Obituaries – Philip R. Evans: An Appreciation
Albert Haim: In Memory of Philip R. Evans
I am sad to announce that Philip R. Evans passed away on July 23, 1999, at 10 p.m., at his home in Bakersfield, California. His wife Linda was at his side when Phil suffered a massive heart attack.
Phil was born on June 1, 1935. His parents were Lucia Langan and Roland Evans. Roland was a professional jazz musician who knew many of the important jazz players from the 1920s and 30s. So when Phil became interested in Bix and started collecting his recordings and information about his life, Roland introduced Phil to jazz musicians associated with Bix. Thus, starting in the 1950s, Phil amassed thousands of documents – transcripts of phone and of personal interviews, letters, articles, books – related to Bix. As a result of Phil’s personal interactions with many of the Whiteman musicians, his unwavering dedication in his quest to learn about Bix’s music and life, and his evident sincerity, Phil was named an honorary member of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra and attended the annual reunions of the musicians. The fruits of Phil’s research about Bix can be seen in three magnificent books authored or co-authored by Phil. They are, in chronological order, “Bix: Man and Legend”, by Richard Sudhalter and Philip Evans, with William Dean-Myatt, Arlington House Publishers, New Rochelle, New York, 1974; “Tram, The Frank Trumbauer Story” by Philip R. Evans and Larry F. Kiner, with William Trumbauer, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Metuchen, N. J., 1994; and “Bix: The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story” by Philip R. Evans and Linda K. Evans, Prelike Press, Bakersfield, California, 1998. The books are replete with detailed information about their subjects, are extremely well-documented, and represent the highest level of scholarship. Each book, in its own way, is a masterpiece. Phil has also co-authored books about Red Nichols and Al Jolson.
Phil Evans has been described as a prominent jazz scholar and a respected jazz historian. Of course, he is all of that, but in addition, he has been the most dedicated Bixophile the world has ever known, as witnessed by the fact that he devoted almost fifty years of his life to learning about the life and music of Bix Beiderbecke. All Bixophiles owe Phil a great debt of gratitude for sharing with us his knowledge and understanding of Bix Beiderbecke. On behalf of Bixophiles from all around the world, I salute him with respect and admiration.
Condolences can be sent to Linda Evans at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 10507, Bakersfield, CA 93389-0507
Albert Haim, July 24, 1999
Note: On July 28, 1999, the New Wolverine Orchestra dedicated the stage show “The Story of Bix” to the memory of Phil Evans.
Chris Beiderbecke, Bix’s grand nephew, writes on July 26, 1999:
I am extremely grateful for Phil Evans. I first became aware of him many years ago when he published the first of his biographies of my great-uncle Bix. I heard stories of his meticulous research and the huge volume of research materials he had amassed. I was told that he’d had to actually build an addition to house it all.
Over the years, there have been many projects revolving around Bix that have come and gone. There were the movies, the books, and many other merchandising and marketing efforts. They ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, skewing towards the ridiculous. And accuracy was always at the very bottom of the priority lists of most of these efforts. No one that I’ve been aware of has approached the subject and person of Bix Beiderbecke with more dedication to doing the painstaking, long, frustrating, and very difficult, hard work that getting it right requires than Phil, and getting it right was Phil’s passion.
Phil’s approach was impeccable. He researched and wrote as a scholar would. Dedicated to finding verifiable facts, disregarding things that might have made good copy, or that had been told and retold so often that they had become regarded as facts, reporting the truth only after exhaustive research. I’m grateful to Phil for spending so many years in this often unsung and unrewarded effort. His latest effort will stand for all time as the definitive volume on Bix and should serve to strike down many of the fallacies that have sprung up over the years around Bix’s life.
The beauty in what Phil has done is that through seemingly dry research and doing away with embellishments and personal opinion, and refusing to bow to the urge to over dramatize an already dramatic life, he actually revealed Bix the young man and shooting star in a more personal way than any before him had done in any medium. And all without the use of “dramatic license.” If not for Phil and his wife Linda, I would have spent my life just wishing that someone would do what he has done, and feeling bad knowing that I certainly would not have the patience and perseverance that he had for the task, and lamenting that no one had searched out, sorted through, verified, and laid down the facts of my great-uncle’s life in a definitive way. We all would have had to rely on other works and various short biographical sketches that repeated falsehoods and the author’s bias. Bix deserved Phil. Phil did well by Bix, and I’m sure that like myself and countless others, Bix is grateful for Phil Evans.
Marian McPartland, jazz pianist, Port Washington, NY, writes on August 1, 1999:
I never had the pleasure of meeting Phil Evans, but we had many conversations about Bix and my husband, Jimmy McPartland, who replaced Bix in the Wolverines. Phil was a very charming and interesting man to talk to, and I read and enjoyed several of his books, namely, “Bix: Man and Legend” (in collaboration with Richard Sudhalter), “Tram, The Frank Trumbauer Story” [in collaboration with Larry Kiner, ed.], and “Bix: The Leon Bix Beiderbeke Story” [in collaboration with Linda Evans, ed.]. I found these books to be tremendously interesting and informative. Phil Evans was undoubtedly a great jazz scholar, and he will be sorely missed.
