What unique challenges or advantages did working with a jazz musician like Bill Evans present?
SB: Bill comes from the world of jazz, so the tunes he writes, he is writing for string band style instruments like banjo and mandolin. These new compositions are being written in keys that string players can play easily. For Bill, it’s a whole new language, and for me, coming in from the world of newgrass, it’s a challenge in that I’m learning a new language with different types of chord progressions and ways of playing melodies in ways I would never have thought of. For me, it’s a pretty large stretch to step into Bill’s world, and Bill claims that, from his end, he’s learning a new language that isn’t the jazz he’s played for so long. CP: Despite the accommodations you made for one another, was it difficult to make it work at first? SB: (Laughs.) We’ve been playing here and there over the years. I met Evans in the summer of ’06 and played with him on the first record he did with this type of instrumentation called “Soulgrass” and on the next one I played more recently on, and a litt
