A real treasure trove of Bickert's playing was released last year, the Paul Desmond 7-CD "Complete 1975 Live Recordings" on Mosaic. Ed's on 6 of the 7 CDs, and about half of the material has never been released (while the other half show up on the Telarc, A&M, and Artists House labels, but with boxy sounding mixes that the Mosaic set blows out of the water). It's a limited edition, so if you love Ed, don't wait around. The point about melody in the comping made here at 3:27 is perfectly illustrated throughout the Desmond set. It's similar to the way that Gerry Mulligan wove counter melodies under other horn players like Chet Baker and Paul Desmond on albums from the 1950s and 60s. Ed is also giving a masterclass in comping on the Frank Rosolino album "Thinking of You" (recorded, again, live in Toronto, just like the Desmond stuff, with the amazing Don Thompson on bass, and Terry Clarke on drums, with no piano to get in the way of Ed). I'll mention two more essential Bickert sessions that aren't well known, but have great comping (again, no piano--smart producers / promoters knew that with Ed, you never needed a piano as well), "Ruby Braff with the Ed Bickert Trio" and "The Ballad Artistry of Buddy Tate"--both, again featuring Toronto's finest (Don Thompson & Terry Clarke). One last one...Ed comping an amazing "orchestral" arrangement with the six strings of his Telecaster behind a singer who, while not bad, was frankly nowhere near Ed's level--"Angel Eyes", from the early 1980s, with a full guitar transcription: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lqIq1P8Ios4.html
I’m 81. Been an Ed Bickertt fan since forever but never could figure out his magic. Now suddenly I find you nailing it up for all to learn and enjoy. Thank you so much for this post. I have subscribed and look forward to seeing what other magic tricks you are offering. John Paiva aka Snugg Fitt
Ed Bickert’s comping is beyond compare, his rapid fire yet subtle chord voicings are always ear grabbing. These are indeed great examples of his always innovative playing, it’s amazing he was able to keep those sophisticated voicings coming measure after measure. Thanks for the great analysis!
YOU have the finger stretch to show what Ed did by ear, & the ability to hear close voicings, then look & find same on the guitar... good on you. I first met Ed (& Madelene) at "The House of Hamburg" with the Norm Amadio Quartet 1957. I was 19, he 24, me, an aspiring Jazz player coming out of Timmins, (also the home of Amadio). When I heard Ed's (alred0) personal) approach (with a bit of Kessel, Farlow & Rainey thrown in), I was startled. Later, he curiously called me for a Jam at the house I was sharing with some Aussies. I had Bill Evans "Come rain or come shine" down good chordally on my guitar. I played it for him, he said "you missded oine" & joke? No, he showed me. He was a step ahead... & that step kept growing over a short time. I ended up putting him ahedd of the other greats, in influence. He callede me often to sub for him, some CBC-TV, once with Moe Kaufman (Spaghetti House"), or with ..Phil Nimmons Big Band (in St. Jojn's N.B.) Music Union evening. I had dinner at Ed's house twice in the 60s, & met Jim Hall there in early 70s (after returing from overseas). In my opinion, if Ed had moved to L.A. or N.Y., he would have become (in a short time), the favourit chouce for everyone. Amen.
I mean he invented the technique de novo. When I grew up in the 60s and 70s the chords we had were from people like Mel Bay and in those books did not even play on the A string sometimes.
Yeah, but what I am missing here is how did he come up with this stuff? It's like the theory of physics we know how it was done but we don't if there was an overall template to structure these things?
When I first heard Bickert I thought it was a fender Rhodes and I said no this is a guitar player! And then I said to myself, my must have studied with a pianist, or he must've played piano somehow because guitarists don't play that stuff. And it's funny because when Miles came to Canada, he didn't want to play with a guitar player apparently according to an interview I saw. Herbie Hancock and those guys had nothing on him.
Being from Ed’s area I had the good fortune to listen to him play often. I remember hearing him play with an excellent pianist on a Steinway grand. For the first set it seemed like his modest six strings couldn’t match it’s harmonic bloom but when the second set started Ed’s music just became magic. At first I thought he’d increased the volume but I now think his system was just warming up. I found that it was always his second set when the harmonic bloom set in. Maybe it was my ears that warmed up? All I know how sure was that he made something beautiful happen every time I heard him play. He was as you said a quiet laid back gentleman and I feel his loss every time I see a guitar. Thank you Ed for sharing this gift.
Ed was loved by all who knew him, as a person and a musician. In my much younger years we sometimes on our lunch hour would pull up in front of his house and eat our lunch while listening to him practise.
Ed was an inspiring and truly one-of-a-kind musician. His beautiful, warm sound on guitar was not unlike Bill Evans' on piano. And Ed achieved that without finger-stretching chordal gymnastics as is evident in any videos of him playing. I think he discovered a polyrhythmic approach between chord and melody that elicited a strong overtone response on his guitar. So that a 2, 3, 4 or 5 single note melodic phrase is firstly picked. Then it has a reincarnation as an echo produced by an overtone of a sympathetically-vibrating chord that immediately proceeds and harmonically and rhythmically supports that phrase. This may explain how he gets such a big, rich, close-voicing sound with just easy 3 or 4 note jazz guitar chord fingerings. And his chords in turn enhance the tone of further single notes passages he undertakes and so forth. But returning to my previous, and some would say apples and oranges, comparison, I much preferred Ed's trio to Bill's. I could easily tap my foot and joyfully feel the groove listening to the Ed Bickert Trio. Whilst with the Bill Evans Trio, the groove is lost to over-complex, disjointed bass, drum and piano interplay. This I think just shows Ed Bickert's more balanced approach to music making. How wonderful that a 'mere' guitarist could have a jazz trio that is at the very least equal to the very best piano trios.
