ED BICKERT is a master of harmony and has developed a beautiful voice
which incorporates his chordal sound in a very subtle way. I first heard him on a Paul Desmond record years ago and was knocked
out by his comping and harmonic thinking. He seems to prefer playing standards, often neglected ones in the jazz repertoire,
and he has a fantastic way of making them quietly adventurous. To my ear no one has come as close to a Bill Evans level of
chordal playing and touch on guitar than Ed has.
Ed Bickert Trio
"Easy To Love"
Ed Bickert
was born in Hochfield, Manitoba, Canada in 1932, and settled many years ago in Toronto, where he lives today. In the 60s and
70s he became associated with Rob McConnell's Boss Brass, and he continues to work with the trombonist in groups of various
size. I caught Ed playing with McConnell in a trio setting a couple of years ago in Toronto with bassist Neil Swensen. He
played tasty solos and accompanied the trombonist with wonderful sensitivity - and great voicings. Bickert plays a Fender
Telecaster. I think he generally uses uses a pick for solos and comps with his fingers, and I know from my own experience
that comping with the fingers gives you a lot more freedom - you can bring out the individual voices, create complex rhythmic
patterns, or hit all of the notes in the chord at exactly the same time, which is impossible with a pick. He gets a beautiful,
warm and balanced sound.
Many of
Ed's recordings are on the Concord label, but one of my favorites is a label called P.M. out of New Jersey. I have it
on vinyl, and don't know whether it's been reissued on CD. lt's a live trio recording that was done in 1975
with Terry Clarke on drums and Don Thompson on bass - the same rhythm section that Jim Hall used for his great live recording
on Horizon. Just called "Ed Bickert", it has him doing a set of standards and really stretching out on them. Modern
trio playing for jazz guitar demands that the player really be fluent with single lines, have a rich chordal vocabulary and
be able to combine the two naturally, not an easy task. Here Bickert does just that, and he makes it sound easy. The lines
are never cut short to hit a chord, and the chords themselves are voiced and placed in a way that either contributes to the
melodic contour, or that fill and color the space between phrases like a pianist's left hand.
I prefer the trio setting for him just because it's so
nice to hear how well he handles it, but he sounds just as great in the quartet things I've got also. One is on Concord,
called "Bye Bye Baby" which adds piano as the fourth piece. The other I have on cassette, and it features the great
Paul Desmond, who tie's recorded with several times. I prefer this "Pure Desmond" album as it again allows Ed
to be the sole comping instrument, with plenty of room to solo also.
Ed Bickert Quartet
"You'd
be So Nice To Come Home To"
Bickert
is a self-taught guitarist who lists his influences as Barney Kessel, Tal Farlow, Jimmy Raney and Jim Hall, and he came from
a musical family, lt's because of Desmond and Hall that we've heard of him here - when he was working with McConnell's
big band they often backed up visiting American hornmen such as Desmond, Charles McPherson, Frank Rosolino and others. When
Desmond went to Toronto in 1974 for one of his first club appearances in years, he hired Bickert on Jim Hall's recommendation.
The Pure Desmond record grew out of this, and he recorded with him again the next year on a live record from the same club,
Bourbon Street. In the eighties he recorded with Rosemary Clooney, Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache, and Dave Mckenna's "Bye
Bye Baby", all for Concord. I also remember hearing a duo record with bassist/pianist Don Thompson somewhere along the
line.
I encourage all jazz guitar
lovers to keep an eye out for anything that Ed Bickert is on, I think you'll find his playing as nice as I do.
