Out of the Past

Having composed “Take Five” in 1959, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond earned enough money as a member of the Dave Brubeck quartet to retire comfortably in 1967. Desmond pursued photography, was reported to be writing a book entitled “How many of you are in the Quartet?” and generally busied himself away from music. Although he occasionally recorded for Creed Taylor’s CTI label, his live performances were limited to a set at the 1969 New Orleans jazz festival with Gerry Mulligan, a Christmas 1971 concert as featured soloist with the Modern Jazz Quartet, a benefit for the Canterino family at New York’s Half Note and the occasional reunion performance with the “Two Generations of Brubeck” band. From 1974 until his death three years later, most of Desmond’s performances as leader occurred in Toronto, Canada at Doug Cole’s Bourbon Street (180 Queen Street West) to which he frequently returns. Conversely on the Fletcher Henderson/Benny Goodman composition “Soft Winds”, Bickert dispenses of the melody quickly and imbues his improvisation with swing era “riff” vocabulary and highly stylized string bends reminiscent of Charlie Christian, whose performances in Goodman’s band helped codify the jazz language that Bickert continues to employ.

Ed Bickert has been musically “retired” since approximately 2002. Living in the same city, I had many occasions to hear the guitarist with The Boss Brass, Moe Koffman’s band and most recently in a terrific trio with saxophonist Mike Murley and bassist Steve Wallace. Bickert performances were so frequent, so common place, I took it for granted that he would simply be around to do highly inventive things on tunes I wished I knew. I should have heard him more often when I had the chance. With this recently unearthed album, I am “a lucky so and so” to again have the opportunity.

Andrew Scott - August 2005