Ed Bickert


Edward Isaac Bickert, was a Canadian jazz guitarist.

Career

A native of Hochfeld, Manitoba, Bickert grew up in Vernon, British Columbia. When he was eight years old, he started playing guitar. He performed at country dances with his parents, who were musicians, his mother on piano, his father on fiddle. During the early 1950s, Bickert worked as a radio engineer in Toronto.
Later, Bickert became a studio musician, recording as a sideman for Ron Collier, Moe Koffman, Phil Nimmons, and Rob McConnell and performed in a duo with Don Thompson and a trio with Thompson and Terry Clarke. He worked with touring American jazz stars in Toronto including Ruby Braff, Paul Desmond, and Frank Rosolino. After playing in Japan with Milt Jackson, he recorded with Oscar Peterson, then Buddy Tate. He went on tour during the 1980s with McConnell, Koffman, and Peter Appleyard.
Bickert signed with Concord and recorded with Ernestine Anderson, Benny Carter, Rosemary Clooney, Lorne Lofsky, Dave McKenna, Ken Peplowski, and Neil Swainson. Lofsky was a member of his quartet in the 1980s and 1990s.

Awards and honors

Bickert worked with Rob McConnell, a Canadian band leader, jazz trombonist, composer, and arranger, from the 1960s to the 1990s, appearing on records with McConnell starting with 1969's Boss Brass and continuing through 1998's Big Band Christmas.
Bickert also had a shorter partnership with alto sax star Paul Desmond in the mid-1970s, at the end of Desmond's life. Desmond featured Bickert's playing on the 1974 studio album Pure Desmond, which brought Bickert's playing to the international jazz audience. The Desmond-Bickert "Canadian Quartet" was recorded live in concert on several occasions, resulting in the albums The Paul Desmond Quartet - Live, Paul Desmond, Like Someone in Love, and Edmonton Festival '76.
While Bickert was recording for Concord Records in the 1980s, he was featured on five studio albums by singer Rosemary Clooney.

Discography

As leader or co-leader