The Bill Evans Jazz Festival was initiated in the spring of 2002 through coordination of a $10,000 visual arts grant to the Louisiana Division of the Arts for the commissioned Bill Evans painting that hangs in the Recital Hall lobby of Southeastern Louisiana University’s Department of Music and Performing Arts. The Bill Evans triptych, together with paintings of eight other Louisiana jazz notables (Louis Armstrong, Alvin Batiste, “Jelly Roll” Morton, “Professor” Longhair, Buddy Bolden, Sidney Bechet, Lillian Hardin Armstrong and Bunk Johnson) was created by Louisiana artist Edward Pramuk of the faculty of Louisiana State University.
The LDA grant was conceived and written by Don Marshall of Southeastern’s Department of Visual Arts. The first BEJF headliner concert was performed by pianist Willis Delony, a Southeastern music professor for fourteen years who had recently joined the faculty of LSU, along with Dr. Delony’s LSU colleague bassist William Grimes.
The creation of the festival was the fulfillment of a longstanding objective of then department head Dr. David Evenson to honor Southeastern’s most prestigious alumnus, Bill Evans.
From the first year, the festival’s format has typically included the performance of a headlining concert by a well known jazz artist as the centerpiece of a three-day series involving lectures, panel discussions, student performances, and masterclasses. The second Bill Evans Jazz Festival, for example, featured Evans’ celebrated bassit Eddie Gomez, and the fourth festival included Evans’ drummer Eliot Zigmund with pianist Ted Rosenthal.
Past Bill Evans Jazz Festivals have featured the following illustrious artists:
