Victor Evans, a jazz singer, passed away at the age of 88. Evans, a native of Edgbaston, Birmingham, performed with The Blue Notes and Andy Hamilton, a late British jazz saxophonist of Jamaican descent.
Additionally, he regularly performed at the Corks Club in Bearwood, Smethwick’s Silvershine Jazz Club.
Blue Notes guitarist Paul Foad said he had continued to sing with them until the summer, despite being ill, making him “the greatest jazz warrior I know”.
“There really was nobody who could touch him as a jazz vocalist, he could tell a story by singing,” he said.
According to Mr. Foad, Victor Evans also served as a mentor to the younger musicians, teaching them how to play slow ballads in particular.
“He was the master of that,” he said.
The musician left Kingston, Jamaica, when he was 21 years old in 1964, moving to the UK.
Alzheimer Diagnosis
His daughter, Dionne Thompson, said that despite receiving an Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2012, his love of music persisted and that he continued to perform at the jazz club in the months preceding his passing.
She told the BBC: “He was all about jazz, even with Alzheimer’s he still remembered how to play and sing.”
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What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong and Without a Song by Bill Evans was Mr. Evans’ favorite songs to perform.
“We have great memories of the many gigs we did together and the stories he told us of his life that sometimes had us doubled up with laughter,” the Silvershine Jazz Club said on Facebook.
“We’re going to miss you, buddy.”
