when your jazz is so clean it sounds classical

Purchase a pdf of this transcription ($3) - www.patreon.com/MichaelSolomo...
Link to original recording - • Bill Evans Trio, BBC s...
This is a live recording of “Nardis” in London on March 19th, 1965. I transcribed Bill Evans’ piano solo by ear.
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[@NobleCaveman]

The fentanyl posture taken to its fullest potential

[@lisamcmahon1462]

Was he really using fentanyl? So sad if he was.

[@nonononodrug]

​@@lisamcmahon1462First, heroin, then he started using cocaine, after becoming addicted to methadone.

[@user-gq4jr6gd3r]

@@lisamcmahon1462 Lol no just pure heroin

[@pomarancz_3618]

@@lisamcmahon1462 he was using heroin

[@nicolymoreira3641]

@@lisamcmahon1462isn’t fentanyl something new?

[@RoboticsBay]

I was always stunned by his unique posture.

[@thecertifieddoctor]

so is his spine

[@mrdummervilleean]

​@@thecertifieddoctormost underrated comment

[@JeanC.248]

​@@thecertifieddoctor your name and pfp make the joke even funnier

[@user-yh1nm1vy3i]

Glenn Gould posture fr

[@salmoncloth7050]

😁Very similar to many other jazz pianists like Vince Guaraldi.

[@kwilo]

Bill grew up a classical pianist and was heavily inspired by Ravel and similar composers. He’s definitely the artist that speaks to me the most

[@justintuccimusic]

Her ice recently said Ravel was his biggest harmonic influence in his masterclass too and both Miles Davis and Dizzy talked about Ravel. So important! Even giant steps and Odine. It’s all connected.

[@kwilo]

@@justintuccimusic REAL

[@kuuderepiano2988]

He once studied with Claude Debussy and that's where he got his thick chords from

[@jonathanluzgonzalez7510]

Oh wow I love ravel too

[@SCRIABINIST]

@@kuuderepiano2988 Debussy died more than 10 years before Evan's birth. I think he probably studied some of Debussy and Ravel's music and was inspired.

[@greenvelvet]

I love that rare intersection between jazz and classical

[@Trixex]

Not rare at all, at least not since blue in green

[@Isa-tn7ex]

@@Trixexwell there’s like Gershwin intersection, and then this, which I think is in a totally different place in jazz and classical

[@a-ramenartist9734]

listen to kapustin he my fav composer of all time

[@Kelvin71]

Him and Keith Jarrett straddle jazz and classical.

[@oozrenn]

seartch for 'third stream' or 'chamber jazz' or 'ecm jazz'

[@lubabalomahlombe451]

Bill Evans is like the Kid in school with super neat handwriting.

[@lilac_hem]

lmfao why does this make such perfect sense

[@percyvolnar8010]

Not true. Bill Did drugs, stood 10-toes down against antiblack racism and dated a beautiful black woman who he wrote a song for. The song was "Peri's Scope". Bill kept it a-buck the whole time...

[@marianologo]

His head is down bc he’s really feeling it

[@skoto8219]

:\

[@brianmessemer2973]

Evans has said in an interview that his hunched position lets him hear the instrument better; it was about careful listening.

[@kookoo275]

his head is down because he's nodding on heroin 😅

[@dark6.6E-34]

his back is too

[@jackdillon7565]

his head was down bc he was strung out on heroin lmao

[@DinoNuggies4665]

Man that bass is just the right volume lol

[@royalruffi4480]

literally the bass is often too low or too high

[@DinoNuggies4665]

@@royalruffi4480 fr

[@someguy1865]

Exactly, love it🤙

[@ShangHighRoller]

That's the Rudy Van Gelder magic!

