Collection: Walter Bishop Jr.

Walter Bishop Jr. grew up in Harlem's Sugar Hill neighbourhood, the son of Walter Bishop Sr., a Jamaican-American songwriter who had collaborated with Fats Waller and whose own song "Swing, Brother, Swing" was recorded by Billie Holiday with Count Basie. His teenage circle included Kenny Drew, Sonny Rollins and Art Taylor, and after army service he returned to Manhattan in 1947 and became a regular at Minton's Playhouse alongside Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. He played and recorded with Charlie Parker on the later Verve sessions and with "Bird's Quintet and Bird with Strings," with Miles Davis on the seminal 1951 Dig session alongside Jackie McLean, Sonny Rollins and Art Blakey, and with Art Blakey, Oscar Pettiford and Stan Getz across the early 1950s. His debut as a leader came only in the early 1960s, with a trio session for Prestige that eventually appeared as "Speak Low" (1961), featuring Jimmy Garrison on bass. A West Coast period in the late 1960s produced the Black Jazz album "Coral Keys" (1971) alongside session work with Supersax and Blue Mitchell. He returned to New York, studied at Juilliard, wrote "A Study in Fourths," an instruction book on jazz improvisation, and began teaching at the University of Hartford in the early 1980s. He performed a solo concert at Carnegie Hall in 1983.