Doc Evans
Paul Wesley "Doc" Evans ( born July 20, 1907 in Spring Valley, Minnesota; † January 10, 1977 in Minneapolis ) was an American jazz trumpeter (cornet ) of Dixieland jazz.
Evans was the son of a Methodist pastor, but died when he was only two years old, received as a child and began piano lessons in high school to play drums and later saxophone. On the Carleton College in Northfield (Minnesota), where he studied on a teacher's exam in English (BA 1929), he moved occasionally as a member of a dance band already for cornet. From the late 1920s he played professionally his new main instrument in dance and Dixieland bands to Minneapolis, like that of Norvy Mulligan. Even at the time of the Depression, he remained the music, and especially loyal to the Dixieland style, perfected his art (his main role models were Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong ) and took over the incipient revival in 1940 his own band ( the " Mitch's " Mendota ). Partial lucrative offers to play in swing orchestras ( Claude Thornhill, Ray McKinley ) or to leave the native Midwest, he struck out. In 1947 he published his first own plates at Disc Records and moved to Chicago, where he (founded in 1947 by clarinetist Bill Reinhardt ) in the " Jazz Limited" and played other clubs. Nationwide tours and numerous recordings (including for the labels Joco and Dublin) made him known.
In 1952 he returned to Minneapolis, where he. Temporarily own TV show ("This is Dixieland " ) He toured in the 1950s regularly in the Midwest, was well-attended concerts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis ( "Doc Evans Dixieland Concerts", with Frank Gillis, sometimes appeared on the label Soma ) and published a series of plates for Audiophile Records. In 1958 he had his own "The Rampart Street Club " in Mendota, which existed until 1961, in which he played regularly with his own band. Until the 1970s, Evans was a fixture in the jazz scene of Minneapolis and performed regularly at festivals such as the " Bix Beiderbecke Festival". A highlight of his career was to be in 1970 invited to play at the concert for the 70th birthday of Louis Armstrong in Los Angeles. In the 1960s he also began to take an interest in classical music (cello) and headed in his hometown Bloomingdale own orchestra. In the 1970s, he also taught jazz history and was active in the union.
" Dixieland Jazz" was Evans for a living, continually evolving music and the historic "Pioneers " by no means sacrosanct. In his bands he put much emphasis on ensemble playing and collective improvisation.
Since 1999 takes place in Minnesota annual "Doc Evans Jazz Festival". Meanwhile, many of his more than forty plates been reissued on CD (eg Jazzology ).