“Kind of Bill - Celebrating the Birthday and Musical Life of Bill Evans” Comes to Crooner’s!
Thursday, August 31, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Crooners Supper Club
Main Stage
6161 Highway 65 NE
Minneapolis, MN 55432
https://www.croonersmn.com/
Box Office:
Tickets $20-30
(763) 760-0062
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kind-of-bill-celebrating-the-birthday-and-musical-life-of-bill-evans-tickets-698171488717
Larry McDonough Quartet
Larry McDonough, piano and voice
Richard Terrill, saxes and poetry
Greg Stinson, bass,
Dean White, drums
Families and students are welcome.
Crooner’s Supper Club Event
https://www.croonersmn.com/event/kind-of-bill-celebrating-the-birthday-and-musical-life-of-bill-evans/
Facebook Event
https://www.facebook.com/events/1297049567607792
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The Bill Evans Trios revolutionized jazz, with each member improvising at the same time while performing recognizable pieces.
The Larry McDonough Quartet will celebrate the birthday and musical life of Bill Evans and his associations with Tony Bennett, Scott LaFaro, Paul Motian, Miles Davis, Jim Hall, Eddie Gómez, Eliot Zigmund, Marc Johnson, and Joe LaBarbera.
Sax man and Minnesota Book Award winner Richard Terrill will add original poetry and prose about Bill Evans.
Come see the show that has filled jazz clubs across the Twin Cities.
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Larry McDonough and Bill Evans
Bill Evans was born William John Evans on August 16, 1929, and was one of the most influential jazz pianists in history. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, complex rhythms, and simultaneous improvisation of group members redefined groups, composition, and jazz pianists. He performed on the Miles Davis album “Kind of Blue” in 1959, the best-selling jazz album ever. His trio with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian introduced simultaneous improvisation and is regarded as a seminal modern jazz trio. In 1963, Evans recorded Conversations with Myself, a solo album produced with over-dubbing technology allowing him to perform with himself. He later collaborated with the singer Tony Bennett on two critically acclaimed albums: The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album (1975) and Together Again (1977). His last trio included bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joe LaBarbera. Evans died on September 15, 1980 at age 51 in New York City. He received 31 Grammy nominations and seven awards, and was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Evans
Larry grew up listening and transcribing Evans’ music, having seen his live performances in the 1970s. His shows and recordings feature the music of Evans. Larry has become friends with Evans’ widow Nenette, who supports Larry’s projects and provides him with some of Bill Evans’ manuscripts. Larry is the only Minnesotan invited to study the Bill Evans Archive at the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies of Southeastern Louisiana University. Movie director Bruce Spiegel chose Larry to host Minnesota showings of his documentary film “Bill Evans Time Remembered.” Jazz curator Steve Kenny has called Larry the Bill Evans scholar of Minnesota.
Nenette Evans said: “The Evans family is so grateful that Larry McDonough has chosen to remember my late husband Bill Evans. I like what Max Gordon said about Bill Evans in his book concerning his experiences as owner of the famed Village Vanguard club, where Bill eventually became a regular: ‘The first time Bill Evans played the Village Vanguard, he was the intermission pianist for the Modern Jazz Quartet. The room was quiet when they played. When Bill Evans played the MJQ fans wondered, ‘Who the hell was that?' They'd never heard of him. He was filling space in between for the star attraction. Today Bill is the star attraction. When Bill Evans plays, the Village Vanguard becomes Town Hall.’ ”
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Kind of Bill on the Palace Grounds, Marking 40 Years since the Death of Bill Evans
The Larry McDonough Quartet will perform music from their recent CD "Kind of Bill on the Palace Grounds - Marking 40 Years since the Death of Bill Evans," a live recording covering the career of Bill Evans that is playing radio stations and steaming services across the United States.
"The quartet does more than replay the songbook. They relive it, reinterpret it for a new generation of jazz listeners, making then into now." - Eric Hanson, Author, Artist, and Jazz Historian.
