canada | New.Old.Stock.

Managing a job, writing a dissertation, preparing for a jazz ensemble recital… All these things and more have been consuming my not-so-infinite free time in recent weeks. This is despite having a backlog of blogging content including artist spotlights, album reviews, and gear tests. Oh, and soon enough I’m going to be migrating all of the existing content to a newer, hipper blog format.

In the meantime, I recently found out our friends to the north are celebrating Ed Bickert’s 80th birthday. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will be airing a tribute show on November 29th, and an album of previously unreleased material is set to hit the shelves on December 7th. Much of Bickert’s material is unfortunately out of print these days, so a new release is always exciting news.

I have multiple posts in the works on new albums, old albums, gear mods — even literature. But unfortunately my time has been recently monopolized by the ol’ day job.

In the mean time, enjoy the smoking tones of Canadian jazz legend and Tele-master Ed Bickert. One of the most unpretentious and understated guitarists in the genre. Unfortunately his records are kind of hard to come by, though a few are downloadable through iTunes and Amazon. “Out of the Past” is a solid solo outing, while my personal favorite is his collaboration with Paul Desmond on the live album “Paul Desmond Quartet Live,” recorded in 1975 not long before Desmond passed away. It’s a great example of seemingly telepathic interplay between master musicians, and a lesson for guitarists on how to provide sophisticated yet unobtrusive lead accompaniment.