Singular vision … Bill Evans in the BBC studio.
"The camera holds its close-up on the pianist’s hands, his long fingers adding delicate inner voicings to the familiar melody of Come Rain or Come Shine. Then, very slowly, the camera tracks along the player’s arms and up his body until it reaches his head, which is lowered far enough to be virtually parallel with the keyboard. Nothing is intrusive, nothing is hurried, everything is keyed to the mood of rapt intensity. Captured in black and white because that’s all there was, the shot perfectly complements this music, the jazz of the 1960s. It’s a rare example of television finding a visual language to match a sound. Bill Evans was that pianist, and Jazz 625 was the programme. The hour of music he recorded for the BBC in London on that day in 1965 survives as a priceless document of one of the most influential jazz musicians of his era, a man whose singular vision played a key role in Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. ..."
Guardian (Video)
W - Jazz 625
YouTube: Jazz 625 At The BBC Live Concert Video, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Jazz 625, Dizzy Gillespie Quintet-(Jazz 625) 1966, OSCAR PETERSON TRIO at BBC, JAZZ 625, Jazz 625 - The Modern Jazz Quartet, Dave Brubeck Quartet Paul Desmond Jazz 625 Live Concert Video 1964, JAZZ 625 - Thelonius Monk 21-04-65 Part 1, Part 2, Coleman Hawkins Jazz 625, Jimmy Smith - Jazz 625, Part 2, Clark Terry Jazz 625, Ben Webster Jazz 625, Willie "The Lion" Smith - The Lion on BBC's "Jazz 625" - 1965, JAZZ 625.....FEATURES THE BRITISH BAND OF ALEX WELSH
On target … Cannonball Adderley in 1964 with his quintet, featuring Joe Zawinul on piano.
