In A Mellow Tone, July 3: 50th Anniversary of the Bill Evans Trio at Camp Fortune
50 years ago, Bill Evans and Stan Getz were booked to play. Bill Evans went ahead and Stan Getz cancelled - we will hear the concert that went ahead and the one that might have been.
CBC put on an outdoor summer concert series at Camp Fortune from 1967 to 1979, that featured a variety of artists, from jazz to classical to folk. Joni Mitchell was perhaps the biggest name to appear (in 1967), although other big names such as Gordon Lightfoot and Joan Baez also performed. The shows were taped for later broadcast. This will give you an idea of the setting.
In July 1974, the first scheduled concert for July 2nd was the Stan Getz Quartet. However, Stan Getz became ill and the Bill Evans Trio (with Eddie Gomez on bass and Marty Morell on drums) stepped in - they were scheduled to play the following night. Both the July 2nd and 3rd performances were recorded, although only the July 3rd performance was broadcast by the CBC. On tonight’s show we’re going to hear the July 3rd concert.
The first night’s concert was recorded and was released… It’s a difficult album to find.
The music played was different on both nights. Bill Fagan reviewed the first concert for the Ottawa Citizen:
The sylvan setting of the CBC's concert bandstand with all its mountain greenery is not an ideal site for an introspective artist like Evans.
Hunched in his familiar eyes-to-the-keyboard position, Evans -- basically a romantic -- often allowed his introspection to cloud his improvising.
Fortunately, he gave bassist Eddie Gomez his head, and Gomez responded with solos of astonishing tone, clarity and dynamics.
...
During several other compositions ... Evans' anemic, contemplative side emerged again. Luckily, Gomez was on hand to spin his rhythmic webs, backed by the tasty drumming of Marty Morrell.
It is the second night’s concert that we will hear - issued in 1991, as “Blue In Green: The Concert in Canada”.
Peter Shaw, the CBC producer of the Camp Fortune concerts, wrote the liner notes for the album. Although he got the date of the concert wrong - he misremembered it as being in August (see the section below, “Mystery solved”), he described both the setting and Bill Evans’ reaction to that setting:
In a natural amphitheatre below the ski club buildings we erected a stage large enough to accommodate a symphony orchestra and with woods of spruce and fir trees in the background the audience sat on a grassy slope in an atmosphere of birds and peace.
…
The Gatineau Parkway is a preserve of forests, lakes, acres of open grassy space, and walking trails for quiet contemplation. During our drive up the Parkway to Camp Fortune I mentioned to Eddie and Marty that during a recent afternoon rehearsal a black bear had wandered out of the woods and onto the concert site scattering musicians and technicians who weren't about to hang around until he performed, Eddie considered this for a moment then he said, "Well, that's O.K man, he probably just came out to dig the sounds.” I told Bill that early one morning I had seen a family of deer drinking at a lake we were passing and he replied, "I can see it, but the birds are what I find captivating up here .. I can hear all their individual voices." He seemed to be in complete harmony with the setting.
Peter Shaw wrote that there were about 4,000 people in attendance. He also noted that after the concert, Bill Evans said, "My brain knew what it wanted to do but my fingers didn't want to cooperate." In his biography of Bill Evans (How My Heart Sings), Peter Pettinger wrote, “It was late August in the Canadian foothills, and a small space heater was set by the piano,” he writes. “The aural evidence suggests [that] the keen air cleared the brain and impelled the imagination.”
The Stan Getz Quartet & the show they never gave
The Stan Getz Quartet did not play on July 3rd, but they did record a show performed later that year, in November in Belgrade. In the second half of the show we will feature that album, to give us an idea of the concert that might have been.
In August of 1974, Stan Getz recorded with the Bill Evans Trio in Holland and Belgium and we will hear some of those performances as well.
Mystery solved
In the liner notes for the “ Blue in Green” album, Peter Shaw gets his dates confused - stating that the concert was in August. This mistake is repeated in the credits for the album (as well as in the credits for “Live in Ottawa 1974”). In How My Heart Sings, Pettinger also said that the concert was in late August. I think the original mistake was Peter Shaw’s and it was accepted as gospel by those who followed. Peter Shaw did recall setting up a portable heater for Bill Evans, which may have led to thinking that it was in August. However, the weather for July 3, 1974 was unseasonably cool - night time lows of 60 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit (15 to 18 degrees Celsius). It was also cloudy with a chance of showers.
The Camp Fortune summer season ended on August 9. There are no reviews of an August concert by the Bill Evans Trio, and the Ottawa Citizen reported that Gilles Vigneault was playing on August 1, and the New England Ragtime Conservatory was playing on August 2 and 3. The series ended for the year with the Quebec singer, Renee Claude on August 6 and 7 and the Ottawa Pops Concert Band on the 8th and 9th.
And the Bill Evans Trio was on a European tour in August (where the recordings with Stan Getz were made). It’s pretty conclusive that it wasn’t recorded in August, and I’m sure everyone is glad that I cleared that up!
You can catch the show live on Wednesday, July 3, at 93.1 FM in Ottawa or via live streaming at CKCUFM.com. The show will also be available for on demand streaming after broadcast.