Frank Manera, Bixophile, Providence, RI, writes on August 3, 1999:
As a noted scholar of Bix Beiderbecke and researcher/author of other great American jazz giants, Phil Evans had outstanding merit for the detail and meticulousness of research in his extraordinary contributions.
Upon visiting with Phil at his home in Bakersfield, California, this past May, I had the privilege to read an innumerable amount of letters Phil had amassed since the mid-1950s. Some of these letters were from Louis Armstrong, Hoagy Carmichael, Paul Mertz, Roy Bargy, and C.B. Beiderbecke. Phil personally knew and was friends with many of the musicians Bix knew and worked with, namely, Red Nichols, Jack Teagarden, Bill Rank, Roy Bargy, Paul Mertz, and Hoagy Carmichael. Phil made contact with a lot of these guys through his friend, the late bass-saxist Joe Rushton. One contact led to another. Phil was indeed close to these guys who loved him like a son. They were all extremely generous and helpful to him as he asked them questions for information in his research on Bix.
As the years passed on and these guys left us one by one, Phil took their passing as if he had lost a family member. Phil had told me so many interesting stories about these musicians during my visit with him and through many letters and phone conversations. Phil loved to talk of these guys and how helpful they were to him. He would always express his deepest gratitude for the kindness shown to him in his quest for information about Bix.
Phil (like Bix) was an avid sports fan. He would love to watch the ball games on television. Always a caring and concerned man, Phil saved a Parochial school in Bakersfield, California, from being closed down by leading a project through the efforts of volunteers in this mission while at the time working in a full-time capacity for the U.S. government.
I recall when we first met in Davenport, Iowa, in 1998, how patient he was in answering all my questions about Bix. We talked for many hours. That is how our friendship began. Phil had spent his life in total dedication to Bix and would continue to search for any new information he could find. He was willing to share his information with those who were interested in Bix.
On the morning of July 24th, 1999, I received the saddest of news from Phil’s wife Linda. She informed me that on the night before, at 10:00 PM, Phil had a massive heart attack. We lost him. My mail of that sad day included a letter from Phil, which he had sent off to me a few days earlier. Phil deserves a special place in history for his outstanding contributions. I feel proud and honored to have known him. I’ll always cherish with the fondest of memories the warm friendship I have shared with such a wonderful person as Phil Evans.
Scott Black, jazz cornetist, CT, writes on August 5, 1999:
Back in the late 70s, while talking to Vince Giordano about Bix, he said: “Do you know Phil Evans?”
I said no, just from the book. So he gave me Phil’s phone number and said to give him a call, that he is a swell guy and loves to talk to people who are sincere about Bix. That first phone call became the start of a 20+ year friendship that lasted to the end. I still can’t believe he is gone, that I can’t pick up the phone and spend two hours with the most sincere and honest researcher of jazz and of Bix.
Phil sought one thing: the TRUTH about Bix. The Beiderbecke horn and his concept of music is something that affects people in strange ways. It was a different direction and style of music he created that caused such a musical wake, that many people spent the rest of their lives trying to figure it out.
When Bix died, he took it with him. For years, fans and would be writers pestered his friends and family to the point that they clammed up. That’s where the writers with the fantasy stories came about, dumping more mud on the truth about Bix.
Phil was able to win the friendship and trust of the musicians and family of Bix because they realized that his love for Bix was honest and that he wasn’t trying for the Book Of The Month Club.
He told me that at the first Whiteman reunion party that he was invited to, the boys were a bit wary about him. Here he was with a 50lb tape recorder, feeling quite uneasy. He said Roy Bargy came up to him and said:
What did Bix drink?
Phil said – Gin.
Roy said – Great, what do you want to know? How can I help you?
The ice was broken, and from then on, the Whiteman boys were happy to help Phil with whatever information he needed. They gave him pictures, diaries, letters, clippings, and interviews so the legacy of Bix, good or bad, would be judged by the truth.
For a while in the early 80s, I taped our phone calls, with his permission, of course, because he would tell me so many things and answer so many questions, with so many details about Bix, it was almost impossible to digest it all. These tapes and the 150+ letters from him over the years would make a great book in itself. I, along with many others, tried to get him to write a book about trying to write a book about Bix. The trouble he had is well known, and no need to go into it here, except to say that it is part of what caused his death.
