Piano Diana Blog: Bouncin' With Bill E.

Bill Evans performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) with his trio consisting of Marc Johnson, bass & Philly Joe Jones, drums, July 13, 1978. Photo: Brian McMillen / brianmcmillen@hotmail.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pianist Bill Evans was a master of harmony and improvisation. His work has been a source of inspiration to jazz musicians and fans since the 1950s.

Bouncin' With Bill E. (Lead Sheet)

GMaj
G6
GMaj7
Amin7
D7
Gmin7
Gmin6
Gmin7

E7
Amin7
D7
Dmin7b5
E7
Amin7
D7
G6
Amin7
D7

Here's a fully voiced version of Bouncin' With Bill E. What you play from the lead sheet should be similar to this, but don't worry if there are voicings here and there that don't match exactly. You should be playing the correct notes in the chords, of course, but beyond that we can be somewhat flexible since there are many different ways to voice a chord.

GMaj7 = G/GDF#

G6 = G/GDEG

GMaj7 = G/DF#B

Amin7 = A/CEG

D7 = D/ACF#

Gmin7 = BbDF

Gmin6 = G/BbDEG

Gmin7 = DFBb

E7 = E/G#BD

Amin7 = A/EGC

D7 = D/CF#A

Bmin7b5 = B/FAD

E7 = E/DG#B

Amin7 = A/EGC

D7 = D/ACF#

G6 = G/GDEG

Amin7 = A/CEG

D7 = D/CF#A

From YouTube:

Since We Met' (Bill Evans) - jazz piano tutorial. This was re-cast from a midi file that I did a few years ago. It is one of the less covered Bill Evans compositions - the leadsheet is in Sher Music's 'New Real Book' Volume 3.
It is interesting in a number of ways:
* meter alternates between 3/4 and 4/4.
* changes from in-tempo to rubato, and solo piano to piano trio
* in the 3/4 section it passes through every key in turn by cycling around the 'cycle of fifths'.
* like many of the standards he favoured, and songs he wrote, melodic phrases often begin or finish on the 11th so that many interesting minor 11th voicings can be used as supporting harmony.
The video can be downloaded (free) from my website at http://bushgrafts.com and I have put the printable transcription on my DVD, and also made the transcription available for download ($1.20) - details are on my website.

"Words are the children of reason and, therefore, can't explain it. They really can't translate feeling because they're not part of it. That's why it bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It's not. It's feeling. "

Bill Evans

You might want to look at 4 Free Video Lessons and Sequence