When you’re Orrin Evans, Grammy-nominated pianist, composer, bandleader, label executive, teacher, husband and dad, there’s only one thing that can slow you down, as I found out when I asked him how much time he had for our phone interview: tires. “I’m literally sitting here waiting for my tires,” he told me as air wrenches shuddered in the background. “So I got at least 30 to 40 minutes.” It wasn’t enough, such is the man’s skill as a raconteur.
Evans will turn 50 on Friday, and new tires notwithstanding, he’s not coasting into middle age. He’s doing what he loves most: making music, on a tour he calls “50 Shades of O” that motors into BOP STOP Wednesday night.
“Fifty is not what I thought it is,” Evans reflected recently. “It isn’t starting like I thought it would be, but that’s not a negative thing. It just makes you think.” Thinking, recalculating, adjusting—these are themes that run deep through Evans’ music and career.
Evans is a pianist with the kind of resume that should have made him a household name long ago. He’s recorded more than 30 albums as a leader, been nominated for multiple Grammys, and held down high-profile gigs with the likes of Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kevin Eubanks and the Mingus Big Band. He even did a three-year stint with The Bad Plus, stepping into the kind of situation that might have seemed like a career detour to most musicians.
But Evans isn’t most musicians. A rare combination of self-confidence and independence have empowered him to make decisions more cautious musicians might shun.
The self-confidence comes from growing up in a household headed by two artists. “My father was a part of the Black Arts movement,” Evans said, “a professor and playwright, and one of the first Black opera singers in Opera North as a mother. So my house was filled with Blackness.”
The independence has more complicated beginnings. As a Philadelphian, Evans was part of a thriving and close-knit jazz scene that offered just enough opportunities to dim the allure of New York. Evans first went to New York in 1993, but he somehow never got on the radar of the presenters, record executives and critics that made careers.
So Evans made his own career, forming bands to play his music, starting a record label to document his music and that of his friends and bandmates and playing with musicians who share his forthright, joyous and emotionally generous approach.
When he returns to BOP STOP for the first time in two years, that means bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Mark Whitfield Jr., two players who know how to meet Evans at his level—energetically, rhythmically and conceptually as they pivot from stride piano to avant-garde deconstruction in the space of a chorus.
Even without an occasion to define it, a night with Evans isn’t just a concert—it’s a moment of communion. His music is as much about the people on stage as it is about the people in the audience. “Celebrating our time on this earth is something we struggle with as humans,” he said. “But it’s okay to celebrate and to have fun appreciating the time that you’ve spent.”
Evans’ BOP STOP engagement will be a birthday party for sure, but it will also serve as a masterclass in what jazz can be when it’s played with passion, honesty and a willingness to recalculate the route when necessary. His is music that lives in the moment, just like its creator.
“I’m one of those weird ones,” he said. “Playing doesn’t stress me out because when I do it, especially around my birthday, I just want to have fun. So I’m not trying to play the most complicated tunes. I’m just trying to fellowship with the people I know and play tunes that we enjoy playing and just create a musical experience.
“I just love being with people who love to hang and love and have a good time,” he said. “Everybody parties differently [and] that’s fine, but when we all get together it’s all a great party. It’s just a great time together.”you can’t just imitate the past. You have to honor it and move it forward.”
50 Shades of O: Orrin Evans’ 50th Birthday Celebration with Luques Curtis and Mark Whitfield, Jr., Wednesday., March 26, 8 p.m., BOP STOP, 2920 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, Tickets $25, available here.https://youtu.be/xh8TAxNfTWA
NOTE: This article was written by a real human being. No artificial intelligence or generative language models were used in its creation.
Red beans and ricely yours,
jc
