Hiram Bullock

Hiram Bullock ( born September 11, 1955 in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, † July 25, 2008 in New York City ) was an American jazz, funk and fusion guitarist.

Life and work

Bullock was born in Japan, where his parents were stationed as American soldiers. At the age of two years he came to the U.S.. As a child he learned at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland, playing piano at age six and gave his first concert. At age eleven, he learned saxophone and in the lower grades of high school, he moved to bass guitar. At 16, he switched to guitar to have more success with girls

Bullock attended the University of Miami College of Music, where he studied with Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius. Here he met many of the musicians with whom he was later to play throughout his career as a professional musician. On one of his regular nightclub gigs in Florida, he played with singer Phyllis Hyman, with the Bullock center of the seventies went to New York.

In New York he performed with David Sanborn and the Brecker Brothers, before he founded the 24th Street Band. This formation with Steve Jordan on drums, Clifford Carter on keyboards and bassist Mark Egan, who was later replaced by Will Lee, found enthusiastic supporters in Japan and there released two records. The second was co-produced by keyboardist Paul Shaffer. As Shaffer then later put together a house band for the " David Letterman Show" on the NBC television, he resorted to Bullock, Jordan and Lee back from the 24th Street Band to play with them in the "Late Night Talk Show" for the first time was broadcast in 1981. In 1983 he played in the Monday Night Orchestra by Gil Evans. Another important relationship was recruited to the producer Phil Ramone, the Bullock for a series of gold and platinum -seller albums of pop star Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Kenny Loggins. Bullock came in recent years repeatedly with his own formations to Europe; he performed regularly on the Aalen Jazz Festival.

Bullock died on 25 July 2008 at the age of 52 after a survived believed laryngeal cancer disease; according to other sources, he died as a result of his drug addiction.

Career as a studio musician

Bullock also appeared in numerous credits from recordings of the Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn, Jaco Pastorius, Pete Townshend, Bob James, Chaka Khan, James Taylor, Steely Dan, James Brown, Miles Davis, Barbra Streisand, Sting, Burt Bacharach, Roberta Flack, Spyro Gyra, Eric Clapton and Al Green, on the soundtrack of Footloose, Gil Evans, Mike Stern, Michael Franks and other world stars.

Create your own CDs

Mid-eighties Bullock played with the house band in the TV show " Saturday Night Live" and in 1985 published his first record as a bandleader, who was called " First Class Vagabond". The fusion -heavy From All Sides followed in 1986, appeared in 1987 Give It What U Got Way Kool and 1992 then, all on Atlantic Jazz. Also in 1987, Bullock played the solo on Sting's interpretation of the Hendrix classic " Little Wing ", where he combined cleverly jazz / fusion with elements of the blues. It was followed by two albums with bassist and longtime colleague Will Lee and drummer Clint deGanon - that published in 1994, World of Collision and the live album Manny's Car Wash of 1996 late night talk was the 1996 jazz -heavy, with Dr. Lonnie. Smith on the Hammond B -3, Idris Muhammad on drums, Joe Locke on vibraphone and Ed Howard on bass. Carrasco - published 1997 - was his tribute to Latin music during the 2000's Guitar Man represented a return to his rock fusion roots. With their 2001 Color Me, Bullock began to orient themselves more towards pop, and with Try Livin 'It, he made another big step in this direction. In the fall of 2005, the album Too Funky 2 Ignore appeared. Posthumously published in January 2009 Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix, a live recording of a concert with the WDR Big Band and Billy Cobham of 2004 ( published in 2008 ).

Discography

Style

While Hiram Bullock often jazz, the funk and the fusion music then assigned, Bullock himself described his style as a groove music. It is always a Fußstampf element is present. Bullock knew particularly well to upgrade a classic blues phrase by inserting a fresh jazz licks. Since he also was also very skilled with the bend, he could give the impression that the sounds would " fall into each other ." His solo in Little Wing Sting on the album ... Nothing Like the Sun (1987 ) provides a good example of this technique dar.

Bullock was known to play at concerts barefoot. He was an endorser for Cort Guitars that produce designed by Bullock's ideas Signature guitars.