Bill Evans, passed away on September 10th after a battle with cancer, he was 83. In the 1950s he was a founding member of the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band at the heart of what became a very active Twin Cities traditional jazz scene. He was a partial owner of the Emporium of Jazz in tiny Mendota, Minnesota (Pop. 202) which hosted the Hall Brothers and became a mecca for touring traditional jazz musicians. In 2008 Will Shapira recalled the establishment in The Mississippi Rag:
"The Emporium of Jazz originally was a bottle club — bring your own booze and buy setups — and I remember Charlie DeVore tending bar and acting like a mad scientist during band breaks. Eventually the liquor license was upgraded and the restaurant was added, but the Emporium, with its smoke-browned ceiling, always had a loose and welcoming ambiance, I thought. And, from the beginning, the Hall Brothers, Henry Blackburn, Bill Price and others not only showed us Minnesotans what real New Orleans music sounded like, but they imported many of the old musicians from New Orleans who were and are some of the very best musicians in traditi
