27 Facts About Ed Bickert

Ed Bickert worked professionally from the mid-1950s to 2000, mainly in the Toronto area.

Ed Bickert was born in the small Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonite village of Hochfeld, Manitoba to Harry Ed Bickert, a Russian Mennonite immigrant from Molotschna colony and Helen Dyck of Plum Coulee, Manitoba.

Ed Bickert's parents were semi-professional musicians, his father playing fiddle and his mother playing piano.

When he was ten years old, Ed Bickert started playing a guitar owned by his older brother, and he was performing at country dances with his parents.

In 1952, Ed Bickert decided to move to Toronto with the thought of pursuing music as a career.

Ed Bickert played on Koffman's North American hit record "Swinging Shepherd Blues", which made it to number 23 on Billboard's Top 40 chart during the spring of 1958.

Ed Bickert played and recorded with the group until 1998, appearing on more than 15 of the group's jazz-focused albums, and on most of the group's early commercial sessions as well.

In 1975, Ed Bickert recorded his first solo album, a live trio recording with Don Thompson and Terry Clarke.

In 2019, Terry Clarke explained to journalist and music producer Bill King how The Ed Bickert Trio was organized:.

The Ed Bickert Trio served as the rhythm section on live and studio albums recorded in Toronto by Frank Rosolino, Ruby Braff, Buddy Tate, and Humphrey Littleton.

Ed Bickert called the gradual phase out of his commercial work a "mutual parting", though he continued to take occasional commercial studio jobs when he felt like the music was a good fit for his style of playing.

Ed Bickert did occasionally do short tours outside of Canada as a member The Concord All-Stars, The Canadian All-Stars, and in the groups of Paul Desmond, Milt Jackson, Rosemary Clooney, and Rob McConnell, appearing in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Ed Bickert appeared on the label as a backing musician for artists including Benny Carter, Ken Peplowski, Rob McConnell, Fraser MacPherson, and Rosemary Clooney.

Ed Bickert made no albums as a solo leader after 1989's Third Floor Richard, though he continued to record regularly with The Boss Brass, and with groups led by Moe Koffman and Toronto drummer Barry Elmes.

Ed Bickert appeared on several albums each by singers Trudy Desmond and Shirley Eikhard.

Ed Bickert made two more small-group jazz recordings in 1999, as part of a cooperative trio organized by Mike Murley specifically to provide Ed Bickert with an opportunity to play jazz standards in public.

Ed Bickert married Madeline Mulholland, a private secretary, in the early 1960s.

Ed Bickert was a mainstream jazz musician, specializing in interpreting jazz standards from the Great American Songbook, and instrumentals from the swing era.

Ed Bickert did not typically play music from the modal jazz and jazz fusion styles that were predominant during the height of his career in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ed Bickert explained his thoughts on these contemporary jazz sounds to Downbeat magazine in 1984, when he was 52:.

Ed Bickert was noteworthy as being one of the few mainstream jazz guitarists in the 1970s and 1980s who used a solid-body electric guitar, an instrument primarily associated with rock, soul, blues, country, and jazz fusion styles at the time.

At the beginning of his career, Ed Bickert played hollow-bodied electric guitars, including a Gibson ES-175.

Ed Bickert can be heard playing this instrument on Phil Nimmons' 1960 Verve album Nimmons 'n' Nine.

Ed Bickert bought his Fender Telecaster in the mid-1960s, and found it to be durable and a practical instrument for live gigs.

And, Ed Bickert liked being able to transport his guitar in a lightweight gig bag without worrying that it would be damaged by accidental knocks or impacts.

In 1978, Ed Bickert replaced the original Fender single-coil neck pickup with a Gibson humbucker pickup, which was the only significant modification he made to the instrument over the decades that he played it.

Ed Bickert was able to play his Telecaster in a wide variety of musical contexts, from big band sessions with Sammy Nestico and Rob McConnell to the intimate jazz played by Paul Desmond, and to exploit the unique qualities that solid-bodied instruments have, particularly regarding the sustaining of notes and chords.