[@faq6342]

The amount of knowledge, practise, time, dedication and talent needed to improvise like that. I mean, that is coming to his head in the moment, direct to the fingers, and sounds like a composed masterpiece. You can tell probably his head is working at 250%. This is one of the very few artists that can cause me this sensation of astonishment

[@joogaloo]

someone's a beginner musician (it's you)

[@faq6342]

@@joogaloo yes! Of course, anyone who feels astonishment and openly expresses it is definitely a beginner. You are so bright

[@sync2597]

​@@joogalooBros a lil mad

[@luizf.composer]

@@joogaloo With all due respect, I saw a music video of one of your compositions, and I must say that, based on your technique and compositional choices, you sir are too a beginner. There's absolutely nothing wrong with being one, and being able to discover the joy of music is absolutely amazing and integral, but putting people down is nothing to be proud of. You, the OC and me are all people who like music, and we should strive to make each other more motivated, not less. You have a lot to learn about music, and so am I, so let's enjoy the process of learning, and not make fun of it.

[@user-bt1pl9rj7v]

​@@joogalooyou can not be talking with that garbage "song" you "wrote" video of yours 😂💀

[@SoundHealer93]

The pure tone he gets out of the piano is just immaculate. Each note sounds like raindrops falling down one after another

[@jankington216]

There's a lot of things that a piano player can improve with practice, but tone is not one of them

[@Audiorevue]

I agree 100%, I think Bill Evans has one of the most fabulous tones of any musician. Just the way he's able to coax the full sound out of each key, it's just amazing

[@BrunoNeureiter]

​@@jankington216The piano played by a pianist and someone who's not, definitely has a distinct sound

[@jankington216]

@@BrunoNeureiter I won't argue with you there

[@carlito6038]

the pure bullshit people chat, bro you can't change the tone of a piano, just the note length and velocity

[@saigipson1546]

Man I love bill evans

[@eli-nm1ng]

everybody loves bill evans

[@rainardzulfanp319]

everybody digs bill evans

[@flambr]

damn, beat me to it

[@MrRandyFlaggTDM]

jazz is not dirtied up classical music. The grit is the soul of the art. We hear it here. He's swinging like a mf.

[@featherlessbiped9678]

what a great comment, spot on

[@doyourownresearch7297]

its pretty dirty though. it soils the mind.

[@droptherapy2085]

​@@doyourownresearch7297the fuck are you on about

[@drytopramen8595]

@@doyourownresearch7297 to me, jazz feels cleaner than even the most classical of classical music

[@Isa-tn7ex]

@@doyourownresearch7297 racist comment

[@Garlicbloom]

the fur elise in the thumbnail 😭

[@michael-solomon]

You're the first person who's commented on that 😂

[@cashglobe]

There are very few "perfect" solos in the jazz canon, from the tens or hundreds of thousands that have been recorded, which could function as perfect etudes, compositions, etc, all on their own merit. Most are imperfect, and I love that about them. But there are probably only a few hundred which are quite literally spotless/perfect, and this is one of them. Pure genius from Bill. And the trio? Cmonnnnn. Too good. and thank you very much for the transcription.

[@michael-solomon]

Well-written! I’m glad you enjoy it

[@AntiquatedApe]

By _perfect_ do you mean a song like Shostakovich's Fugue in A?

[@Whatismusic123]

This is awful and directionless dude

[@Whatismusic123]

@@AntiquatedApe yeah, hyperbole, something so incompetent that the idea of calling it perfect is comedic.

[@AntiquatedApe]

@@Whatismusic123 oh,well in the case of Shostakovich's Fugue in A,it's harmonically perfect in the sense that every note on the song does not create dissonance with one another at the times they are played. It's a marvel to listen to

[@Adyman182]

He's got that "I grew up on the Internet" kind of posture, respect

[@anyandeverything15]

Evans, Hank Jones, and chic Corea had the super human ability to comp while soloing. Many can do it, but they always make it sounds like nothing is lost as if they were comping for any other instrument

[@user-yh1nm1vy3i]

He’s got that Glenn Gould posture too.

[@sixmillionaccountssilenced6721]

minus the mumbling

[@kylekotula7266]

Thank you very much for transcribing this. This concert (Jazz 625 of anyone wonders), is what led me into loving jazz. The beautifully storytelling solos and the interaction between Bill Evans and bassist Chuck Israels is simply amazing.

[@alexendrix6]

I am so glad i could listen Mr.Bill Evans playing piano in Boston in July 1977 what a special experience he was an incredible artist ! Thx Bill

[@kim1one]

와 부럽디

[@VisiblyJacked]

he was in a heavy decline by 1977...? died from drugs and alcohol a couple of years later

[@masonklein]

this might be one of the greatest solos of all time

[@Junglesmells]

I remember hearing jazz for the first time too

[@masonklein]

@@Junglesmells were you as clueless then as you are now?

