Musings from the Front Lines No.13: Lee Evans plays his own Invention in C major
About a week ago I had the very special pleasure of watching and hearing Lee Evans record the stunning pieces from his new collection: Jazz Baroque:Vivaldi/Bach, on my Yamaha Disklavier. The set will soon be available on SuperScore. He graciously allowed me to take a video of him playing one of the pieces, Invention #1 in C major, that I have posted. As you can see and hear, this is just a little taste of a sensational new collection from this master. I asked Lee for a little description. In his words: “Jazz Baroque:Vivaldi/Bach, was inspired by the late influential French jazz pianist Jacques Loussier, whose jazz interpretations of the classical literature, especially the music of Bach, set the gold standard for such an approach.”
Lee Evans, professor of music at Pace university, has created a truly marvelous classical-jazz amalgam through a combination of several of the great original compositions of Vivaldi and Bach with his uniquely tasteful touches of jazz, which add enormous interest and excitement to these fabulous musical works.
Our friendship goes back many years. We did a collaboration some time ago when I created some backing tracks to a number of his brilliant piano collections including Razzle Dazzle, Razzle Dazzle Christmas, Jazzmatazz and several others. I am thrilled to announce that all these collections will also soon be available on SuperScore with the backing tracks and the piano parts recorded by Lee himself.
