Jazz Small Ensembles
The Contrafact and the Music of Bill Evans
Monday, January 29, 2024 at 7:30pm CST
Galvin Recital Hall
Due to a lighting malfunction in the McClintock Choral and Recital Room, this performance has moved to Galvin Recital Hall.
Derrick Gardner and Kevin Fort, conductors
In jazz, a contrafact is a composition consisting of a new melody overlaid on a familiar harmonic structure—critical to the 1940s development of bop, as it allowed jazz musicians to create new pieces on which they could immediately improvise. Well-known examples include the Charlie Parker/Miles Davis tune “Donna Lee” (based on the chord progression of “Back Home in Indiana”) and Thelonious Monk’s “Evidence” (based on the chord changes of “Just You, Just Me”). Among the many musicians to employ the concept of the contrafact was Bill Evans, who brought his own distinctive blend of impressionist harmony and traditional jazz repertoire interpretation to the forefront of the genre. Evans rose to prominence as a member of the Miles Davis Sextet, contributing significantly to Davis’s groundbreaking album Kind of Blue. Evans’s compositions “Waltz for Debby” and “Time Remembered” continue to be cherished and recorded by artists worldwide.
View Live StreamTickets are $6 for the general public and $4 for students with valid ID.
Sold OutSelections by the Kevin Fort Ensemble
Jun Byun, trumpet
Dario Allais, alto saxophone
Spencer Brown, piano
Evan Diethrich, bass
Daniel Zitomer, drums
Bill Evans (arr. Spencer Brown), “Waltz for Debby”
Bill Evans (arr. Dario Allais), “Comrade Conrad”
Bill Evans (arr. Evan Diethrich), “Only Child”
Miles Davis (arr. Daniel Zitomer), “Blue in Green”
Miles Davis (arr. Jun Byun), “Nardis”
Selections by the Derrick Gardner Ensemble
John Beckner, trumpet
Eli Sullivan, alto saxophone
Charlie Kunzweiler, trombone
Dylan McGaharn, piano
Austin Aldrich, bass
Calvin Simmers, drums
Walter Smith (arr. Eli Sullivan), “Contrafact”
Horace Silver (arr. Austin Aldrich), “Juicy Lucy”
Paul Desmond Silver (arr. Dylan McGaharn), “Wendy”
John Scofield (arr. Jack Beckner), “Not You Again”
J. J. Johnson (arr. Charlie Kunzweiler), “Boneology”
Bud Powell (arr. Calvin Simmers), “Parisian Thoroughfare”
Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall
Address
70 Arts Circle Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
United States
About
Located in the Ryan Center for the Musical Arts, this 400-seat hall features a 40-foot glass wall offering views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline. Undulating walls of Forest Stewardship Council–certified wood, covered with a thin layer of African moabi wood, provide optimal acoustics, and the hall is equipped with state-of-the-art sound and video equipment for recording.