Bill Evans was one of the most tragic, and gifted, Jazz musicians of our time. He was a drug addict for decades and he finally died of his disease in 1980. One of his friends said that Bill’s death was “the longest suicide in history.” Bill’s keen sense of melody and rhythm inspired generations of Jazz pianists — and Chick Corea knows he owes a lot of his sound and style to Bill Evans. Chick’s newest album dropped this week — Further Explorations — and it is a riff on Bill Evan’s trendsetting album, “Explorations.” Chick uses Bill’s sidemen Eddie Gomez on bass and Paul Motian on drums. Sadly, Paul died in November 2011. He was 80.
