The New York Times called Orrin Evans “…a poised artist with an impressive template of ideas at his command.” And so he is. We are pleased to bring you The Orrin Evans Quartet saluting an extraordinary artist who helped shape his musical development and was a key figure in his journey, the late American soul jazz organist, Trudy Pitts.
Trudy Pitts trained as a musician and music educator at Temple University and Juilliard. Recognizing her talent, William Theodore Carney II, her husband and drummer for the great Shirley Scott, encouraged her. Trudy went on to play with Ben Webster, Gene Ammons, and Sonny Stitt. Her recordings, on Prestige Records include Legends of Acid Jazz and Trudy Pitts & Pat Martino.
Pitts was the first jazz artist to play a concert on the Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center’s 7000 pipe organ (2006). In 2008, she performed at the Kennedy Center on their exceptional Filene Organ. She died in 2010 at 78.
Pianist Evans grew up in Philadelphia where he met and studied with the likes of Trudy, Shirley Scott and Charles Pettaway. He attended Mason Gross School of The Arts at Rutgers University and worked with Kenny Barron and Joanne Brackeen among others. Opportunity introduced Orrin to the New York jazz scene where his career began in earnest in 1996 with an invitation to join a European tour with Bobbie Watson & Horizon.
Orrin’s recording career started in 1994. He has six CDs for the Criss Cross label and more recently Palmetto, his own label, Imani records and Posi-Tone which has released his latest work, Freedom. He has produced records for J. D. Allen, Nasheet Waits, Duane Eubanks and many others. He has performed and recorded with Wallace Roney, Mos Def, Pharoah Sanders, Antonio Hart, Carmen Lundy, Ralph Peterson, The Mingus Big Band, and many others. Orrin is the newest member of the noted jazz group, The Bad Plus.
Orrin was awarded a 2010 Pew Fellowship and has served on the faculty of Litchfield Jazz Camp. He appears here with Byron Landham on drums, Dylan Reis on bass, and Morgan Guerin on tenor sax.
