CONVERSATIONS WITH BILL EVANS

 
Jean-Yves has enjoyed listening to jazz since he was a teenager. But it never occurred to him to record anything resembling jazz until a Polygram executive suggested there was a resemblance between (jazz pianist) Bill Evans’ music and Ravel played the Thibaudet way. And so he listened… and heard the connection… and listened again… and read… and studied…. Convinced, he then began to play Bill Evans’ music. The happy result is the album Conversations with Bill Evans.
 

LISTEN TO SOME CLIPS:
 
Track 1: SONG FOR HELENTrack 2:WALTZ FOR DEBBY
 
Track 3: TURN OUT THE STARSTrack 5: REFLECTIONS IN D
 
Track 6: HERE'S THAT RAINY DAYTrack 12: LUCKY TO BE ME

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The compositions by Bill Evans are so musically close to Ravel’s and Debussy’s that Jean-Yves does not think of the album as crossover but as jazz music played from the heart by a classical pianist. Perhaps too classical-sounding to the pure jazz lover? But if it happens to blend very nicely into a programme of Ravel and Debussy (which it does! and Jean-Yves does just that in recital), that’s the way Jean-Yves meant it to be - and just the way a lot of us like it. - GC © FanFaire

THIBAUDET:   Master of the French Impressionists        Champion of the Romantics