Grant Gee's new film zeroes in on Bill Evans's grief-stricken 1961 months
Director Grant Gee, known for music documentaries, has made his first narrative feature about jazz pianist Bill Evans, focusing on a few months in 1961 after the death of his bassist Scott LaFaro. The film, titled Everybody Digs Bill Evans, stars Anders Danielsen Lie and Laurie Metcalf. Gee describes it as a study of artistic crisis and transformation.
Gee's career has centered on impressionistic portraits of artists across music and literature, including Radiohead, David Bowie, Joy Division, Orhan Pamuk, and WG Sebald. His films repeatedly explore how creative figures endure crises that transform them without destroying them. This project marks his first narrative feature, adapting Owen Martell's novel "Intermission," which fictionalizes Evans's real-life paralysis after LaFaro's death.
The film's title references Evans's 1958 album of the same name. Evans's grief period saw him unable to touch a piano, cared for first by his brother in New York, then by his parents in Florida, before returning to Manhattan's heroin scene with his girlfriend Ellaine. The story originated from a Lee Friedlander photograph that Gee encountered before he knew who Evans was.
This film could broaden public understanding of jazz history beyond its most famous figures, potentially sparking renewed interest in Evans's recordings and the emotional dimensions of artistic creativity. Music documentaries have historically driven catalog sales and streaming spikes; a narrative feature may reach audiences who avoid nonfiction. It could also reframe conversations about addiction and grief in creative communities, though its impact likely remains modest outside jazz and film circles.