill evans very early 1966 submitted. Blue in green is the third track on miles davis album kind of blue which is the bestselling jazz album of all time. An arranging technique used when voicing for four horns. Why twonote voicings are the best all the things you are made easy. But what many, many people study is the use of voicings by bill evans.
Jazz pianists in the decades prior to the 1950s generally played more block chords andor shell voicings like roots and 7ths and put the root in their voicings most of the time. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Waltz for debby bill evans transcription based on the versions from waltz for debby 1961 and new jazz conceptions 1956, including some elements of on jazz 625 1965 a1 ad lib. The 1970s also saw evans collaborate with the singer tony bennett on 1975s the tony bennett bill evans album and 1977s together again. Mar 21, 2016 twohand piano voicings are essential for jazz pianists when comping behind melodists and soloists. Bill evans live at the trident, 1964 bill evans how my heart sings, from album. What aspects of music theory did bill evans understand that.
Bill evans danny boy pdf and reference mp3 file 11mb. Encyclopedia of twohand jazz piano voicings learn jazz. Midnight mood from the alone album i loves you porgy from recording at the montreux jazz. Basic onehand voicings created by adding color tones to the guide tones in the previous example. Play with shell voicings and add the missing guide tone, i. In order to make it playable for piano solo i have incorporated the bass into th. The peacocks as played by bill evans in you must believe in spring. These lefthand voicings were largely pioneered in the 1950s by jazz pianists such as bill evans.
Blues bass line walking click here to download file. Bill evans changed some characteristics of the primal version and kept them in all or most of the later versions. A closed voicing in the center will draw the listener in. Encyclopedia of lefthand jazz piano voicings learn jazz. I recently purchased a book that i was pleasantly surprised by, as it explains a lot of what bill evans does when voicing the. Bill evans 19291980 is one of the alltime great jazz piarusts. Ive already posted about the issues of letter from evans that are available on scribd. Jazz piano masterclass the drop 2 book download jazz piano masterclass the drop 2 book ebook pdf or read online books in pdf, epub, and mobi format. Why twonote voicings are the best all the things you are. The newest jazz piano chords pdf that i recently made available features those piano chords and voicings that i used during an eight bar segment of a piano video tutorial i created which focuses on the classic harold arlen tune paper moon. Jazz keyboard voicings and bass line writing nafme. Bill evans a stepbystep breakdown of the piano styles and techniques of a jazz legend by brent edstrom ro. It appears that you do not have a plugin to view pdfs. Bill evans was a true innovator revolutionising the sound of the jazz trio.
I recommend printing out both his post, and his pdf file with music notation and taking them to the piano. Therefore, he needs two different types of voicings. The album is worth checking out if you havent already. May 31, 2017 any answer to this question coming from anyone other than bill evans himself will be at best informed speculation, so thats what this is. Drop 2 voicings bebop, hard bop, contemporary jazz. Bill evans time remembered for some different approaches to chord movement, bill evans time remembered has no ii v is in the entire piece. Many of the real books reference miles as the author and so i included here it for easy reference.
When you hear pianists such as thelonious monk, bill evans, art tatum, mccoy tyner, chick corea or herbie hancock, you will notice that each utilizes his own personal chord voicing palette creating a wide variety of dramatic possibilities. Its an excellent example of his approach to vertical chordal playing on the piano. Bill evans trio 65, 1965 bill evans i got it bad and that aint good, from album. Twohand piano voicings are essential for jazz pianists when comping behind melodists and soloists.
Notice that the only differences between these scales relate to alterations of the 3rd and 7th. Piano transcriptions archive including more than 950 transcriptions in pdf of popular jazz pianist. Basic twonote guide tone voicings, containing only the 3rd and 7th of each chord. Sometimes he would leave a note out in what classical. In 1975, morell was replaced by drummer eliot zigmund. Bill evans, the pianist, is a towering figure acknowledged by the jazz world, fans. If you want to focus on twohanded voicings, ive put together a partial list of the various types here.
Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading bill evans songbook. This pdf will be a big help to many jazz pianists and other. Jazz piano high school, getting started jazz piano 101199, basic concepts jazz. Step 4 sing the melody while playing simple left hand voicings. The anangement starts with open block chords, then billies various intervals. Ill also share some of evans classic voicings, like his voicings of minor 11 or dominant th chords. Bill evans transcriptions pdf agentslastflights diary. The harmony of bill evans sheet music by jack reilly and bill evans for free with a 30. Download for free in pdf midi format, or print directly from our site. Bill evans type voicings thought id write out mandolin voicings that mimic these sounds as of course we cant voice chords like this exactly on mandolin. Although pianists and arrangers are free to use their own voicings and by doing so. Rootless left hand piano voicings left hand rootless voicings are closely associated with the piano style of pianist bill evans 19291980. For our purposes, all voicings built up from the 3rd will be referred to as type i voicings, and those built up from the 7th will be called type ii. The most amazing bill evans chords aimee nolte music.
Born in plainfield, new jersey in 1929, bill evans began to study the piano at age six. Send your own transcriptions or scores to please send your contribution in a pdf file. These were to some extent used before evans came on the scene in the late 1950searly 1960s, but he perhaps used them more extensively than others. I transcribed quite a bit of bill evans in college, and i have a few observations about his playing that mig. Tons of great pianists, including thelonious monk, bud powell, and bill evans, utilized twonote voicings. B maj7 5 a7 9 dm9 d 11 7 cm7 f7 9 b maj7 5 a7 dm6 9 e7 9 e7 5 am9 dm9 b maj7 5 a7 9 dm6 9 ballad ending 1 blue in green miles davis. A thorough knowledge of these voicings is essential. Orin keepnews of course, bill would never have let any work out at all if he wasnt compelled to support. Learning rootless voicings for jazz piano from earl. Autumn leaves advanced bill evans style jazz piano. Bill evans sheet music free download in pdf or midi on. His unique style influenced jazz pianists that came after him and even those who came before him. Bill evans, barry harris, oscar peterson, kenny barron.
But these have a lot of the feel of evans voicings. In our catalog, you can find bill evans sheet music for piano, drums, flute, saxophone, trumpet, guitar and almost any other instrument. Any answer to this question coming from anyone other than bill evans himself will be at best informed speculation, so thats what this is. Click download or read online button to jazz piano masterclass the drop 2 book book pdf for free now. A basic component of most jazz pianists toolbox is the socalled bill evans or rootless or sometimes lefthand voicings. Blue in green tutorial bill evans chords, voicings, pdf. This handout is the second in a twopart series of reference voicings for the jazz pianist. Bill evans chord progressions was bill evans chord voicings. I took a midi file i had created, imported it into band in a box as a midi file. Im using pianist earl macdonalds excellent post on how to learn these voicings.
In ab voicings generally a voicing with the 3rd as the lowest voice is followed by a voicing in which the 7th is the lowest. Several collaborations followed, and it was not until 1977 that the trio was able to record an album together. The sheet music library pdf is a nonprofit, subscription library of piano, guitar and vocal scores. Piano chord voicings for jazz combo the pianist has a few functions in a jazz combo. It is originally a am7b5 chords, but bill evans plays a beautiful a7 chord these, so i wanted to add this to the arrangement, but keep the am7b5 as a chord symbol, so we learn that we can. Therefore, discover new modern voicings which make this jerome kern jazz classic beautiful and elegant. Rh transcribed by thomas mueller 20170109 9 17 a2 25 33 b etc. Names like george shearing, mccoy tyner, bill evans and thelonious monk readily come to mind. Jazz piano voicings pdf archives jazz piano voicings. Bill evans iivi transcription in 12 keys i really enjoyed working on this transcription more like adaption of bill evans. Jazz piano college 122 autumn leaves open voicings youtube. This is an short encyclopedia with 12 voicings for most of the chords jazz pianists are likely to encounter.