Luckily he was never thrown into the throngs of classical-music-teaching-butchery. I spent eight years learning classical. Wasted time. These past three years of jazz have made me truly feel like a musician. Evans actually never had a single lesson in anything, I think. A lot may say that that's pretty common today, but this guy was truly talented. He was not some sort of bubble-gum "i play simple chords and rhythms" ear-player. Edit: It's not that I think classical music is bad. In no way do I believe that. It's just what it's become these days that makes it such a whore. We've codified music beyond what it should be, creating record-players rather than musicians. I can walk down the halls of the arts centre in my college and ask the teachers/students to jam with a lead sheet with me, and none could do it. Only two teachers come to mind; my teacher and another who's "decent." The classical fools have killed their own genre by forgetting what music is truly about. Edit2: It's not that classical is bad to study, it's just that it should be taken a little more lightly. It's a good base for a piano player to start off with.
Yes, sorry I phrased it incorrectly. I meant, he used to come time from time to visit the school and show off his piano skills. He really was good.
