William John Evans was born on the 16th August 1929, in Plainfield, New Jersey USA, and was a musician who, as Bill Evans, was probably best known for being a jazz pianist, composer and arranger, popular for his settings with musicians such as Miles Davis, Scott LaFaro, Paul Motian and Chuck Israels to name a few. He passed away in 1980 at the age of 51.
Have you ever wondered how much wealth this influential American jazz musician had accumulated for life? How rich Bill Evans was? According to sources, it is estimated that the total of Bill Evans’ net worth, as of early 2018, would revolve around the sum of $1 million that has been acquired through his career in the music industry, that was active between the early 1950s and his death in 1980.
Bill Evans Net Worth $1 Million
Bill was the younger of two children of Mary and Harry Evans, and apart from American, is also of Welsh ancestry from his father’s as well as of Carpatho-Rusyn descent from his mother’s side. A majority of his childhood Bill spent in Somerville, where he began piano lessons at the age of seven, and later expanded his interests to playing violin, piccolo and flute. After matriculating from a local high school, Evans enrolled at Southeastern Louisiana University where he began classical piano studies on a flute scholarship. After graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1950, alongside Red Mitchell and Mundell Lowe Evans relocated to Calumet City, Illinois, where they founded a trio and began performing on the local club circuit. Later that year, Bill teamed up with Herbie Field’s band with which he performed on a three-month tour before settling in Chicago, Illinois, and began performing on its club circuit with Jim Aton. All these involvements provided the basis for Bill Evans’ net worth.
In 1951 Evans began serving his time in the US Army, actually being assigned to the Fifth US Army Band at Fort Sheridan. Prior to his discharge from the army in January 1954, he composed one of his most memorable tunes – “Waltz for Debby” in 1953. In July 1955, Bill enrolled in postgraduate studies in musical composition at New York City’s Mannes College of Music. In the course of the next several years, he performed with numerous big names in the world of jazz music, including George Russell, Jerry Wald and Tony Scott. In April 1958, he teamed up with Miles Davis‘ sextet, while in 1959 he founded his own jazz trio, with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian, which released its debut album entitled “Portrait in Jazz” in December that year. All these engagements helped Bill Evans to make a name for himself as well as to add notable sums to the total of his wealth.
After a two-year long break, Evan returned to music in 1961, and after collaborating with Mark Murphy and Herbie Mann, he released the studio albums “Nirvana”, “Undercut”, “Moon Beams” and “How My Heart Sings!”. In 1963, Bill released a solo album entitled “Conversations with Myself”, which earned him his first Grammy Award. After releasing the recording “Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival” and another solo album “Alone” in 1968, Evans was honored with two more prestigious Grammy Awards. With his 1971 album entitled “The Bill Evans Album”, he had a huge commercial success which was crowned with two more Grammy Awards. It is certain that all these accomplishments made a huge impact on Bill Evans’ popularity, and his net worth as well.
When it comes to his personal life, apart from his significant professional achievements in jazz and music in general, Bill Evans was also known as an avid reader as well as a heroin addict. Speaking of his more private life, Evans was in a long-term relationship with Ellaine Schultz, which lasted for 12 years before she committed suicide in 1973. However, in the same year he married Nenette Zazzara with whom he welcomed one son. They stayed together ’til his death, despite his short-lived affair with 28-years younger Laurie Verchomin. Bill Evans passed away at the age of 51, on the 15th September 1980, from a combination of cirrhosis, pneumonia and hepatitis. He lays buried at the Roselawn Memorial Park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
