Jazz Articles about John Bickerton

John Bickerton: Submerged

by Karl Ackermann
November 9, 2017

Pianist and composer John Bickerton has been absent from active recording since his 1999 Shadow Boxes (Leo Records). That trio outing established his proficiency at blending lyricism, free jazz and the avant-garde as he had done on his previous release Drinking from the Golden Cup (Loud Neighbors Music, 1997). He returns almost twenty years later with the solo piano release Submerged.Bickerton is a native of Ontario, Canada who had studied with pianist Joanne Brackeen and he holds a ...

The John Bickerton Trio: Shadow Boxes

by Robert Spencer
December 1, 1999

Sometimes an artist doesn't need a big canvas on which to work. Miniatures can be just as artistically exacting and just as pleasing to the audience. John Bickerton is a worker in miniatures: he favors little phrases, not simply repeated but re-aired, re- floated, remade in different conjunctions and combinations. Matthew Heyner (bass) and Rashid Bakr (drums) are his able and willing fellow miniaturists.That's not to say that this is soft or restrained music, but simply that when ...

John Bickerton: Shadow Boxes

by Glenn Astarita
November 1, 1999

Pianist John Bickerton declares...”I am no “young lion” and am happy not to be one. I learned about jazz in the 1970s and the groove then was to find your own sound, that was the premium ”. Well, on his debut release for the Leo Lab label, “The John Bickerton Trio” effectively illustrate an altogether stylistic approach thanks to Bickerton’s uncanny melding of melody into a somewhat anatomic albeit fresh compositional approach. Shadow Boxes is all about weaving clusters surrounded ...

John Bickerton Trio: Drinking From the Golden Cup

by AAJ Staff
March 1, 1999

The cover gets your attention, even before the music comes on. On the front, all is peaceful: three birds in flight form the golden cup of the title, from which they drink. Expecting a placid “sounds of the seasons” album, you turn to the back and see those enigmatic titles. “Don Quixote and Don Juan Meet Their Fate in Brooklyn”? “Midnight Epiphany on Westbound 46”? They sound like avant-garde “it could mean anything” titles. So: is it gentle or experimental? ...

John Bickerton Trio: Drinking from the Golden Cup

by Joel Roberts
November 1, 1997

It is always a treat to stumble upon exciting and innovative new music by relatively unknown performers. This piano trio album, featuring all original compositions by Brooklyn-based pianist and leader John Bickerton, offers the opportunity to hear challenging improvised music played at a very high level by musicians whose names most people probably don't even know.

Bickerton runs much more in the Bill Evans / Paul Bley / Keith Jarrett wing of piano improvisation than the Cecil Taylor wing. Jarrett ...