The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Master of the jazz guitar.He play single coil pickup /neck position/. on this video.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    He's CANADIAN folks! I love the man and the player. Although I've never had the chance to meet Ed, from what I've read and seen on here and other websites he's always portrayed as a very humble man -- hard to dislike someone who is as talented yet as humble!

    Also, how does he play so cleanly? To my knowledge Ed doesn't play flatwound strings, so I was wondering how he (or anyone else) doesn't make the strings squeak/squeal when moving his fingers?

  4. #3

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    I do not know what kind of strings he exactly use.
    I can say he is a master of jazz Tele.
    He play like piano player-some solo single lines mixed with beatifull chords.
    Lage Lund also use this kind of thinking but in more modern language.

  5. #4

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    Probably best saved for another thread but I find that when I go back to roundwounds and get the squeak I can reduce it considerably by lifting my left hand more when changing positions.

    Not an easy thing for me to do since I have enough problems with my left hand technique as it is but it can be done.

  6. #5

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    My (boring) anecdote about discovering Bickert: in 1979 I dropped out of school for a while and lived in a small town in east texas whose only jazz was a FM radio station I could just barely get from the nearest "city" (Beamont) which had a jazz show once a week. One night they played a track by Bickert and mentioned his name. A few months later I moved to Austin and found a record of his (the "garden party" recording) in the discount bin a record store (on payday!) and bought it. I was starting to play jazz already by then, but nobody I knew had ever heard of him.

    I wasn't doing transcriptions back then and his playing is so relaxed (in contrast to Martino who I was majorly into then), he wasn't a sideman on any records I had ever heard of (I never was into Desmond) and so I concluded that he must just be some minor figure (this was 20 years before the internet). but for some reason I played that record all the time, more than any other record and literally wore it out. When I decided to start transcribing, I did a track off that record first ("who can I turn to") and was blown away when working out his voicings and voice leading. Still nobody had ever heard of him so I thought of him as a "guilty pleasure", A guitar player I would study because he resonated with me, but a distraction from the "real" path one needs to take to grow as a player.

    Of course, years later when a Jazz guitar community emerged in cyberspace I realized what a huge figure he had become to guitar players. Maybe he was all along and I missed it, but it was kind of cool that this one player made his way into my personal list of heroes with no hype, no flash, no word-of-mouth, no critical reviews, no sideman appearances, just an incredibly compelling recording. I can't think of any other player that I came to via this path.

  7. #6

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    And one important thing. Ed Bickert play no too much...sometimes one chorus of solo...and this is a Music.

  8. #7

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    I spoke to him on the phone a few years back. He's exactly like you think he would be : very nice, humble, soft spoken, easy to talk to, absolutely no arrogance or airs (no wonder you don't find him participating in internet forums). He could be the guy living next door to you.

    I believe the video in the post above was recorded in Hamilton, Ontario, just 20 minutes or so from where I live

  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by pkirk
    My (boring) anecdote about discovering Bickert: in 1979 ......

    Of course, years later when a Jazz guitar community emerged in cyberspace I realized what a huge figure he had become to guitar players. Maybe he was all along and I missed it, .
    I can still remember, back in the 70's and 80's, hearing a Toronto FM station rattling off who's playing where this weekend :

    Thursday and Friday : Lenny Breau and Dave Young at Georges Spaghetti house. Friday and Saturday : The Ed Bickert Trio at (where ever): Saturday night : Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel at Bourbon St. Saturday : Triumph at the El Macambo. And on and on.

    Almost every week or perhaps every other week, you'd hear an announcement for Ed Bickert playing somewhere around the city. I knew who he was, but I didn't pay enough attention back then. I had two of his albums but didn't play them much.
    Last edited by va3ux; 04-25-2015 at 10:56 AM.

  10. #9

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    Maybe some of the Canadian forum members might know, did Ed Bickert ever take students ?. Do you know any of his students, or any name players who may have studied with him at any point ?

  11. #10

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    Lorne Lofsky definitely got a lot from Bickert. I don't know if he ever formally studied with him.

    I listened to the record they made together "This Is New" and though Lofsky plays fine on it, compared to Bickert, he sounds glib.

    I got the same impression from listening to Cal Collins, Jack Wilkins and Atilla Zoller playing with Jimmy Raney.

    If you play with a jazz genius, you're not gonna look good in comparison.

  12. #11

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    Yea, other than Ed collaborating with Lorne Lofsky, I've never heard of any "Bickert students". I know that he did do Masterclasses from time to time but I don't how often he did them.

  13. #12

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    I think guitarist Oliver Gannon recorded with Ed Bickert.O.Gannon working for PG music.

  14. #13

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    He's why I named my ASAT "Ed". (Does anyone else name their guitars?)

    Although Ed has lived in Toronto most his life, he grew up just north on Lake Okanagan from me, here in BC.

  15. #14

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    Reportedly Ed used light gauge (10s) with a plain G. I have put Pyramid nickel .012s on my Tele with a plain G and find that not having the wound G greatly reduces the string noise. Watch those videos of Ed, most of the action is on the top 3 or 4 strings. Having the round wound strings gives more of a pianistic feel to Ed's sound when he does use them.

    Ed is just such a favorite of mine.

  16. #15

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    Ed apparently wasn't quite a Miles fan.


  17. #16

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  18. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by D.R.22
    He's CANADIAN folks! I love the man and the player. Although I've never had the chance to meet Ed, from what I've read and seen on here and other websites he's always portrayed as a very humble man -- hard to dislike someone who is as talented yet as humble!

    Also, how does he play so cleanly? To my knowledge Ed doesn't play flatwound strings, so I was wondering how he (or anyone else) doesn't make the strings squeak/squeal when moving his fingers?
    yeah Ed doesn't squeak (round ? someone must know)
    nor does Metheny (round apparently)

    I can't play round without squeaking
    I don't dig the squeak so I play flats

  19. #18

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    One of the many things I like about Ed, is that he is a perfect accompanist. He knows when to hold back and puts all the right notes in all the right places. I love his work with Paul Desmond.

  20. #19

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    sorry, wrong post ...

  21. #20

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    from Don Thompson:
    "
    He has this great big Standel amp that weighed about a hundred pounds. During winters he’d leave it in the garage because it was so heavy. He’d get to the gig, plug in and it would take fifteen or twenty minutes before it would warm up enough to even work."


    from Terry Clarke:
    "My brother was a guitarist and tried to find the right guitar so he could get the Ed Bickert sound. We’re in Vancouver watching him on television, and my brother is a rock n’ roll guitar player and went out and got a Gibson ES 175, he got a Stratocaster, a Jazzmaster – he got every “master” guitar he could find and different amps to get the Ed Bickert sound. Flash forward 1969 and my brother moves to Toronto, he was a radio announcer and as soon as he gets here, he goes down to George’s Spaghetti House to finally get to see Ed Bickert live. He walks in and sees him playing that piece of shit Telecaster and that horrible amp and getting that damn sound he gets. Ken quit the guitar the next day. I think the amp had two little arms and it leaned back."

  22. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by Engine Swap
    puts all the right notes in all the right places
    he sure does !