Time Remembered, a film about pianist Bill Evans (1929-1980), is being screened in selected showings around the United States. It is set for tomorrow, Tuesday, evening in San Diego, California. The film by CBS News producer Bruce Spiegel, was eight years in the making. It has screened in New Orleans, in Hammond, Louisiana, where Evans went to college at Southeastern University, and at the Atlanta Film Festival, where it won a Golden Spotlight Award.
In the 90-minute documentary, musicians, family members and friends remember Evans’s precocious musical development, his emergence as a major jazz figure and the tragedy of the addictions that shortened his life. Sequences of Evans playing connect the interview segments and provide continuity. Among those who tell parts of his story are drummers Paul Motian, Jack DeJohnette and Joe LaBarbera; guitarist Jim Hall; bassist Marc Johnson, trombonist Bob Brookmeyer; singer Tony Bennett and pianists Warren Bernhardt and Billy Taylor. Bill’s niece Debby, the inspiration for “Waltz For Debby,†provides insights into the profound influence of her father, Harry, on his younger brother. LaBarbera and Laurie Verchomin, who was Evans’s companion in his final year, give an account of the wild ride to a hospital in an attempt to save his life. Here is a trailer for the film.
Tomorrow evening’s showing of Time Remembered will be at 6:00 p.m. at the Saville Theatre on the campus of City College in San Diego. On January 17, there will be a screening at the Northwest Film Center of the Portland, Oregon, Art Museum. Information about further showings and the film’s availability on DVD have not been announced.