Great video. Much respect. I'm just a hobbyist but this video altered my trajectory and I've been really focused on this kind of beautiful comping. Listening right now to Doug Raney's "Guitar Guitar" album. Sounds like he might have been influenced by Bickert on this one. Not saying it's at the level of Bickert but it's that kind of lovely tasteful chord work like especially on the track "Come Rain or Come Shine".
Great summary. There are many transcriptions of Ed's work done by Pedro Bellora (Agentina) and Francois Leduc (Canada) , but I am not aware of a consolidated book on his unique musical style and life. A beatup Telecaster and chewing gum added to his aura and low key personality "under the radar". Thank you for highlighting him. Best wishes from Canada.
Another Canadian guitarist...Oliver Gannon. Love the unknown Canadian jazz musicians (also Fraser MacPherson tenor sax...not sure of the spelling of Fraser's last name.) Cheers for this posting.
Zakk, thanks a million for a crisp informative summary of Ed's genius. I watched the entire video now and "took notes". Very useful transcriptions from only a few passages, but months of practice lying ahead to get those voicings and melodic comping ideas/rhythms under my fingers. I am a chord diagram nut - using the fretboard grid as my internal GPS coordinate system. BTW - Aebersold is in process of publishing chord diagrams as a companion to the Barry Galbraith Comping Book (without TABs). Watch out for it in the new year (2022). It took two of us months of plotting 7,000 dots onto 1800 voicings, with careful cross-checking (not the hockey type). Barry and Ed are top of my hero list. Not flashy players but extremely musical.
Awesome harmony lessons and chord melody I was searching Ed Bickert and Lorne Lofsky and then I found you. Never found a video on Ed so detailed I want to take lessons from you and get new ideas. Thank you so much and happy Christmas
Thanks so much for this video, very informative! Ed Bickert is one of my favourite guitarists 🙂 I'm taking lessons from Matt Warnocks course site (he also loves Bickert and introduced me to Ed, he can get close to Ed's comping which always amazes me, Matt would be an interesting guest to have on your podcast as well 😁), thanks for your videos!
This was super refreshing, it's advanced playing that isn't too hard! Plus a nice mix of common voicings and fancy ones. It's like a guy in a suit - playing a telecaster lol
Much emphasis , justifiably, on his voicing. Less credit is given to his- right hand. Magical musician- sadly stopped to soon. Happy he followed his heart. The sound- also helps to have an -old dried out tele. Nice- well done
Ed was the Bill Evans of guitar. So easy to get lost in the musicality and beauty of his phrasing, the complexity and density of his harmonic approach becomes mind boggling (to me) when dissecting. Great job in this video. Your method of teaching helped me get a better grasp on some of Ed’s devices and thinking.
Dude, your abilities are solid .. I'm stuck at Salieri level but maybe osmosis will provide some insight. I have the feel and emotion but my ability to utilize music theory and logic have been stunted since birth. "All I ever wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing… and then made me mute. Why? Tell me that. If He didn’t want me to praise Him with music, why implant the desire? Like a lust in my body! And then deny me the talent?” ~ Salieri
But if I may say so, the guitar has got to be one of the most amazing instruments. The complexity of a string vibrating has so much more going on than wind, brass or otherwise (elitism?) and then we have poly note capacity. The depth to guitar is essentially maddening. Did you teach yourself? Do you see all the notes on the neck as they are as notes on the staff in an immediate fashion when you play? When you play chords, do you rely on shapes/scale shapes or can you multitask and see them all as notes? At 51, I'm afraid that cerebrally I can't get to your level but I'm dying to dissect this thing, this ability you have and somehow be able to accomplish something similar.
@@roba1899 Tough questions! I taught myself initially, in high school years but I pretty quickly had private teachers. I have a bachelor's in jazz guitar and i'm in the middle of my master's. I also learned a lot "on the street", gigging and finding older mentors. I dont see notes on the neck like on the staff per say, I mean i Know all the notes by name of course but i dont visualize a staff. Patterns and shapes are very helpful but if you dont know the theory or notes, they can limit you. I use a combination of things to visualize the fretboard, but i am always aware of what notes i'm playing no matter what. the thing is trying to compartmentalize things, like if i play a big voicing i dont necessarily have to "think" about each note because i've compacted it in my head as one thing. just like a ii-V-I progression is just "one" thing in my head. or the C major scale is just "one" thing versus 7 individual notes.
@@zakkjones Man, that's a beautiful thing as I'm sitting here at 1 in the morning eating sushi :) A Master's in Jazz .. extraordinary. I remember clearly buying Dave Weckl's Hard Wired album in 1995 when I was 25 and realizing, whoa, Jazz is NOT elevator music. I mean, even though the keyboard and bass tones have that 80s dated splash to them, the compositions on that CD are remarkable. I think too that maybe one of my failings is that having listened to alot of Prog and well-written Pop music, I've come to expect a song to have a 'predictable container' to it. And alot of Jazz pieces can feel like total improv to my ears while others like Hard Wired seems to have this constant forward progression that is always expressing something significant. Jazz, Classical and Prog seem to be the pinnacle of sophistication in music and there's nothing better than hearing technically demanding pieces that take you on a journey. I most definitely look forward to your future videos!
Increíble sonido el de Ed. Muy buen sonido el tuyo y se nota que has estudiado mucho. Flor de guitarra tenés 👍🏻 hay mucha duda con respecto a si Bickert usaba flat o round y si era 0.10, 11 o 12... El sonido es sus manos.