He was a very generous man who was too happy to share his knowledge with people who loved Bix. Many did him wrong. He didn’t want to do the last book on Bix, it took years to persuade him to get the story down once and for all. Thank God he did. It’s a tribute to Bix, and to Phil, and to all of those jazz greats to have their words, as they said them, in the context that they were said. The story about Bix is done. The lies have been swept away, leaving a clear look at a young man who changed the way many people thought about music. A story that, if made into a real movie, using the FACTS, could be a masterpiece.
Phil would call on his friends from time to time for some help to track something for him. These quests were some of the best times I’ve ever had in a library. His excitement over finding something new was very contagious, and we all loved to help out if we could. Being a musician on the road, I would head for the libraries and look up dates for him, reviews, etc. It was like putting together a big puzzle while going on a treasure hunt. I can’t tell you how much I will miss that, it made the road a whole lot easier to take.
Enough can’t be said for Linda, she was his rock. She looked out for Phil like a pit bull and helped to keep the vultures from taking advantage of his sweet nature. He would always praise her, telling me, “I don’t know what I would do without her.” She was his eyes and ears when he was sick, and kept his flame burning. His friends, and there are many of us, are there to help her keep Phil’s memory and his work alive. If she’s the pit bull, we are the puppies.
Take care, my friend, and say hi to Bix for us.
Vince Giordano, jazz musician, archivist, and collector writes on August 6, 1999:
Thanks for writing the nice piece on Phil Evans. A really nice man who did a superhuman job getting all those facts and books out there for us to enjoy.
May he rest in peace.
Don Ingle, jazz musician (Sons of Bix Jazzband) writes on December 27, 1999:
I was among the fortunate people to have had a father, Red Ingle, who not only knew Bix but worked with him in various Goldkette units in Detroit, including the Victor Band. Growing up among musicians and hearing the legends of Bix from others made me more than aware of him, but it took my dad’s playing of a recording by Bix, “Clementine”, to electrify me. Having been playing clarinet for a few years (dad being a reed man), that exposure to the sound of his horn made me throw the clarinet idea aside and acquire a cornet, with which I was able to make my lving for many years after.
The point of this is that, in the course of this personal journey, I met Phil Evans. He had already contacted my dad for information on Bix from his time, and when I met Phil, he was even more a source of information for me to glean in our few short meetings. It was later, when he was doing his first book on Bix that I was able to repay his kindness by supplying several photos for his book, the shot of Bix and dad and one of Bixian cornetist Este n Spurrier. Needless to say, the news of Phil’s death hit this family hard. He was already in poor health but a good heart just couldn’t keep the beat, and we lost a great friend.
I was grateful to Scott Black and Linda for their passing on the news, and I join the many friends of Phil in mourning his passing. But what a wonderful legacy he has left us in his work.
It has been said that man gains immortality only through the memories of others. That being true, it means that Phil has joined the immortals that he wrote so faithfully about.
Obituary in One of Bakersfield Newspapers
Philip R. Evans
Philip R. Evans was born June 1, 1935, in Atchison, Kansas, and died July 23, 1999, in Bakersfield, California.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Roland and Lucia Evans, and by his son, Darren Evans, and his niece and goddaughter, Carolyn Croson. He is survived by his loving wife, Linda; his daughter, Courtney Evans of Gainsville, Florida; his sister, Lou Evans; his grandson, Patrick Evans of Bakersfield; his nephew, Chris Croson of Buelton, Calif., and many special cousins.
A Memorial service will be held July 31, 1999 at the Sacred Heart Church, 9915 Ramos St. at 2:00 pm. An Irish Wake will follow at 4 pm at Edison Middle School Cafeteria, 721 Edison Hwy. The family requests that all flower donations be sent to 4405 Kensington for transportation to the Wake.
Phil Evans retired after 36 years of government service. During this time, he excelled outside of his job coaching basketball and baseball for the children of the community, helping each child gain self-confidence and a greater knowledge of the chosen game. A graduate of Garces High School, he served as President of the Alumni association and, with the help of a special and caring alumni board, was instrumental in saving the school from closure.
Phil, a noted author of early jazz greats, is known as the ultimate researcher:
Just the facts, just the facts
He has been called “the best friend Jazz ever had,” and each of his books has been declared the definitive work on the subject. He leaves behind a legion of loving fans, and friends who are known as his extended family, who respect his honesty, compassion, diligence, talent, and his marvelous sense of humor. Fans and friends from around the world are greatly saddened by the loss of this rare man who brought truth to the world of early jazz.
There will be no visitation or viewing.
From his friends:Linda (wife): “He was a generous and loving man that made me happy. He never wavered in support and gave of his strength to keep me alive. His delightful sense of humor gave me laughter to replace the tears and fear. I will always miss him. He will be sorely missed around the world in jazz circles, with friends, family and fans. Even his birds mourn his loss.”
Lou Evans (sister): “My brother was the most perfect gentleman and the most gentle man that I have ever known. Until we meet again may God hold him in the palm of his hand.”
Tom Pletcher (musician): “While wondering where our dear friend
MISSING