Biography
A fixture on the New York City studio scene for many years, guitarist Hiram Bullock demonstrated equal command across rock & roll, jazz, and avant-garde settings. He also issued multiple solo albums that delved into funk and fusion, yet he is most widely recalled as an original member of the house band assembled for Late Night with David Letterman. Born in Osaka, Japan, on September 11, 1955, to U.S. military parents, he was raised in Baltimore, where he took piano lessons at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and gave his debut recital at age six. During adolescence he also became proficient on saxophone and bass before turning to guitar at sixteen. Enrolled as a music major at the University of Miami, he studied jazz alongside Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius while earning income through nightclub work on South Beach.
After accompanying vocalist Phyllis Hyman on tour, he relocated with her to New York City, where he swiftly gained notice among the city’s jazz insiders for both his technical mastery and a theatrical approach to performance drawn from rock traditions, most visibly his habit of moving far into the audience while soloing. Engagements alongside saxophonist David Sanborn and the Brecker Brothers raised his standing further, after which he helped form the fusion ensemble the 24th Street Band with keyboardist Clifford Carter, bassist Mark Egan, and drummer Steve Jordan. The quartet cut three Columbia albums; bassist Will Lee replaced Egan for the 1980 release Share Your Dreams, which keyboardist Paul Shaffer produced while serving as musical director for NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
Although the 24th Street Band attracted strong support in Japan, Bullock continued to sustain himself in the United States primarily as a first-call sideman. Beyond jazz dates with Sanborn, Idris Muhammad, and Bob James, his credits encompass some of the era’s most meticulously crafted pop releases, notably Billy Joel’s The Stranger and Steely Dan’s Aja. When Shaffer became musical director of the new NBC program Late Night with David Letterman in 1982, he recruited Bullock, Lee, and Jordan for the house band. Performing barefoot on the Letterman stage, Bullock reached the peak of his public recognition, yet escalating drug problems soon damaged his dependability and prompted his departure after two years. He recovered momentum by touring with Carla Bley and Gil Evans and contributed his best-known solo to a reading of the Jimi Hendrix classic “Little Wing” on Sting’s Nothing Like the Sun.
Bullock joined Atlantic in 1986 for From All Sides, the opening entry in a dozen albums issued under his own name. Standouts from that catalog include the groove-oriented Way Kool, Late Night Talk, a collaboration with Hammond B-3 master Lonnie Smith, and the jazz-rock set Try Livin’ It, which featured his original composition “After the Fall,” a reflection on his prolonged struggle with addiction. Following his last studio recording, 2005’s Too Funky 2 Ignore, he received a cancer diagnosis yet achieved complete remission, an outcome he marked by joining the Miles Evans Orchestra for a tour of Japan. Several years afterward he died of undisclosed causes on July 25, 2008, at age fifty-two.
After accompanying vocalist Phyllis Hyman on tour, he relocated with her to New York City, where he swiftly gained notice among the city’s jazz insiders for both his technical mastery and a theatrical approach to performance drawn from rock traditions, most visibly his habit of moving far into the audience while soloing. Engagements alongside saxophonist David Sanborn and the Brecker Brothers raised his standing further, after which he helped form the fusion ensemble the 24th Street Band with keyboardist Clifford Carter, bassist Mark Egan, and drummer Steve Jordan. The quartet cut three Columbia albums; bassist Will Lee replaced Egan for the 1980 release Share Your Dreams, which keyboardist Paul Shaffer produced while serving as musical director for NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
Although the 24th Street Band attracted strong support in Japan, Bullock continued to sustain himself in the United States primarily as a first-call sideman. Beyond jazz dates with Sanborn, Idris Muhammad, and Bob James, his credits encompass some of the era’s most meticulously crafted pop releases, notably Billy Joel’s The Stranger and Steely Dan’s Aja. When Shaffer became musical director of the new NBC program Late Night with David Letterman in 1982, he recruited Bullock, Lee, and Jordan for the house band. Performing barefoot on the Letterman stage, Bullock reached the peak of his public recognition, yet escalating drug problems soon damaged his dependability and prompted his departure after two years. He recovered momentum by touring with Carla Bley and Gil Evans and contributed his best-known solo to a reading of the Jimi Hendrix classic “Little Wing” on Sting’s Nothing Like the Sun.
Bullock joined Atlantic in 1986 for From All Sides, the opening entry in a dozen albums issued under his own name. Standouts from that catalog include the groove-oriented Way Kool, Late Night Talk, a collaboration with Hammond B-3 master Lonnie Smith, and the jazz-rock set Try Livin’ It, which featured his original composition “After the Fall,” a reflection on his prolonged struggle with addiction. Following his last studio recording, 2005’s Too Funky 2 Ignore, he received a cancer diagnosis yet achieved complete remission, an outcome he marked by joining the Miles Evans Orchestra for a tour of Japan. Several years afterward he died of undisclosed causes on July 25, 2008, at age fifty-two.
Albums
Hiram Bullock Plays The Music Of Jimi Hendrix
2009
Late Night Talk
1997
Way Kool
1992
Give It What U Got
1987
From All Sides
1986
Live
