"Enthusiasm 
is infectious, although the artist never really believes that one specific performance to which an audience responds is really that much better than a hundred others.
"We have noticed that our audiences seem to be getting younger, and this gives me new impetus. If we were just getting half a dozen drunks every night, I would have to think seriously about continuing in this business. But at the moment, I am heartened by the audience interest.
"Jazz will never be a mass appeal music but there is nothing more that I 
can give an audience than I give myself. I'm not trying to be abstract or esoterical. I'm just trying to play my conception of music, and I have to direct myself to that rather than the audience because I'm the only one who can tell if I'm achieving that objective. When an audience responds with applause, it can give real impetus, but if I had a choice, I'd refer no expression of enthusiasm as to me, it can be a distraction."
—Bill Evans, as quoted in Brian Hennessey's Bill Evans: A Person I Knew, Part 2, in the October 1985 issue of Jazz Journal International, from Peter Pettinger's Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings (1998)
The real question is: what did Anita say when she met Bill? "Whose works?" "Let me off on Cloud Nine"? "'Blue in Green,' you claim? So who's yellow?" No, it was "What's with this vacation s...tuff? We need you back here, Myers."
Posted by: Glenn Howard | January 15, 2009 at 10:25 PM