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Evan Jones Trio bassist Pitts finds 'message' in music

The American psychologist Abraham Maslov said “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.”

Those words have living evidence in the form of a young double bass player named Chris Pitts. 

A native of Long Beach, Calif., Pitts spent the majority of his youth in the creative melting pot of Seattle. Pitts’ introduction to music came behind a drum set in high school band. After graduation, Pitts almost joined the military, but after his family moved to Texas, Pitts decided to try college.

On a whim, Pitts played for Tyler Junior College director of jazz bands Heather Mensch, who promptly offered him a seat in the top jazz band. Pitts was soon introduced to the double bass.

“It was like home,” Pitts said of the double bass. “It just felt right.” 

A year later, Pitts has his very own jazz combo that speaks the language of music in a fashion unique to the ensemble.

Watching Pitts play, one just has to know what drives the creativity and freedom.

“Quality music is not always complicated,” Pitts said. “And good artists are not always flashy. But the effect of the good stuff in the right environment is nothing short of perfect. There is something about music that people for the history of people have not been able to label or put their finger on. These same vibrations have been around since the beginning of time, and still we are speechless to describe the thing that moves us most. Why? Maybe because everything we do is transcendent, and music messages that part that is transcendent.”

Pitts cites a necessity to create as his motivation for performance.

“As an artist, I do not really care to leave an audience feeling moved,” he said. “It does play a factor, but it is not the reason I do this. The reason I do this is because If I did not; I would die. This music is a beautiful thing that I cannot live without. I have to play, I have to create, I have to.”

Instrumentalists have been described as singers without words, artists without brushes, creators and lovers of all things beautifully mastered.

The essence of the Evan Jones Trio is captured in the heart of the young Pitts. As long as he sings lacking words, paints lacking a brush and loves all things beautifully mastered, his double bass shall never cease to be itself beautifully mastered.

Art in the Evening is an arts blog authored by KETR volunteers J. Michael Williams and Brianna Connaughton.