Noa Levy and Paul Edis Trio: ‘Portrait in Evans’

San Francisco’s Noa Levy joins with London’s Paul Edis and his trio on ‘Portrait in Evans’ to celebrate the great compositions of Bill Evans with vocal arrangements.

Lyrically, these arrangements of Bill Evans’s music paint a picture of the legendary composer, many with words by Levy and Edis themselves.

Alongside Noa Levy’s vocals and Paul Edis’s piano, are Adam King (double bass) and Joel Barford (drums). Three tracks, including the sumptuous Only Child and Blue in Green feature Alan Barnes (alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet). 

One of of Bill Evans’s best-known track - Waltz for Debby - is given a delightfully sweet arrangement that nods a hat to the original, as well as to the version recorded by Tony Bennett with Evans. As on all these tracks, Levy makes the vocal lines her own and she works brilliantly with Edis and his trio.

Noa Levy said: “There’s an emotional openness in Bill’s compositions that feels incredibly human. Writing lyrics wasn’t about changing them – it was about stepping inside them.”  Paul Edis added: “We chose tunes composed by Bill at different stages in his musical and personal life. In doing so, we’ve tried to paint a portrait of Bill Evans the artist. The title nods to Portrait in Jazz, but it’s also about perspective and, inevitably, a portrait of ourselves through the way we hear his compositions.”

‘Portrait In Evans’ is available now on CD and Digital on Bandcamp by Dot Time Records