BILLEVANS(19291980) MILESAHEADTOTHELASTTRIO BySeanGough Athesissubmittedtothe GraduateSchoolNewark Rutgers,TheStateUniversityofNewJersey inpartialfulfillmentofrequirements forthedegreeof MasterofArts GraduatePrograminJazzHistoryandResearch Writtenunderthedirectionof ProfessorLewisPorter andapprovedby _____________________________ _____________________________

_ _____________________________ Newark,NewJersey May,2011

Preface This paper is dedicated with love to Bill Evans. Thanks to my mother, first and foremost, for introducing him to me. Thanks also to my very music-oriented father and grandparents. Thanks to piano teacher John Colaiacovo, whose rare ability to teach classical and jazz was coupled with a studio that in our hometown of North Plainfield, NJ never had a Bill Evans photo far away. Thanks to Skip Wilkins for centering our time around The Universal Mind of Bill Evans and from that first week of college, revealing horizons without end, beyond degrees. Thanks to Laurie Verchomin (LV!), whose spiritual evolution is an inspiration, and this thesis just a footnote to her Big Love. Thanks to Joe LaBarbera for stellar drumming, mixed with a timely offer of assistance. Thanks to Anthony Cummings, James Woolley, and Alexis Fisher, for guidance of many different kinds. Thanks to Gene Perla for his living connection to jazz, and Bill Evans. Thanks to a host of other bandmates, family, friends, musicians, teachers, colleagues, and world citizens! And thanks to Lewis Porter, Henry Martin, and John Howland: three of the most humane of the humanists with the designation Ph.D. It has been an honor to work with you through Rutgers. It is an honor to know you. Quick notes on the writing of the thesis: 1. Where scholarly jargon is absent, it is intentional. I realize that the overall subject (and some terminology) will be of interest mainly to musicians, but that is an unavoidable consequence of writing a masters thesis in jazz history. The audience is you, and you, and you. 2. Where extended quotations are found, they are carefully included. This extends to the appendices, which amass continuous unedited portions of interviews for perhaps the first time. I cannot imagine revealing more about Bill Evans than he does in them. 3. Finally, where musical analysis is shortcoming, it is also meant to be. Bill told his own brother Harry, when he asked for a lesson, that he didn't want to "rob [him] of the joy of discovery." The extent to which this paper succeeds is the extent to which it honors that wish, and Bills beautiful crystallization of his own development: Everything Ive learned, Ive learned with feeling being the generating force.