1. Introduction
2. Waltz for Debby
http://larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com/files/KindofBillonthePalaceGrounds/Waltz_for_Debby.mp3
3. Blue in Green
4. Improvisations - Bill Evans (poem)
http://larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com/files/KindofBillonthePalaceGrounds/Improvisations_-_Bill_Evans.mp3
5. All of You
6. My Foolish Heart
7. Stella by Starlight
8. You Must Believe in Spring
9. We Will Meet Again
10. Bill Evans (poem)
11. I Will Say Goodbye
12. Milestones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRmqJRqXqLg
CD Release
http://larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com/KindofBillonthePalaceGrounds-CD.html
Samples:
Waltz for Debby
http://larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com/files/KindofBillonthePalaceGrounds/Waltz_for_Debby.mp3
Improvisations - Bill Evans
http://larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com/files/KindofBillonthePalaceGrounds/Improvisations_-_Bill_Evans.mp3
Reviews
http://larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com/KindofBill-Reviews.html
Radio and Streaming Services
http://larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com/KindofBill-RadioandOnline.html
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Larry McDonough Quartet
Larry McDonough is an award-winning St. Paul jazz composer, pianist, singer, and teacher, performing around the world and recording with his group the Larry McDonough Quartet as well as solo, and in duos and trios. He has performed with legendary saxophonist and composer Benny Golson, Trombonist Fred Wesley, and trumpeter Duane Eubanks, as well as a who’s who of local jazz artists, and was inducted into the Minnesota Rock Country Hall of Fame for his work in the group Danny’s Reasons. His awards include the American Composers Forum Showcase Award for the composition “Strait of Gibraltar.” He has released eleven CDs and DVDs as a leader. His current CDs are “Kind of Bill on the Palace Grounds, Marking 40 Years since the Death of Bill Evans,” playing on jazz radio stations and streaming services around the country, and “Intermodulating Undercurrents Live at the Kos: The Music of Bill Evans and Jim Hall.” The two-CD set “Alice in Stonehenge and other AcoustElectric Adventures” has played on radio stations and streaming services around the world and charted #18 on the Roots Music Report’s Top 50 Jazz Album Chart. “Simple Gifts” reached number 29 on the CMJ Jazz Chart and also has been played on hundreds of stations around the country and throughout the world. When not playing jazz, he performs punk in Saint Small, funk in Funkin’ Right, and classic rock in Whiskey Burn.
http://larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com/Biography.html
Richard Terrill, sax player and retired Minnesota State University Mankato English Professor, received the Minnesota Book Award for Poetry for his poetry compilation Coming Late to Rachmaninoff (University of Tampa Press, 2003). Richard has been performing with Larry McDonough since December 2001. He also has performed with guitarist Jim McGuire and with Chaz Draper’s Uptown Jazz Quartet. As a college student, Richard was a member of the award-winning University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Jazz Ensemble and performed with later-to-be Pat Metheny keyboardist Lyle Mays in the Lyle Mays Quartet, winner of small group honors at the Midwest College Jazz Festival. He has also worked with pianist Geoff Keezer. His current books of poetry is What Falls Away Is Always and Essentially.
https://richardterrill.com/
Bassist Greg Stinson plays in several bands around the Twin Cities. He has been the bass player in the Century College Jazz Ensemble for more than 25 years. He also plays in the CC Septet, Shorn Hortz Quintet, Paul Berger Trio, the St. Croix Jazz Ensemble, and regularly subs with the Nova Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, Classic Big Band, and Cedar Avenue Big Band. Greg spent many years playing saxophones, guitar, bass, and vocals in jazz/rock and variety bands in the area. He is an active composer/arranger with jazz charts in the books of the Century Band, Nova, CC Septet, and others. He has also written a number of choral arrangements and compositions for school and church groups. Greg was a band and choir director in public and private schools before changing to his career in telecommunications technology, now retired.
Dean White grew up in Superior, Wisconsin, and played in various working bands while attending the University of Wisconsin, Superior. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in percussion performance, he moved to Hollywood, California, to attend Musicians Institute College of Contemporary Music. Half-way through the first year, Dean was offered a main showroom gig at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas. He was the first drummer in the Legends In Concert Show that still performs in various incarnations across the country today. He left Las Vegas to join Tony Axtell and Toshi Hinata in Tokyo to write and play original music. Since settling back in the Twin Cities, Dean has performed with many groups, including Good, the Bad and the Funky; the Autobody Experience; Century Big Band; Nova Jazz; Big Time Jazz Orchestra; the Shorn Hortz jazz quintet; Power of 10; Jack Knife and the Sharps; Tubby Esquire; Hennessy Brothers jazz; and many others. He has also studied privately with Gordy Knudtson and his Open/Close hand technique. Dean feels blessed to be part of the rich music scene in the Twin Cities.
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Contact information:
Larry McDonough
Larry McDonough Jazz
651-398-8053
mcdon056@umn.edu
http://larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com
https://www.facebook.com/LarryMcDonoughJazz/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKz_nYdKTNUPhIGk44jCb_Q
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