John Bishop

“One can hear many influences in Bishop’s playing, including more than a touch of Elvin, but he is clearly an original voice…” - Percussive Notes As a drummer, educator, record label owner, graphic designer, publisher, and festival presenter, John Bishop has been one of the primary voices in Northwest Jazz for 40 years. He has performed in concerts and clubs with Lee Konitz, Slide Hampton, Benny Golson, George Cables, Bobby McFerrin, Jack Sheldon, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Sonny Fortune, Herb Ellis, Buddy DeFranco, Jerry Bergonzi, Carla Bley, Ernestine Anderson, Larry Coryell, and countless others. He’s appeared on more than 100 albums, and was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame in 2008, and named a "Jazz Hero" by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2019. In 1997, Bishop started the jazz label Origin Records (named Jazzweek’s 2009 “Label Of The Year”) and OriginArts, a graphic design & CD production company, to help further the exposure of creative artists and their music. In partnership with his ex-drum student, Matt Jorgensen, they have released over 750 recordings by 370 artists from around the world. In 2002 they added another jazz label, OA2 Records, a classical imprint, Origin Classical in 2008, and in 2003 began Seattle’s annual 4-day Ballard Jazz Festival. Bishop has designed over 800 CD packages and multiple book covers, banners, posters, and other graphics for clients around the globe. He was on the PNW chapter Board of Governors of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and annually takes part in multiple music conferences & events, including MIDEM (Cannes), the Grammys, JazzConnect (NYC), JazzWeek (San Jose), NAMM, PASIC, and JazzAhead (Bremen). Along with bassist Jeff Johnson, Bishop has been a member of New York pianist Hal Galper’s Trio for over a decade. In 2018, with the release of their 6th recording, “Cubist,” they’ve expanded to a quartet with the addition of master saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. They also perform with Spanish pianist Chano Dominguez, and are members of the collective 15-year-old trio “Scenes” with guitarist John Stowell. Bishop has also been with the Chad McCullough / Bram Weijters Group, a Belgian/American project, since 2010. They've recorded 4 albums and tour Belgium annually. Born in Seattle and raised in Germany, Washington, DC, San Antonio and Eugene, Bishop started playing drums at 9 in Washington, DC with the Patriots drum corp. He played in multiple bands throughout jr. high, high school and college, attending the University of Oregon and North Texas State University.

Hadley Caliman / Pete Christlieb: Reunion

by Thomas Conrad
March 28, 2024

At the end of the first decade of the new millennium, one of the most gratifying developments in jazz is the late blossoming of Hadley Caliman. In 2008, at 76, he released Gratitude, his first recording as a leader in 31 years. It was followed in 2010 by Straight Ahead. They created a buzz on the jazz street. It is not just that he has lasted long enough to finally get the attention he deserves. Hadley Caliman is currently playing ...

Album Review

John Bishop / Bram Weijters / Piet Verbist: Antwerp

Read "Antwerp" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 25, 2023

Drummer John Bishop, the guy who runs Seattle's Origin Records, does not often put out records under his own name. There was Nothing If Not Something (Origin Records) in 2005, review here, and then nothing until the disc at hand, 2023's Antwerp. Not that Bishop has avoided the recording studio. He is, as a sideman, in fact quite prolific, sitting in on Hal Galper's string of rubato-style piano trio sets--one example: Trip the Light Fantastic (Origin Records, 2011), review here, ...

Album Review

Benjamin Boone: Caught in the Rhythm

Read "Caught in the Rhythm" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
September 28, 2023

The connection between poetry and jazz music is a delicate one. It has been documented so infrequently, in performance and recordings, that one still conjures the flicker of an image of Jack Kerouac reading in some dark Greenwich Village cafe with Steve Allen or Zoot Sims, surrounded by beret-wearing, cappuccino-sipping beatniks. The work of Fresno-based saxophonist Benjamin Boone has assisted in widening that view through four albums recorded for the Origin Records label, including the fourth, Caught in the Rhythm ...

Liner Notes

Hal Galper Trio: Trip the Light Fantastic

by Ken Dryden
April 30, 2023

This liner note assignment was very special to me, as it followed a phone interview that I did with Hal Galper that was a cover feature. Galper was ecstatic when it was published and called me one afternoon, exclaiming that the release date for his new CD was being moved up and he didn't have time to writer the liner notes, so he asked me if I was interested. With so much great material from the recent interview, all I ...

Album Review

Scenes: Variable Clouds: Live at the Earshot Jazz Festival

Read "Variable Clouds: Live at the Earshot Jazz Festival" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
December 1, 2022

Scenes'' first album dates back to 2001, but the origins of the band dates back to the early 1990s, when saxophonist Rick Mandyck, bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer John Bishop initiated a trio gig. On occasion guitarist John Stowell would drop in if he was off the road and in Seattle. The band that began as a trio reverted back to that format after that inaugural recording, this time Stowell in tow as Mandyck slipped into a decade-long hiatus from ...

