BILL EVANS - MOON BEAMS

POLKA DOTS AND MOONBEAMS

BILL EVANS

SONGWRITER: BURKE VAN HEUESEN

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: MOON BEAMS MIX

LABEL: RIVERSIDE RECORDS

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1962

 

         William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who mostly played in trios. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block chors, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines continues to influence jazz pianists today.

               Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1929, he was classically trained at Southeastern Louisiana University and the Mannes School of Music, where he majored in composition and received the Artist Diploma. In 1955, he moved to New York City, where he worked with bandleader and theorist George Russell. In 1958, Evans joined Miles Davis's sextet, which in 1959, then immersed in modal jazz, recorded Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz album of all time. During that time, Evans was also playing with Chet Baker for the album Chet.

            In late 1959, Evans left the Miles Davis band and began his career as a leader, with bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Paul Motian, a group now regarded as a seminal modern jazz trio. In 1961, ten days after finishing an engagement at the New York Village Vanguard jazz club, LaFaro died in a car accident. After months of seclusion, Evans reemerged with a new trio, featuring bassist Chuck Israels.

          In 1963, Evans recorded Conversations with Myself, a solo album using the unconventional technique of overdubbing himself. In 1966, he met bassist Eddie Gómez, with whom he worked for 11 years.

             Many of Evans's compositions, such as "Waltz for Debby", have become standards, played and recorded by many artists. Evans received 31 Grammy nominations and seven awards, and was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.

              "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" is a popular song with music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke, published in 1940. It was Frank Sinatra's first hit recorded with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. The song is one of the top 100 most-frequently recorded jazz standards with arrangements by Gil Evans and others and notable recordings by Bill Evans, Blue Mitchell, Wes Montgomery, Sarah Vaughan (for the 1954 album Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown, and the 1957 album Swingin' Easy), Bud Powell, Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Lou Donaldson, Dexter Gordon and many others American songwriter and guitarist John Denver also covered the song on his 1976 Spirit album. Bob Dylan covered this song in his 2016 album Fallen Angels.

          The song has a notable lyric: the man discovers love at a country dance by accidentally bumping into a woman who has a pug nose. The others at the dance are looking strange at this, since her nose makes her someone they wouldn't think romantically about. But he has the last laugh: she becomes the love of his life, and he settles down with her.

           During the song's first year, a fashion designer even created a "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" fabric print as part of a series of prints inspired by popular music.

          Wes Montgomery's version would later be sampled in Doja Cat's 2018 single, Mooo!