[@tedl7538]

@@masonklein Well to be fair, Jungle's point is that there are thousands of great recorded jazz solos and this is just one of them. 🎹

[@Lucy-yc4bc]

@@tedl7538 it’s certainly one of the jazz solos of all time

[@SadButter]

I don't think it sounds like classical in the slightest, but it does sound absolutely exquisite. There's a reason Bill Evans is one of my favourites.

[@huntrrams]

Waltz for Debby and Peace Piece is one of my favorite songs of Bill. I loved how he combine a mix of classical and jazz.

[@West-su2oe]

Peace Piece gets my vote. Absolutely beautiful.

[@eddieluna]

jazz so clean it makes the white-balance arpeggiate

[@tunasandwich8049]

Bill Evans' music helped me go through a tough time with 3 weeks no electricity and water after a storm hit my town

[@thecertifieddoctor]

you can tell a player is locked in when they assume the stance

[@fangbozhu7379]

0:18 was just glorious

[@titusbeertsen]

The first phrase alone is just so good... thanks for transcribing!

[@dragolov]

Thank you for your hard work and for the pdf!

[@ahmedagack1557]

i've listened to this exact sequence phrase by phrase on slow speed countless times. still surprised to hear things beneath the music on repeat listening.

[@jacksonmasco]

did not expect the title to be THIS on point

[@michael-solomon]

I think you’re the first person here who agrees with the title 😆

[@Phantastically]

yoo im benjamin from dr. stepanova's studio at uga, i had no idea you had a youtube channel this big and literally just randomly got this recommended to me by chance. good stuff lmao

[@michael-solomon]

Yo benjamin no way 😆 appreciate it man!

[@ameerameerr8993]

The kindness here is so inspiring. Blessings to everyone!

[@sharpeningtheaxe]

Never seen someone else with my piano posture

[@randomness4989]

Smooth,groovy,i like it

[@bergersworth]

So cool that you transcribed this by ear. Awesome channel.

[@TrinityMontes]

To be going to the college that bill Evans once did, to be in the same room as the piano he would practice on is truly inspiring. I truly love all the music that has come from him

[@michael-solomon]

SLU?

[@bipra]

Man's neck has got to hurt after this

[@someguy1865]

Bro hunched over like he a giant playing a mini piano😂

[@WertheimConsulting]

This is extremely impressive.

[@dandydrew]

Love this!

[@michael-solomon]

Look who it is haha, I appreciate it Drew

[@Killerwhale317]

Amazing

[@Nilslos]

This is a whole new level of staring onto your own hands 😂 Doesn’t change anthing about how awesome it sounds! 😊🎶

[@davidl8094]

😂

[@rafaflugelhorn4812]

Oh my God he's so awesome

[@alangonzalezmartinez8189]

Absolute beast man.

[@lilac_hem]

i just saw the caption and immediately thought of Bill Evans, lol.

[@AGoodVibe]

What a legend

[@Journalz]

When your jazz is so classic it sounds hip hop

[@mmo5366]

Classical music in a jazz scale ;-) This stuff is great, gonna have to look him up and have a long listen

[@angelhernandez9550]

So much pain and emotion.

[@davidl8094]

Beautiful...

[@PotatoZak]

I swear, if this didn't have any swing to it and used triad chords, it would sound exactly like a classical piece.

[@novakattila]

Bill Evans…legend

[@lukaszratynski]

Accents on down beats. Thats why it sound clasical. Very cool solo.

[@ReneeJoan]

People are so in awe of both classical music and jazz that they sometimes miss just how much sense of humour these musicians can have. Sometimes it’s wicked, and sometimes it’s pretty cornball, but it you catch it, it’s hilariously funny. Often, they’ll throw in little “quotes” and motifs, sometimes it’s not even a melody, just a rhythmic figure, or a chord progression, just to see if anyone is paying attention. The other people in the band will often “get the joke” and will play on that joke, and add another to it. And they’re not the only ones who do it. The “Great Masters” did it, too - they’d give an “homage” to their teacher, for example, or to an admired colleague, or they’d riff on a rival just to make fun of him. And to see if anyone is awake and paying attention. I don’t have enough familiarity with the vast oeuvre of all Western music to catch a lot of stuff, but every once in a while, I’ll catch something - like a few notes from a Beatles tune, or something - and it really is funny.

