John Bickerton
John Bickerton has led something of a divided musical life. His initial years as a jazz musician in New York City in the late 1980s into the 1990s were followed by a 20-year span in commercial music where he owned his own music licensing business.
“It was an attempt to answer the question many musicians ask “How am I actually going to make a living doing this? It’s a hard question, and I don’t think I necessarily solved it because you give up a lot either way. My company was financially rewarding but, in the end, I was not really a musician anymore. The balance between art and commerce proved a difficult one to maintain.”
John has returned to making music. His latest works highlight the interplay of electronic music with live acoustic performance.
At the piano, John is usually heard in a jazz or improvised context. He has recorded for CIMP/Cadence and Leo Records.
He lives in Brooklyn, NY, USA
“John Bickerton fashions lively improvisations out of deceptively simple themes. The pianist is adept at luring his listener in through repetition before catching him unaware with striking variation” Coda Magazine
Bickerton’s compositions are wonderful things, reminiscent of Mary Lou Williams’s, Monkish but in an updated way, bringing dissonance and that apparently awkward grace to the fore and letting swing transform into the pulse of free improvisation.
Richard Cochrane, International Improvised Music Archive
A wonderfully expressive pianist, an unflamboyant leader capable of singing through his melodies. He works expansively but from a few chords, adding new twists and accents to his simple phrasings. His chords are uncluttered yet rangy and he speaks volumes in tone and feeling, like a singer of ballads. Copper Press
