After perfecting his craft in the jam sessions held in the jazz district between Twelfth and Eighteenth streets in Kansas City, Evans returned to Texas in the 1920s and joined the Troy Floyd orchestra in San Antonio in 1929.

Evans performed for a time with Lionel Hampton and Buck Clayton in Los Angeles, and in the mid-1930s returned to Kansas City to become a featured soloist in Count Basie's big band.

For the next three years, Evans's prominence as a tenor saxophonist was at its peak, and he participated in musical duels with fellow band member Lester Young.

A recently discovered recording of "Blue and Sentimental" by Basie's orchestra performing at the Famous Door features Evans on tenor saxophone and a vocal by Helen Humes.

[14] He collapsed while performing a one-nighter on February 6 with the Basie band at the Crystal Ballroom in Hartford, Connecticut; he was rushed to Wadsworth Hospital in New York City at 629 West 185th Street.