The Big Love – Life and Death with Bill Evans

Highlights of 2011

The Big Love Standard Edition is released on AMAZON on February 17th…..with many insightful reviews !

click here for AMAZON reviews

Jed Distler comes in May from New York to the Sechelt Arts Center to reprise our September 15th performance (fortunately there is a 9 ft Yamaha piano to greet him).

Jed Distler at the Sechelt Arts Center

A few days before the show , we watch the video from our first performance at the event which initially brought us together, ” Re: Person We Knew ” ~ A Remembrance of Bill Evans on the 30th Anniversary of his Death“, which took place at the Cornelia Street Cafe , in NYC, on September 15th , 2010 as a part of “Serial Underground” the series that Jed had created with his longtime partner Celia Cooke (whom he had his first date with at Bill’s final performance at Fat Tuesday’s 30 years earlier~ and who passed gracefully into the light in March of 2011, just a few months after our performance). The video ( to be released later this year ) is an incredible document of a time and place in my life that one might truly call a watermark. I am witnessing myself back in New York commemorating this date for Bill and I, in my own way, with my words, Bill’s music and Jed’s mastery at the piano. For Jed as well ~ this event has him reconnecting to Bill’s music, and to his own music in a brand new way, allowing him to navigate through the incredible process he was experiencing at the time of letting go of his wife Celia, as she made her way toward the light. Celia and Bill informed our performance at the Sechelt Arts Center as we made our way through a program that included:

Re: Person I Knew

Peace Piece

NYC’s No Lark

Nardis

T.T.T.

Laurie

When I Fall In Love

Your Story

Thank you Jed Distler

Visit Jed’s Site Here

August 16th ~ Bill Evans 82 Birthday Tribute : Muttart Hall, Edmonton, Canada

I return to Edmonton ~ The place where it all began….and Charlie Austin ( my old piano teacher from Grant McKuen) takes his place at the 12 ft. Steinway piano that lives back stage at the Muttart Hall . Rodger Levesque, writes an impressive review for the Edmonton Journal entitled “Sex, Drugs and all that Jazz” that a great many of my parents senior friends clip out and offer to me. Many old friends, relatives and lovers fill the hall, and I feel absolutely blessed to be celebrating Bill’s Birthday in this way! Best of all my Mom, Barbara Chornowol & my daughter, Tara greet people at the door for me; and my Dad came with a bouquet of purple Dahlia’s from his garden for me~ an old Ukrainian folk tradition for greeting long lost relatives.

I am so grateful to be received in this way !

Charlie and I rehearse for 3 days and add some new elements to the show. Our set list:

Simple Matter of Conviction

Letter to Evan

Stella by Starlight

My Romance

Turn Out the Stars

Nardis

Who Can I Turn To

Laurie

Bill’s Hit Tune

Peace Piece

Your Story

When I Fall in Love

The Peacocks

T.T.T.

Time Remembered

Thank you Charlie Austin

(visit his site for the new release of his jazz theory book)

http://www.charlieaustinjazz.com/books.cfm

Reading at the Bluewater Book Store on September 17th, as a part of the Pender Harbour Jazz Festival

My first reading at a book store….I wasn’t sure what to expect. The setting was very intimate. The store can accomodate about 15-20 people. I enjoyed this and I am exploring the concept of performing at other Jazz Festivals, especially in Europe.

Thank you Dale Jackson of Blue Water Books

The Big Love hits the European Press in September, October, November & December

An incredible interview with the German Magazine FROH (courtesy of Dr. Sebastian Pranz)

(see post below)

A translation of the opening chapter of the book into Norwegian for JAZZNYTT (courtesy of Petter Petterson)

click here for Norwegian Translation

A review for the Jazz Institute at Darmstadt (courtesy of Wolfram Knauer)

click here for German Review

An Italian translation of an excerpt of the book for JazzItalia (courtesy of Rossella Del Grande)

click here for Italian Translation

T he French translation of The Big Love by pianist/translator Mario Paradis

click here for French Translation

Now & Beyond

I am sitting in my coastal home pondering the future of my loves, my passions and my desires. I am considering the prospects of traveling and performing, writing, film making, and of being in service in the form of self expression.

Relative calm presides. Now dynamic tension may enter the room and we begin again !

All is Love

Laurie

Tagged: Bill Evans, Celia Cooke, Charlie Austin, Evan Evans, Jed Distler, laurie verchomin, Nenette Evans