This album is intended to be lyrical and introspective in the style of Bill Evans.

9 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Traditional Jazz Combo, JAZZ: Bebop



Details:
William Montgomery (âMonchanâ) born in Augsburg, Germany, used to spend hours in front of the record player listening to his parents big band recordings. He played the clarinet, alto saxophone, and accordion during grade school but decided to concentrate on the piano during college. Returning to graduate school he studied classical music composition and played in the college jazz ensemble under the direction of jazz bass great Chuck Israels. His first jazz piano teacher was Art Lande followed by a long period of study with Dick Hindman. He also attended master classes with jazz greats such as Bill Evans and occasional private lessons with Richie Beirach, Barry Harris, and Bill Dobbins of the Eastman School of Music.

"I have always loved the playing of Bill Evans. The first recording I ever heard was the album Whatâs New with Jeremy Steig. I then tried to see Bill at every opportunity possible, and heard his last performances in San Francisco and the following week in New York had hoped to hear more, but it was already too late. This is a recording of a live performance on September 15, 1995, at Homat Orient in Tokyo, Japan, commemorating the 15th anniversary of the passing of Bill Evans. What you are hearing is exactly the way we played it without any studio edits which would allow the recording engineer to fix any âerrorsâ. There are generally two approaches to performing; one is with having things worked out in advance, the other is playing âby the seat of your pantsâ. No one in the trio was playing it safe, but rather taking risks, allowing the opportunity for the unexpected, which we hope resulted in, perhaps a less polished performance, but one that only a live recording in an intimate setting allows. "--from liner notes