Jazz Articles about Skip Heller

Skip Heller: Songs With Memories: Skip Heller and Friends Play Floyd Tillman

by C. Michael Bailey
September 29, 2013

It would be oh so tempting to say the music impresario Skip Heller has found his niche with Songs With Memories: Skip Heller and Friends Play Floyd Tillman but with his next recording, more likely than not, he would prove that statement ludicrous. Heller's 2012 Fakebook II: That's Entertainment (Weatherbird) was a sequel to his 2004 recording of “standards" Fakebook (Hyena Records), the two bookending a number of recordings documenting Heller's curious musical evolution to where we are now.

Skip Heller: Fakebook II - That’s Entertainment

by C. Michael Bailey
November 21, 2012

Skip HellerFakebook II: That's EntertainmentWeatherbird Records2012 Fred Steven “Skip" Heller is one of those musicians with a gravity great enough to create his own universe. He is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, bandleader, producer and writer with an all-encompassing musical knowledge, interest and vision that is readily witnessed in his All About Jazz column Hardly Strictly Jazz. He is a stylistic moving target playing guitar- organ trio before moving on to Americana ...

Take Five With Skip Heller

by AAJ Staff
April 19, 2012

Meet Skip Heller: Grew up in Philly, enticed by all kinds of improvised music--jazz, bluegrass, blues, rockabilly. Played with Yma Sumac, Phil Alvin, Les Baxter, Wanda Jackson, DJ Bonbrake, Cannibal and the Headhunters, NRBQ, Karen Mantler... get the idea?Instrument(s): Guitar.Teachers and/or influences? Mose Allison, Willie Nelson, Bill Evans, John Hartford, Roger Miller, Bacharach/David, Doug Sahm, Hank Jones, The Beatles, Ahmad Jamal, Johnny Mercer, Merle Haggard, War, Bob Wills, Jethro Burns, ...

Skip Heller: Foolish Me

by C. Michael Bailey
February 10, 2012

Fred “Skip" Heller is a hip musical polymath from Philadelphia, living on the West Coast, where he burns through musical styles like there is no definition. He has a major, and unapologetic, jones for John Hartford and Roger Miller and an encyclopedic knowledge of American music, of which he continues to be a student, teacher, shaman. Mention any name from anywhere in the history of New World music and Heller will have something to say about it. His personal discography ...

The State of Skip Heller 2009

by C. Michael Bailey
December 2, 2009

Guitarist Fred “Skip" Heller has spent much of 2004 to 2009 burning through the American soundscape searching for the the heart of these United States. In 2004, Heller released Fakebook (Hyena). Considered the pinnacle of the guitarist's organ trio period, Fakebook sheltered hints of Heller's musical restlessness in his inspired readings of Grant Green's “The Yodel" and Eddie Harris' “Cold Duck Time."

Already back to basics, Heller was to distill his vision of American music further with Mean Things Happening ...

Skip Heller's Long March To The Heart Of America

by C. Michael Bailey
March 23, 2007

Philadelphia favorite son and Los Angeles uber-musician Fred “Skip Heller has been busy since my sighting of him last October at the Arkansas CD & Record Exchange. He was then touring to promote Mean Things Are Happening In This Land, currently available as a digital download at Ropeadope Records. After the Arkansas junket, Heller and his working trio were heading for Memphis, Tennessee. Not just Memphis, Tennessee, but 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, home of Sun Studio--those fabled four walls ...

Take Five With Skip Heller

by AAJ Staff
February 2, 2007

Meet Skip: Born and bred in Philly, played bar mitzvahs, weddings, top 40, country and whatever else. Came up in the wake of giants like Uri Caine, Bootsie Barnes, Shirley Scott, and others. Very traditional on some levels, but a full-on cultural expeditionary on any number of levels.Instrument: electric guitar.Teachers and/or influences? Grant Green, Heath Allen, Satchmo, Johnny Hodges, Cannonball, Marc Ribot, Link Wray, Johnny “Guitar" Watson, Dave Alvin, Eddie Lang.I knew I wanted ...