New York, June 1961. Gifted jazz pianist Bill Evans forms a perfect trio. A residency at the Village Vanguard culminates in a single day of live recording, resulting in two of the greatest jazz albums of all time and cementing Evans’ reputation as one of the most promising musicians in the US. Only a few days later, bassist Scott LaFaro dies tragically in a car crash. Numb with grief over the loss of his friend and musical soulmate, Evans stops playing for the first time since childhood, descending ever further into a drug- and alcohol-induced stupor.
“First of all, I got interested in Bill Evans because of a photograph. I didn’t know who he was. Something about the look on his face, his demeanour, was totally interesting to me. Then I listened to the music. I really fell for it, got more and more interested, then started reading his general biography. Again, the basic polarity. This music is extremely disciplined and full of grace and beauty. The life is chaotic and… tragic. A lot of catastrophes around him. How can that sound work with that life?” (Grant Gee)
Grant Gee
Born in 1964 in Plymouth, Great Britain, Gee studied geography at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford, and completed his postgraduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the USA. He has established himself as a music documentary filmmaker as well as a theatre and opera director. Everybody Digs Bill Evans marks his fiction feature debut.