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THThe Bill Evans Trio performing « Emily » in the Fall of 1970 at composer Ilkka Kuusisto’s home in Lauttasaari, one of the many islands of Helsinki, Finland. A few weeks before, pianist Bill Evans, bass player Eddie Gomez and drummer Marty Morrell had performed at the famous Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. This trio formed in 1969 with the arrival of Morrell.
Emily is a 1964 tune composed by Johnny Mandel with lyrics by Johnny Mercer: it was the title song of the movie « The Americanization of Emily », adapted from a novel by Huie. The WW2 plot is largely anti-war and therefore was controversial at a time when the U.S. were engaged in the Vietnam War. The film was re-released in 1967 under the simpler title « Emily », and that’s the year Bills Evans recorded it for his album Further Conversations with Myself. Evans used to be a flutist in a garrison, but disliked the experience: he was a pacifist, whence Peace Piece (1958) and this work. But my favorite Bill Evans Trio version of Emily is the one with saxophonist Stan Getz, a 1974 live recording from Middleheim, in Belgium.
Because his dad was abusive, Bill Evans, his brother and his mom would find refuge at the Epps, a family of music lovers. That’s where he and his brother heard classical music being played, and then got a teacher, Helen Leland, who judged that Harry was the better pianist but Bill the better sight-reader. Bill also picked up flute, piccolo and violin. Having played the classics till his late teens, Bill Evans recalled that French composer Darius Milhaud, who loved polytonal chords, jazzy and Brazilian rhythms was of great influence early on. Milhaud was the composition professor of jazzmen like Brubeck & Bacharach, but also of composers like Reich and Glass.
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