Bill Evans
Piano Solo on
Stella By Starlight

About

Bill Evans's piano solo is the sole improvisation on this recording. Spanning half a chorus of the 32-bar ABCA' form at a relaxed 90 BPM with a swing feel in B♭, the solo runs approximately 43 seconds. Victor Young's composition, originally written for the 1944 film The Uninvited, became one of the most recorded standards in jazz, and Evans's brief solo here suggests depths of harmonic possibility that would occupy jazz pianists for decades to come. This was recorded on Miles Davis's 32nd birthday at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City. Bill Evans was 28 to 29 years old at the time of this 1958 recording.

Bill Evans was 28 to 29 years old at the time.