3/2/2018 Ed Bickert Profile With Transcription and Analysis

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Ed Bickert Pro le
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by Dan Cross
Updated April 24, 2017

01 The greatest jazz guitarist you've never heard

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3/2/2018 Ed Bickert Profile With Transcription and Analysis

Though he achieved a certain amount of fame from his recordings with Paul Desmond, Milt
Jackson, Oscar Peterson, and Stanley Turrentine, Canadian jazz guitarist Ed Bickert (read
Bickert's bio on Wikipedia) is still generally unrecognized as the phenomenon he is.
Eschewing New York City, Bickert spent his entire recording career in Canada, thus didn't
get the media attention contemporaries like Jim Hall did.

One of the many charms of Ed Bickert's guitar playing is that he can be enjoyed on so many
levels. Bickert provides music that is seemingly simple, yet decievingly complex - an
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3/2/2018 Ed Bickert Profile With Transcription and Analysis

emalgamation of swing and bop-based lines, tonicization, moving inner voices, chord
substitution, and more.

Entire courses in music schools could be devoted to Bickert's use of passing chords, contrary
motion, and deceptive resolution within his chord solos. Many of the voicings Bickert uses
just don't get used by a lot of other guitarists, save perhaps in the music of fellow Canadian
jazz guitarist Lenny Breau. In an age where, 40 years after the death of Wes Montgomery,
most guitarists are still resorting to Wes' block-chord voicings in their solos, Bickert's more
intricate approach to this style of playing is refreshing.

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3/2/2018 Ed Bickert Profile With Transcription and Analysis

03 A transcription of an Ed Bickert solo

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At the heart of Ed Bickert's style is one of the fundamental jazz concepts - tension and
release. I've heard from people who have listened to Bickert's music and pronounced it
"tension-free"... I've even heard the phrase "easy listening".

These are wildly misguided proclamations. The truth is Bickert's command of harmony is so
masterful, he has resolved much of the tension he creates before people realize there was
ever dissonance.

If you'd learn more about Ed Bickert, the best way to go about doing it is to dive right in and
02 oneAn
study example
of his solos. Theof Ed Bickert's
following harmonic
is a transcription approach
(sorry, standard notation only... no
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tab) of Ed Bickert's introduction and solo on "Everything I Love", featured on the terrific
Paul Desmond record Pure Desmond (1975).

Everything I Love
Ed Bickert intro/solo transcription (pdf) | Intro MP3 | Solo MP3

Listen to an mp3 of Ed Bickert playing this passage

The short transcription above is of Ed Bickert playing "I'll Never Stop Loving You" from his
1985 album I Wished on the Moon. The chords in black are the actual chords in the song,
The Story of Power Punk Pioneers
while
the the chords in red are those Bickert is super-imposing
Ramones overschools
Can private the chord progression. This
withhold
should give you a taste of Bickert's extensive use oftranscripts for non-payment? Find
passing chords.
out.
If a guitarist exists with a stronger command of "chordal playing" than Ed Bickert, I am not
aware of him. Many of Bickert's chord voicings are tricky, and can only be played in one
particular area on the neck in order to be logistically possible. In beginning the process of
transcribing some of Bickert's music, I was immediately struck by his ability to imply four,
five, or six-part chords with three-note voicings. After repeated listenings to numerous
passages, I finally came to the conclusion that the fourth note I was often hearing in Bickert's
chord voicings wasn't actually being played - it was simply being implied.

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3/2/2018 Ed Bickert Profile With Transcription and Analysis

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3/2/2018 Ed Bickert Profile With Transcription and Analysis

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3/2/2018 Ed Bickert Profile With Transcription and Analysis

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