Album Review

Scenes: Variable Clouds: Live at the Earshot Jazz Festival

Read "Variable Clouds: Live at the Earshot Jazz Festival" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
November 23, 2022

The group Scenes has released seven excellent albums over two decades of recording together, beginning with their eponymous debut (Origin Records, 2001). All of those are studio efforts. The group's 2022 outing, Variable Clouds is a first for Scenes--their first album recorded live in front of an audience, in 2021 at the Earshot Jazz Festival. This is a return to the group's original line-up. Saxophonist Rick Mandyck sat out for a time due to health problems, leaving Scenes ...

Album Review

Benjamin Boone: The Poets Are Gathering

Read "The Poets Are Gathering" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
December 31, 2020

Saxophonist Benjamin Boone continues his ambitious foray into jazz and poetry, this time recruiting an impressive cadre of poets for his aptly entitled release, The Poets are Gathering (Origin, 2020). The union of poetry and jazz has never been so powerfly presented, reflecting the past year of the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement, the universal role of the poet, and the power of art and voice to raise awareness and inspire change. The album employs the likes of US Poet ...

Website

Celebrating Origin Records at All About Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
December 21, 2021

Origin Records is a Seattle-based independent jazz label, run for musicians by musicians. Their expansive catalog over sibling labels Origin & OA2 Records, covers a wide range of jazz from an international collection of 370 artists. All About Jazz interviewed the founders John Bishop and Matt Jorgensen in 2018 and you can read their story here. Approaching their 25th year as a record label, readers can discover some of the very best in modern jazz by listening to any of ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Bishop

Source: Michael Ricci
April 5, 2014

All About Jazz is celebrating John Bishop's birthday today!

“One can hear many influences in Bishop’s playing, including more than a touch of Elvin, but he is clearly an original voice…” - Percussive Note One of the primary voices in Northwest Jazz for 30 years, drummer John Bishop has performed in concerts and clubs with Bobby McFerrin, Lee Konitz, Slide Hampton, Benny Golson, George Cables, Kenny Werner, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Joanne Brackeen, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow... Read more. ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Bishop

Source: Michael Ricci
April 5, 2013

All About Jazz is celebrating John Bishop's birthday today!

”...a wonderfully creative and fluid percussionist who weaves an often understated but complex web of textures...” - ALL ABOUT JAZZ One of the primary voices in Northwest Jazz for 30 years, drummer John Bishop has performed in concerts and clubs with Bobby McFerrin, Lee Konitz, Slide Hampton, Benny Golson, George Cables, Kenny Werner, Sonny Fortune, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Tom Harrell, Herb Ellis, Buddy DeFranco... Read more.

Place our Musician ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Bishop

Source:
April 5, 2012

All About Jazz is celebrating John Bishop's birthday today!

”...a wonderfully creative and fluid percussionist who weaves an often understated but complex web of textures...” - ALL ABOUT JAZZ One of the primary voices in Northwest Jazz for 25 years, John Bishop\'s drumming has complemented the performances of Bobby McFerrin, Lee Konitz, Sonny Fortune, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, George Cables, Carla Bley, Joanne Brackeen, Slide Hampton, Kenny Werner, Benny Golson, Steve Swallow...”...a wonderfully creative and fluid percussionist who weaves ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: John Bishop

Source:
April 5, 2011

Performance / Tour

Hal Galper, Jeff Johnson and John Bishop Play Birdland in NYC Tuesday Night

Source: Seattle Jazz Scene
February 23, 2010

"Deft-limbed, wildly eclectic, and renowned for his sympathetic ear, Seattle drummer John Bishop is a veritable jazz-renaissance man who, besides founding his own label (Origin Records), has supported legends such as Bobby McFerrin, Carla Bley, and Slide Hampton." -Bumbershoot Festival Guide "On this adventurous, open-ended trio outing, the Seattle-based drummer and founder of Origin Records forges an extraordinary, freewheeling chemistry with kindred spirits Jeff Johnson on bass and Rick Mandyck on alto sax. A ubiquitous figure on the northwest jazz scene, Bishop's first recording under his own name runs the gamut of dynamics from a spacious, hymnlike cover of Curtis Lundy's "Orange Blossom," underscored by Bishop's ultrasensitive brushwork, to an off-kilter funk number, Johnson's "Hurt Brothers," fueled by the drummer's insistent, slamming backbeats." -BILL MILKOWSKI (JazzTimes Review of "Nothing if Not Something") “The New Stories trio is likewise nothing less than extraordinary