Jazz Performance
John Bickerton began playing jazz professionally around 1985 performing mainly in a jazz trio format in small clubs like The Angry Squire in Manhattan (23rd St. and 7th Ave). A year or so later he landed a steady gig performing at an Eastside bar that was beginning to feature jazz. The club, Caliban (26th and 3rd Ave) featured full quartets and quintets, providing invaluable experience for a young (pretty green) pianist.
By the early 1990s, John’s improvisational style would expand to an abstract, free jazz concept which would move his performances to the Knitting Factory (Leonard St/Tribeca) and the Westside club The Cornelia St. Cafe (Greenwich Village).
The recordings below document John’s playing beginning in 1997.
Drinking From the Golden Cup
[Piano Trio with Ben Allison, bass and Tim Horner, drums]
This album brings an hour of original compositions by Bickerton, and refreshing ones at that. Almost all the tracks bespeak a thoughtful musical intelligence, full of angular beauty. ‘Snowfall,’ for instance, begins almost somberly, but with the introduction of percussion and bass, the mood shifts to peaceful – and shifts again, constantly conjuring up new scenes. Bickerton is quietly in control throughout. Bostonia Magazine
“Bickerton has a grand, majestic sound that is particularly evident on the title track. ‘Snowfall’ is a beautiful and compelling piece.” — Lamppost 40
“John Bickerton’s songs tell stories. Expansive, edgy, romantic, singing, are all (often simultaneous) descriptions of this music. As a guidepost, I’d say the group is somewhat comparable in temperament to Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet. A very accomplished tight-knit group. All tunes are original and carefully developed tales. Together they form a satisfying whole. Highly recommended.” — Hard Bop Cafe
Purchase $8
Clicking the Purchase link directs to Bandcamp.com where you can buy the music. $8 digital download, $10 CD. (You can also buy individual tracks at $1/download)
Track Listing
1. Drinking From the Golden Cup
2. Snowfall
3. Meet me in the playground
4. Don Quixote and Don Juan meet their fate in Brooklyn
5. Last dance of fading memories
6. The common wealth
7. Midnight Epiphany
8. Always know the way home
All compositions by John Bickerton
Musicians:
John Bickerton – Piano,
Ben Allison – Bass
Tim Horner – Drums
Recorded April 12th and 13th 1997 at Big House Recording, NYC, Recording Engineer: Ken Feldman.
Released on Loud Neighbors Music in 1998.
Shadow Boxes
[Piano Trio with Mathew Heyner, bass, and Rashid Bakr, drums]
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. Musings, International Improvised Music Archive
[Review in All About Jazz (December/1999)]
John Bickerton is a worker in miniatures: he favors little phrases, not simply repeated but re-aired, refloated, remade in different conjunctions, and combinations.
That’s not to say that this is soft or restrained music, but simply that when Bickerton heats up, his heat comes from the continuity of his lines, not necessarily from the dynamics of his sound.
Leo Lab Records, 1999
Open on Spotify to hear complete performances.
Track Listing
1. Answers Not Asked
2. Spirit World
3. Stilts & Pirouettes
4. Cortege
5. Shadow Boxes
6. Diving Rod
7. Aviary
8. Meeting After Dark
All compositions by John Bickerton
Musicians:
John Bickerton – Piano, (Prepared Piano on #3, #6, #8)
Matthew Heyner – Bass
Rashid Bakr – Drums
Recorded on March 29th, 1999 at Hillside Sound Studios, Englewood, NJ. Recording Engineer: Dave Kowalski.
Released on LEO RECORDS in 1999.
Open Music
[Piano Trio with Wilber Morris, bass, and Rashid Bakr, drums]
Review in JazzTimes March/2001
Whenever the word avant-garde gets attached to any session, there’s an immediate tendency to think distortion and extremes. While Bickerton can and sometimes does utilize the piano’s percussive aspects, he’s a very melodic, soothing player.
Morris sometimes strums and darts on bass, but he never fails to provide the requisite background and harmonic foundation essential to keep the music from unfolding.
Drummer Bakr has the toughest task. None of these tunes features the kind of established, familiar rhythms that usually appear even in outside sessions. Bakr has to simultaneously steer the sound and also respond to Bickerton’s direction.
The compositions often develop slowly before exploding, while at other times either Bickerton, Morris or Bakr will become the dominant figure, directing the others toward a resolution.
Bickerton wrote and arranged every number, and is just as unorthodox a composer as a player. There are no rigid progressions or patterns in his tunes. Rather than concern himself with time, Bickerton’s more interested in space. The listener who pays close attention to the trio’s playing will be rewarded.
Purchase online at CIMP Records
Track Listing
01. Intertwined
02. Turning Point
03. Chorale
04. Full Circle
05. Obsession
06. Open Landscapes
07. Stands/Braids
08. Maps
09. Generators
John Bickerton – Piano
Wilber Morris – Bass
Rashid Bakr – Drums
CIMP Records, (2000)
Bob Rusch, Producer
Recorded at Richard Gilbert Recital Hall,
St. Lawrence University
Canton, NY, June 29, 1999
Creative Improvised Music Projects/Cadence Records, Redwood NY
All songs composed and performed by John Bickerton, Loud Neighbors Music, BMI
Groovescapes
Inspired by the work of Creed Taylor’s CTI jazz label ** (George Benson, Herb Alpert, Bob James), these tracks bring a classic 1970s jazz fusion vibe into a more club, dance-oriented atmosphere.
Simple Harmonic Motion Records, 2022
Purchase $5
Clicking the Purchase link directs to Bandcamp.com where you can buy the music. Digital download only. Buy the complete album set or individual tracks.
Interviewed about this project in Secret Eclectic blog
Track Listing
01. Mellow D
02. Lazy Day
03. On Track
04. Space Cadet
05. Space Cadet [Earth Remix 2022]
All songs composed and performed by John Bickerton, Loud Neighbors Music, BMI
This album was originally licensed and sold through John’s music business – The UniqueTracks Production Music Library. The music served as background music for media companies and corporations.
What’s the inspiration behind ‘Mellow D’
This record was inspired by the Creed Taylor jazz sound of the 1970s. That label, CTI, produced records by established straight-ahead jazz artists like Wes Montgomery, Paul Desmond, and Chet Baker but also artists like George Benson and Freddie Hubbard who were beginning to incorporate soul and funk beats into a jazz context.
One thing that kind of links both the straight-ahead artists and the jazz-funk artists is the use of electric piano in the recordings. The Fender Rhodes electric piano is a huge factor in the Creed Taylor sound and it really defines the records on the label. Herbie Hancock played on several CTI recordings but it is pianist Bob James who really defines the CTI sound. He played on numerous CTI sessions. James would later become hugely popular with Hip Hop artists and his music has been sampled many many times. My record takes the CTI vibe and mixes it with more modern EDM techniques.
Tell us about your writing and recording process, what instruments, hardware or software to you use.
I really wanted to feature the vocal sample. The track really keys off of that. The electric piano is in duet with the vocal. The acoustic bass and drums provide the retro 70s jazz feel. This track was initially made as a background track for a TV cooking show on The Cooking Channel. It was made as part of my music licensing business. I always liked it and thought it could also work on its own – not as a soundtrack. John Bickerton interview MusicTo: Into The Spotlight, 2022