The obvious next step
01
Brad Mehldau
Piano · New York
The most direct heir to Evans's approach. Mehldau plays with the same left-hand independence, the same harmonic sophistication, the same willingness to sit with a melody before pulling it apart. Start with The Art of the Trio, Vol. 1 and work forward. He also plays Radiohead and Nick Drake, which either appeals to you or it doesn't.
Similar spirit, different sound
02
Keith Jarrett
Piano · Pennsylvania
Where Evans was contained, Jarrett is expansive. His Köln Concert — an entirely improvised solo performance from 1975 — is one of the best-selling jazz albums ever made. It moves, it builds, it breathes. The ECM recordings with his Standards Trio are closer to Evans in temperature: Gary Peacock on bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums, everything in service of the song.
03
Paul Bley
Piano · Montreal
Less known than he should be. Bley played with Charlie Parker in the early 1950s and kept evolving for the next fifty years. His solo recordings — Alone, Again; Open, to Love — are spare to the point of silence. If Evans feels too crowded, try Bley.
If you want to understand Evans better
04
Miles Davis — Kind of Blue
Evans co-wrote the album's approach
Evans played piano on Kind of Blue and wrote the liner notes. The modal approach Davis used came in part from their conversations. Hearing Evans on this record — relatively early in both their careers — shows exactly what Davis heard in him.
05
Scott LaFaro
Bass · Evans's trio partner
The reason the Evans Trio recordings from the Village Vanguard in 1961 sound so different from anything else is largely LaFaro. He played bass like a second melody instrument, responding to Evans rather than keeping time. He died in a car accident ten days after those recordings. He was twenty-five.