[@c.b9899]

The Best !!! 👏👏👏

[@charlita25]

Love ❤️ it 🪕🎹🎼🥁

[@punpun1663]

Monstrous

[@AlexanderThePilgrim]

Bill Evans was a talented mf to say the least. I’d group him in with Ravel and Debussy he was more than just a jazz pianist.

[@chita1205]

"Nardis" is a composition by American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It was written in 1958, during Davis's modal period, to be played by Cannonball Adderley for the album Portrait of Cannonball.] The piece has come to be associated with pianist Bill Evans, who performed and recorded it many times. Composition From 1955 to 1958, Miles Davis was leading what would come to be called his First Great Quintet. By 1958, the group consisted of John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums, and had just been expanded to a sextet with the addition of Cannonball Adderley on alto saxophone. Coltrane's return to Davis’s group in 1958 coincided with the "modal phase" albums: Milestones (1958) and Kind of Blue (1959) are both considered essential examples of 1950s modern jazz. Davis at this point was experimenting with modes-i.e. scale patterns other than major and minor. In mid-1958, Bill Evans replaced Garland on piano and Jimmy Cobb replaced Jones on drums, but Evans too left after eight months, replaced by Wynton Kelly in late 1958.[4][5] This group backing Davis, Coltrane, and Adderley, with Evans returning for the recording sessions, would make Kind of Blue, often considered the greatest jazz album of all time. Adderley left the band in September 1959 to pursue his career, returning the line-up to a quintet. In July 1958, Evans appeared as a sideman in Adderley's album Portrait of Cannonball, that featured the first performance of "Nardis", specially written by Davis for the session. While Davis was not very satisfied with the performance, he said that from then on, Evans was the only one to play it in the way he wanted. The piece would come to be associated with Evans's future trios, which played it frequently.[1] [We're gonna] finish up featuring everyone in the trio with a Miles Davis number that's come to be associated with our group, because no one else seemed to pick up on it after it was written for a Cannonball date I did with Cannonball in 1958-he asked Miles to write a tune for the date [the album Portrait of Cannonball], and Miles came up with this tune; and it was kind of a new type of sound to contend with. It was a very modal sound. And I picked up on it, but nobody else did... The tune is called "Nardis." Davis never recorded "Nardis", and Adderley only did once. George Russell recorded it on his album Ezz-Thetics (1961). Pianist Richard Beirach recorded it on his album Eon (1974), guitarist Ralph Towner recorded the tune for his Solo Concert album (1979), and The John Abercrombie Quartet recorded it on the album Up and Coming (2016). Bill Evans Unlike in the cases of Davis and Adderley, "Nardis" was an important part of Bill Evans's repertoire, as it appears on many of his albums: Trio at Birdland (1960), Explorations (1961), The Solo Sessions, Vol. 1 (1963), Trio Live (1964), Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival (1968), Quiet Now (1969), You're Gonna Hear from Me (1969), "Live at the Festival" (1972), The Paris Concert: Edition Two (1979), Turn Out the Stars: The Final Village Vanguard Recordings (1980), and The Last Waltz: The Final Recordings (1980). It also appears on many of Evans's filmed appearances.[13] Evans' version was later sampled by Madlib on the Madvillainy track "Raid". Form Nardis makes use harmonically and melodically of the Phrygian dominant scale and the minor Gypsy scale (technically known as the double harmonic scale), and it is set in thirty-two-bar AABA form. Bill Evans usually played the piece in E minor

[@oliolisay]

It's so good the colors dance

[@davidzeez]

Oh my GOODNESS

[@LucasGonzalezMVN]

Bro this is so clean that is dirty

[@TravisTellsTruths]

I like jazz now

[@billk9856]

Bill's the GOAT

[@alanoswald3137]

this is my favorite bill evan’s tune :) s/o to miles davis for the composition

[@Simon-is2xd]

This style of jazz is much more pleasing to me than the intense bebop imo

[@dbcmgo]

Facts

[@Chris-sv8ty]

Not for me

[@zpumbaa]

very epic

[@enteranamehere3242]

crunchy piano

[@XohjaiSbarkeater]

A man possessed. Incredible.

