Thursday, November 9, 7:00-9:30 p.m.
Heights Theater
3951 Central Avenue NE,
Columbia Heights, MN
Larry McDonough, KBEM Jazz 88.5 FM Radio, and the Leigh Kamman Legacy Project present the Minnesota premier of "Bill Evans Time Remembered - The Life and Music of Bill Evans," 8 years in the making with over 40 interviews and over 30 archival photographers. The Larry McDonough Quartet will perform a set of material of Bill Evans; followed by the new documentary about Evans by Bruce Spiegel; and finishing with an interview of Evans by legendary jazz journalist Leigh Kamman.
$10 for everything!
6:30
Doors open
Doors open7:00Live music
Live music7:30Movie
Movie9:00Audio interview
Audio interview9:15Live music
Live music9:30Go home
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Bill Evans Time Remembered Trailers
Trailer No. 1
Trailer No. 2
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The Film
Bill Evans Time Remembered is a 90-minute documentary film, produced by Bruce Spiegel which tells the story of Bill Evans’ turbulent life and his contribution to jazz music. The film was self-funded by the producer who traveled and interviewed approximately 40 people over a 7 year period of time. Several well renowned musicians are included in the film including Tony Bennett, Dr. Billy Taylor, singer Jon Hendricks, and jazz pianist Bill Charlap. The film also compiles a wide range of historical information about the jazz pianist including his first TV recording which appeared on CBS Look Up and Live in April 1958, playing Come Rain or Come Shine.
According to producer Bruce Spiegel, it was his second interview with drummer Paul Motian that compelled him to complete the film. Spiegel has also noted that several of the people he interviewed in the making of the film are now deceased including Paul Motian, Pat Evans, Connie Atkinson, Jim Hall, Frank Collett, Orrin Keepnews, Gene Lees, Bob Brookmeyer and Don Friedman.
"The film Bill Evans Time Remembered took me 8 years to make. Eight years of tracking down anybody who knew Bill and who played with him, to try and find out as much as I could about the illusive and not easy to understand Bill Evans. I feel very honored to have had the chance to interview and get to know good guys that spent a lot of time with Bill: Billy Taylor, Gene Lees, Tony Bennett, Jack DeJohnette, Jon Hendricks, Jim Hall, Bobby Brookmeyer, Chuck Israels, Paul Motian, Gary Peacock, Joe LaBarbera. It was a once in a life time experience talking to these gifted talented guys about their time in jazz music, about their “Time Remembered“ with Bill Evans.” - Bruce Spiegel
"The film was a bull's eye at capturing as much as one can capture of someone's music, pain, and life story. My family is forever grateful to your outstanding work." - Debby Evans (Waltz for Debby)"
"The film is musically intriguing and sensitively crafted. Not soppy with just the right amount of honesty regarding his personal life." - Nenette Evans
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Opening Live Music
The Larry McDonough Quartet (LMQ), which has specialized in the music of Evans for many years, will open the evening. Pianist Larry McDonough has been called the Bill Evans scholar of Minnesota. He grew up listening and transcribing Evan’s music, having seen his live performances in the 1970s. His recent shows of the music of Miles Davis, Chet Baker, and Tony Bennett with Bill Evans, have focused on Evan’s role in each ensemble. On the CD “Solitude, poetry in jazz,” McDonough and saxophonist and poet Richard Terrill performed the Evans arrangement of “Some Other Time” along with Terrill’s poem “Bill Evans.” The recently released LMQ double CD set “Alice in Stonehenge and other AcoustElectric Adventures” includes “Alice in Wonderland,” based on the Evan’s arrangement, “Flamenco Sketches,” which Evans performed with Davis on “Kind of Blue,” and “You Must Believe in Spring,” which Evans recorded with Bennett. McDonough has become friends with Evan’s widow Nenette, who provided McDonough with a copy of the manuscript of the early Evans composition “It’s Love, It’s Christmas” that McDonough performs each year in the holiday concert. LMQ includes Richard Terrill on saxes and poetry, Greg Stinson on bass, and Dean White on drums.
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After the Film: Leigh Kamman Interview with Bill Evans
Leigh Kamman was an important broadcaster and advocate for jazz music. He was helpful in integrating the "jazz world" early on by presenting and producing musicians of color and was friends with many of the giants of the industry. Born in 1922, he became intrigued with jazz in the 1930s, and interviewed Duke Ellington for the school newspaper at a train station in Saint Paul when he was 17 years old.
He went onto working at radio stations in Minnesota and New York, including WOV in New York in the 1950s, where he interviewed some of the biggest names in jazz from the Palm Café in Harlem. He later broadcasted in Minnesota on KSTP, KQRS, and last with Minnesota Public Radio with his popular Jazz Image show. He died on October 17, 2014, aged 92.
Kamman's legacy includes hundreds of historical interviews with musicians and thousands of hours of sophisticated and elegant radio programming. The Leigh Kamman Legacy Project has converted many of Kamman’s audio interviews, and plans to make many of these archives available for streaming from its website http://www.leighkamman.com/. The Project will create a central location for Kamman's vast collection of records, books, photos and other memorabilia, and offer a public viewing space that acts as a companion to the website.
After the film, Brad Bellows of the Leigh Kamman Legacy Project will present an audio interview of Evans by Kamman in 1976 when Evans was in Minneapolis to perform at the old Longhorn, along will pictures of Kamman and Evans. McDonough attended the Evans performance while attending music school at the University of Minnesota.
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Contacts
Larry McDonough Jazz
http://www.larrymcdonoughjazz.homestead.com
651-398-8053
The HeightsTheater
Tom Letness
(763) 789-4992 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Bill Evans Time Remembered
Matt Evans: Handles event planning, website and supports social media associated with the film.
571-405-1125
Bruce Spiegel: The Film Producer
201-927-4474
Leigh Kamman Legacy Project
Brad Bellows, Secretary/Treasurer
612-203-4739
KBEM 88.5 FM Radio
Kevin Barnes
612-668-1744
