At the Asylum, it isn’t just classical music that is played. There are rooms where jazz is played – classic jazz.
One of the most popular jazz rooms yet one that one wants to be alone in and just listen to the music playing is the Bill Evans room.
From accounts, Bill Evans was a shy, introverted, gentle, honorable and extremely intelligent man.
Yet he suffered from a combination of perfectionism and self-doubt and was a man with little self confidence, believing he lacked talent.
“I look on myself as a rather simple person with a limited perspective, and try to do things that will speak to me on the level that I respond. As I get older, I really feel that my perspective and aims get more simple” ~ Bill Evans
For those of us who write, whether it be fiction, poetry, essays, non-fiction and even the writers here at the Asylum, with our sometimes feeble attempts to write, mostly with an irreverent satirical bent, that we are all quite like Mr. Evans – introverted, maybe shy, typically gentle and always introspective.
“Perhaps it is a peculiarity of mine that despite the fact that I am a professional performer, it is true that I have always preferred playing without an audience” ~Bill Evans
It strikes us that we writers prefer playing without an audience also – while we’re composing. It’s after the composition is done that we might prefer an audience. Yet in the creative process we are alone, as Mr. Evans preferred to be when creating.
“I want always to communicate, but first and foremost with myself. And I know that if my music communicates with me, communicating with the audience follows automatically, I’m professional enough to admit people to my music.” ~ Bill Evans
Writing is indeed communicating, first and most importantly with ourselves. And if our writing hits a chord with us – we know that it will play to an audience as well.
Included is one of Mr. Evans most “introspective” and beautiful of works…Peace Piece. We celebrate yet listen attentively to this introspective and wonderfully talented man.
Peace Piece
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Photo credit: comunicom.es via Visualhunt/CC BY-SA
Dispatches from the Asylum 