"Funkallero" is a jazz standard [1] composed by the pianist Bill Evans in the mid 1950s. [2] Evans biographer Peter Pettinger notes that it bears "more than a passing resemblance to Bud Powell's 'Un Poco Loco.'" Evans himself said of his composition, "I was getting into kind of a swing thing, and this line just naturally came out of that feeling. It's a natural vehicle for blowing." [3]
The piece was first recorded by Evans with vibraphonist Don Elliott in 1956, [4] but that version was not released until 2001, on the album Tenderly: An Informal Session .
Evans subsequently recorded it with a quintet featuring Zoot Sims in 1962, but again, that recording was only released posthumously, in 1982 on The Interplay Sessions. Evans recorded it again in 1964, this time in a quartet with Stan Getz, but once again, release of the recording was delayed, in this case to 1973. [5]
So the first recording of the piece that was released was on his 1971 Grammy Award winning The Bill Evans Album , the first album by the pianist featuring exclusively his own originals. Another version with Getz was recorded live in 1974 and released in 1996 on the album But Beautiful . [6]
The piece has been covered by a number of other notable artists, including guitarist Lenny Breau on his 1977 recording Pickin' Cotten , pianist Mike Wofford on his 1988 album Funkallero, pianist David Benoit on his 1989 album Waiting for Spring , the big band Orange Then Blue on their 1991 album Funkallero, pianist Andy LaVerne on his 1992 tribute album Bill Evans...Person We Knew , woodwind specialist Bud Shank on his 1996 tribute album Plays the Music of Bill Evans, and vocalist Roseanna Vitro on her 2001 tribute album Conviction: Thoughts of Bill Evans , in this case with lyrics by the famous songwriting team Alan and Marilyn Bergman.
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