When pianist Bill Evans died at the age of fifty-one in 1980, he had established a different approach to tackling the art of jazz piano. His view on improvisation encompassed a whole new outlook with regard to keyboard exploration, constantly rejecting the ugly or the inappropriate, always seeking the perfect and profound, encompassing great subtlety, sophistication, taste and reflection. This was a style totally removed from the boogie-woogie genre we are told he often favoured during his teenage years. Contemporary pianists such as Brad Mehldau, Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock all display elements of the Evans philosophy in some way, shape or form.
