REMEMBERING BILL EVANS - a tribute to the great Bill Evans

"this sounded more like a top-flight American band than a British group. ...this is an exceptional piano trio, playing an unusual and varied repertoire with an uncanny level of skill and commitment" Alyn Shipton, The Times 4****

To launch a major UK tour, the Geoff Eales Trio with Roy Babbimgton ( bass ) and Mark Fletcher ( drums ) celebrate the music of the great American piano legend Bill Evans who died 25 years ago this year. Plus an exciting new world-class contemporary jazz project from Stan Sulzmann and John Parricelli, two of the most highly regarded jazz musicians on the current scene, backed by the formidable rhythm section of Dave Whitford (bass) and Ian Thomas (drums).

'There is no pianist playing jazz today who does not acknowledge Evans in his playing, even if it's through displaying his antithesis. Like other giants in music, his contribution simply has to be dealt with if one is to be a competent jazz musician.' (Keith Shadwick on Bill Evans)

"Geoff Eales is a complete pianist whose work is a complete joy" (Tony Augarde - Jazz Rag)

'Sulzmann - the classy composer.' (John Fordham, The Guardian)

'The resourceful John Parricelli has the right mix of lightness, rhythm and lyricism.' (The Times) www..uk

2005 marks the 25th anniversary of the passing of one of the world's greatest and most innovative jazz pianists - Bill Evans. Evans's influence on future generations of creative piano players is incalculable and stems largely from the way he revolutionised the art of the piano trio. With Evans, the trio was not a pianist accompanied by a bassist and drummer. It was an empathetic, conversational, highly organic unit with each member contributing in equal measure to the greater artistic whole, the whole being more than the sum of its individual parts.

In this project the formidable Geoff Eales Trio, featuring Roy Babbington on bass and Mark Fletcher at the drums, pay their respects to the genius of Bill Evans in a programme dedicated to both his compositions and the tunes he so loved to play. You will hear fresh interpretations of Evans classics such as Waltz for Debby, Periscope, Funkallero and Turn out the Stars, familiar standards including All of You, Beautiful Love, My Romance and Alice in Wonderland, and one or two Eales’ compositions in honour of Evans.

THE TRIO MEMBERS

GEOFF EALES – piano

Geoff Eales is regarded as one of the UK's most exciting and inspirational jazz pianists. A charismatic performer, his unique interpretations of standards and his own powerful compositions have moved audiences all over the world. Geoff has performed at many of the world's leading jazz clubs including Blue Note Japan, London's Ronnie Scott’s, New York's Birdland, Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles and Louisville's Jazz Factory and has brought out four highly acclaimed albums as leader

"as original as they come, listening to everyone but beholden to no single influence, Eales demands your attention with the force of his personality and keeps it with his musicianship" Bud Kopman, Cadence

ROY BABBINGTON - bass

Roy Babbington is one of the UK's most creative bass players. He spent 12 years working alongside Stan Tracey and is a former member of the groundbreaking jazz-rock bands Soft Machine and Nucleus. He was resident bass player with the BBC Big Band for 20 years and has worked with many of the jazz greats including Ben Webster, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Roland Kirk.

MARK FLETCHER - drums

Mark Fletcher is one England's most versatile and in demand drummers, equally at home in straight ahead jazz, free improvised music, rock and world music. Mark has been a regular at Ronnie Scott's since the late 1980's. Dizzy Gillespie, Mark Murphy, Tim Garland, Flora Purim, Norma Winstone, Georgie Fame, Ian Shaw and Cedar Walton are just some of the many artists that this exciting drummer has worked with.

Website: www.geoffeales.com

Geoff Eales
ALYN SHIPTON at Purcell Room 4 stars

The word “energetic” might not be the first adjective to spring to mind in describing the legacy of the jazz pianist Bill Evans, who died 25 years ago this week. A stooped, scholarly-looking figure who crouched low over the keyboard and produced some of the most introspective and harmonically challenging jazz of the 1960s and 1970s, Evans revolutionised the piano-bass-drums trio by encouraging his fellow musicians to join in a musical conversation rather than simply accompanying him.

In the opening concert of a three-month national tour to celebrate Evans’s legacy, the Welsh pianist Geoff Eales more than captured the essence of this three-way dialogue, but he added a high level of energy that coursed through his set from its opening notes to the dying chords of the encore. His virtuoso technique got inside Evans’s style to the extent that pieces such as Turn Out the Stars became fresh interpretations, rather than convincing copies. In this case, the theme itself was set out clearly, with lovely rhapsodic runs weaving through it, commenting on the melody, playing tricks with the time and adding dazzlingly inventive new figures.

Central to the Evans concept was the notion of sharing the melodic development of a piece with the bassist, and the string of soloists he employed, including Scott LeFaro, Eddie Gomez and Marc Johnson, became a roll call of the most adept bassists in jazz.

Happily, Eales has found the ideal bassist to continue this tradition in Roy Babbington, whose deft fingering, innate sense of swing and melodic imagination was a perfect complement to the piano. I have seldom heard him play so well, and his solos on pieces such as My Romance fizzed with energy and invention. With Mark Fletcher rounding out the trio with some emphatic drumming, this sounded more like a top-flight American band than a British group.

Occasionally the trio’s energy swamped the more delicate of Evans’s numbers. But this is an exceptional piano trio, playing an unusual and varied repertoire with an uncanny level of skill and commitment, and well worth seeking out as it tours the country.

Friday, Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea; Sept 23, Greenwich Jazz Festival

GEOFF EALES TRIO AUTR 2005