[@PercivalBlakeney]

This is why I listen to virtually nothing but Radio 3 these days. They don't just do classical music. ❤️

[@Chimpy_Mc_Gibbon]

Oh my god that corpse is playing the piano

[@pianistjustforfun]

Nowadays they are soloing 10min and don't tell half as much. Thanks for your work!🎹👍

[@OMG234able]

Take the A Train quote at 0:34? Love how this solo has a little bit of everything!

[@michael-solomon]

I didn’t notice that; nice!

[@MrNiceguyofficial]

Dope

[@selvamthiagarajan8152]

Bill Evans is aptly known as the classical jazz pianist for this reason alone.

[@johng9393]

The word is MUSICAL regardless of whether euro or Afro

[@shlecko]

Gotta be my two favorite only genders

[@vszly]

the thumbnail 😩

[@Jadeddoxy]

Nicee

[@oriraykai3610]

I wonder if he ever had a sore neck after a gig.

[@alexpavchinski]

At :27 a classic Diminished triplet run over a ii-V-I.

[@hauberbrian]

Charlie Brown posture

[@franckdebank]

Bill is the Roger Federer of the piano jazz trio.

[@apenasanthony]

Damnnnn

[@printerdontwork]

I think its safe to say that Everybody Digs Bill Evans.

[@Junglesmells]

Not me. The most overrated musician in jazz. Beloved by white nerds.

[@yvngone453]

bro’s neck and back are gonna be suffering the next day

[@daviddelossantos6075]

🔥

[@M500VYN]

Niceeeeeeeeeeee

[@rivisera]

I can see why Utada Hikaru once said they had a crush on him now lol

[@eduard2736]

This gave my brain funny twiches.

[@elmarito462]

Te amo

[@stuartblagdenguitarist]

With BIll Evans there is almost no blues in his playing.Its interesting that Evans seems popular with classical pianists.Miles Davis got Wynton Kelly to play the 2 blues on Kind Of Blue.

[@shimsham9113]

he had that glenn gloud vibe

[@maxwimberley5690]

looking at the comments here I can't tell if I'm the only person who assumed the reason the "classical" comparison in the title is being made is the rondo alla turca quotation at the very beginning...?? lotta people talking about "it sounds classical because..." and I don't think I saw a single mention that it's literally a paraphrasing (obviously liberties were taken but it seems pretty unambiguous to me)

[@mperrotti76]

They called this style of jazz “third way” as it was a bridge between the tune dominant forms of music before rock&roll, jazz and classical. i.e., Brubeck.

[@HaniJIsmail]

Bill Evans is my go-to for sophisticated sounding jazz but when I wanna hear the blues it's gotta be Bobby Timmons or Wynton Kelly!

[@catedoge3206]

real

[@GospelMusicians]

What software do you use to transcribe?

[@michael-solomon]

Musescore

[@GospelMusicians]

@@michael-solomon So it can take an Audio file and convert to MIDI?

[@michael-solomon]

@GospelMusicians no, I listened to it slowly and repetitively and wrote down every note manually in Musescore; to my knowledge there’s no good automatic transcribing for audio especially for poor audio recordings like this one.

[@GospelMusicians]

@@michael-solomon ahhhh…very good transcription. Would you do this for a fee if I needed it?

[@onMyOwnAccord-hw2gd]

@@michael-solomonYeah there really isn’t a perfect solution. The best you can get for auto-transcribing would be to use melodyne and import the file and convert to midi, but with the low audio quality and many instruments all playing at the same time, youd have to go through and touch it up

[@vralmanuel]

And of course, its Bill Evans.

[@francescorivaroli6700]

Bill Evans looks a lot like Glenn Gould here, it makes sense

[@TheMacabrees]

NARDIS!

[@tramypham8020]

what kind of sorcery is this 😭