For more than two decades, Orrin Evans has made an art form of the unexpected. With more than 25 albums to his credit without ever relying on the support of a major label, Evans has become the model of a fiercely independent artist who’s made a habit of rattling the jazz world’s confining cages. That determination has paid off in accolades like topping the “Rising Star Pianist” category in the 2018 DownBeat Critics Poll.
As a daring pianist, Evans combines raw-edged vigor and left-field nuance into a sound wholly his own. As an adventurous composer he traverses stylistic boundaries with thrilling abandon, drawing at any given moment on full-throttle swing, deep rooted blues, expressive soul or bracing excursions into the avant-garde. As an audacious bandleader, he delights in daring fellow musicians to take bold risks, whether in mutable small group settings or his raucous Captain Black Big Band. As an inventive collaborator, his projects range from the nerve-rattling collective trio Tarbaby (with Eric Revis and Nasheet Waits) to the latest twist in his never predictable story, becoming the first new member to join The Bad Plus in the band’s nearly 20-year history.
Despite the singularity of his voice, however, the watchword for Evans’ career has always been “community.” That idea comes vividly to the fore on Presence (Smoke Sessions), the third album by his Captain Black Big Band. The album celebrates the spirit and influence of Evans’ father, the late playwright and educator Donald Evans, whose pipe tobacco brand of choice gave the band its name. The ensemble’s scaled down 11-piece line-up features a core group of collaborators that the pianist tends to refer to as “a family” or “a village” more than a band, the kind of inviting atmosphere that Evans seeks to create with every project.
Evans’ broad-minded, provocative approach has afforded him a stunning variety of opportunities, from his early stints as a sideman with artists like saxophonist Bobby Watson and drummer Ralph Peterson to his own strong and wide-ranging discography as a leader. That catalogue includes collaborations with a who’s-who of modern jazz, including trumpeters Nicholas Payton, and Sean Jones; saxophonists Oliver Lake, JD Allen and Larry McKenna; bassists Christian McBride, Eric Revis, Ben Wolfe, Luques Curtis, Buster Williams and Mike Boone; drummers Karriem Riggins, Bill Stewart, Nasheet Waits and Donald Edwards; and guitarists Kevin Eubanks, Marvin Sewell and Kurt Rosenwinkel.
He’s also carved out opportunities for members of that extended (and extending) family outside of his own projects. 2018 saw the relaunch of his Imani Records label with the release of albums by saxophonist Caleb Wheeler Curtis and bassist Jonathan Michel. Founded in 2001, Imani released the Evans’ own debut, Déjà Vu, as well as albums by the neo-soul ensemble Luv Park and the collective groups The Band (with Evans, JD Allen, Sam Newsome, Nasheet Waits and Reid Anderson) and The Trio (with Evans and Madison Rast). Following a decade of dormancy, he revived the label with a newfound focus on projects from the young, innovative musicians with whom he regularly collaborates.
In January 2018 Evans faced the scrutiny of jazz observers as he waded into the uncharted waters of The Bad Plus, the long-running trio co-founded by bassist Reid Anderson and drummer David King. Skeptics were silenced by Never Stop II, the eclectic and electrifying opening of the latest chapter in the band’s irreverent story.
While venturing boldly forward Evans never forgets to look back. Recently he’s paid heartfelt tribute to some of his most innovative forebears: he’s embarked on a series of tribute concerts to the late Geri Allen alongside drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, and was one of five pianists – along with Chris Pattishall, Jeb Patton, Ernest Turner and his Bad Plus predecessor, Ethan Iverson – who celebrated the centennial of Thelonious Monk at Duke University.
Inspired by his father, Evans has also reached beyond the confines of jazz and music in general for his collaborators. He has worked with poets Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka and created multi-media projects with dancers and videographers. His work as a composer has also grown increasingly ambitious, including the soundtrack for the PBS documentary Revolution ’67 and suites commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center (in honor of Sun Ra’s centennial) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (celebrating Thomas Hart Benton’s mural “America Today.”)
Significant credit for that brash diversity can be traced to Evans’ longtime home, Philadelphia, a city not exactly known for its delicate sensibilities. Born in Trenton, he was raised in North Philly and, aside from a four-year span in the mid-90s when he made the inevitable move to New York City, has stayed there ever since. He spent his formative years testing his mettle in the city’s jam sessions, being mentored (or, perhaps more accurately, schooled) by elders like Shirley Scott, Trudy Pitts, Arthur Harper, Mickey Roker, and Sid Simmons.
Seeing a lack of similar opportunities for younger players in the modern, academia-focused jazz scene, Evans has seized every available opportunity to export that old-school Philly nightclub vibe. He’s been booking venues since he was a teenager, starting in now-defunct Philly clubs like the Blue Moon and Zanzibar Blue and continuing with jam sessions at his hometown’s World Café Live and New York’s Zinc. More recently he’s curated the concert series “What’s Happening Wednesdays” at South Jazz Kitchen, which exposed audiences in his hometown of Philadelphia to groundbreaking national artists; and “Philly Meets New York,” which flowed in the opposite direction by bringing the most exciting voices from the City of Brotherly Love to crowds at New York City’s Smoke Jazz Club.
Evans has also passed the mentorship torch along through a variety of teaching engagements, including his role with the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts’ Jazz Standards programming, in which he curated a full year’s weekly jazz curriculum in Philadelphia public schools. He also undertook a three-year stint instructing middle to high school students at Germantown Friends School in Northwest Philly, sparking a bug that he’s carried into Connecticut’s Litchfield Jazz Camp and the Kimmel Center Jazz Camp, headed by bassist/producer Anthony Tidd. He’s also shared his expertise as a guest speaker at jazz festivals, music conferences, and with organizations like PennPAT and the Philadelphia Music Project, and as a consultant via his 88 Keys Productions.
More directly, Evans has helped capture the electricity of peers and up-and-coming artists alike as a producer, a role that allows him to imbue other musicians’ projects with his own vibrant spontaneity. He’s been particularly vital in the studio with vocalists – a diverse roster that includes JD Walter, Denise King, Joanna Pascale, Michelle Lordi, and M’Balia Singley – but has also helmed recordings by saxophonists Sharel Cassity and Caleb Wheeler Curtis and bassists Eric Revis and Jonathan Michel.