Bill Bickford

Bill Bickford, born and raised in Norwalk, CT, began to play guitar by listening to blues records a la Lightnin' Hopkins and studied with the late Linc Chamberland. He started professionally with local R&B and soul bands before moving to NYC in '77.
After some schooling which included a scholarship funded year at Berkley and two at City College of NY, studying composition and arranging with Mario Davidovsky, Edgar Summerlin, and John Lewis of Modern Jazz Quartet, and a few years of free-lancing with Jack McDuff, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Larry Elgart, Bill Bickford first appeared on record with trumpeter John McNeil on The Glass Room (Denmark 1980) (opens in a new tab)
In 1982, Bickford joined Joseph Bowie's Defunkt where he remained for the next ten years, contributing several compositions on six records and receiving praise on numerous international tours. Sandwiched in between were gigs with singer Mose Allison, Donald Byrd, the JB Horns and the late Native American saxophonist Jim Pepper.
Bickford can be heard with his own trio Bigfood on Semi Precious Metal (Germany 1990) (opens in a new tab), also with the funk/trash band Liquid Hips on Fool Injection (Germany 1993) (opens in a new tab), and Static, in a jazzier setting with bassist Ed Schuller on The Eleventh Hour (Germany 1992) (opens in a new tab) or Remembrance (Germany 1994) (opens in a new tab) with Jim Pepper. Check Paradox - The First Second for power funk-rock live with Billy Cobham and Wolfgang Schmid. And, of course, the CD "Cool Bop Phonics"