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Walter Bishop, Jr.

Walter Bishop, Jr. was an American bop and hard bop jazz pianist. He was the son of composer Walter Bishop, Sr.. In high school his friends included Kenny Drew, Sonny Rollins, and Art Taylor. He began his musical career after World War II, and played and recorded with Art Blakey, Charlie Parker, Oscar Pettiford, Kai Winding, Miles Davis, Jackie McLean, Curtis Fuller, Terry Gibbs, Clark Terry, Blue Mitchell, and Supersax. In the early 1960s he also led his own trio with Jimmy Garrison and G. T. Hogan. He continued performing into the 1990s. After studying at The Juilliard School with Hall Overton in the late 1960s, he taught music theory at colleges in Los Angeles in the 1970s. In 1983 he began teaching at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. He also wrote a book, A Study in Fourths, about jazz improvisation based on cycles of fourths and fifths.

Walter Bishop Jr.: Bish at the Bank: Live in Baltimore

Read "Bish at the Bank: Live in Baltimore" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
April 14, 2023

Although he played with many of the icons of bebop's formative years from Bird to Miles, as well as those who were starting to reach for something beyond, including Ken McIntyre and Jackie McLean, pianist Walter Bishop Jr. never got his due as a leader, remaining woefully under-recorded until the 1970s. Most of his albums remain out of print, with the notable exceptions being The Walter Bishop Jr. Trio / 1965 (Prestige) and Coral Keys (Black Jazz, 1971)--and by the ...

Music Industry

Sonny Stitt, Shirley Scott and Walter Bishop Jr.

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 16, 2023

Baltimore's Left Bank Jazz Society was formed in 1964. It's claim to fame was promoting more than 800 jazz concerts at the city's Famous Ballroom at 1717 North Charles Street. Nearly every major jazz artist who came through the city was booked by the Society into the Ballroom, its interior modeled after New York's Roseland Ballroom. Most of the jazz shows initially were held on Sundays at 5 p.m., probably because it was the only evening when the space wasn't ...
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Interview

The Poetry of Walter Bishop, Jr.

Source: The Independent Ear by Willard Jenkins
October 14, 2011

Relaxin' With Max, The Invincible Roach By Walter Bishop, Jr. There was a Roach named Maxwell. He was unusual in that he could fly, having been born with wings. He also played the drums, of all things. From his home in South Carolina, he came to the Big City, via Brooklyn. There he got hooked up with some other insects. Let me see... there was a Yardbug that flew in from K.C. And man, he could play the blues on ...
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