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Bill Connors

Jazz guitarist Bill Connors is an accomplished performer whose finely developed musical sense and technical expertise have been honed over years of hard work and experience. Born in southern California in 1949, Connors began to play guitar at the age of fourteen. After three years of extensive self-study of the rock and blues influences that were his first inspiration, he began to play gigs around the Los Angeles area. He soon found his way to jazz, the music that would lead to a life-long commitment.

Connors moved to San Francisco in the early 1970's, where he met up with drummer and vibraphonist Glenn Cronkhite, who would introduce him to a new depth of jazz sounds and study. In those early years in the city by the bay, Connors played with numerous top-flight musicians, including Cronkhite, bassist Steve Swallow and pianists Art Lande and Mike Nock.

In 1973, after sitting in on a gig, Connors was signed on to Return to Forever, keyboardist and composer Chick Corea’s pioneering fusion group that featured bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White. Connors moved to New York and established himself on the national and international music scenes with the group, touring in Japan and Europe, and recording the now legendary Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy. Connors' playing with the group and on Hymn... spearheaded an unprecedented direction for guitar in jazz. In 1974, he left RTF, and began to explore the New York jazz and session scene, performing with guitarist John Abercrombie and keyboardist Jan Hammer, and recording with bassist Stanley Clarke.

Connors recorded his first solo album in 1974, Theme to the Gaurdian (ECM), making the switch from electric to acoustic guitar. At the same time, he began the next phase of his self-driven studies, taking it on himself to delve into transcriptions and studies of the works of classical guitarists. Two more recordings on acoustic guitar followed, 1977's Of Mist and Melting (ECM), with Connors as leader and on guitar, saxophonist Jan Garbarek, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette and then, in 1979, another solo effort by the guitarist, Swimming with a Hole in My Body (ECM).

During 1976 and 1977, Connors also recorded with Lee Konitz, Paul Bley and Jimmy Giuffre in New York. He toured Europe, performing with composers Luciano Berio and Cathy Berberian. Connors then returned to electric guitar, performing and recording with Jan Garbarek, Jack DeJohnette and John Taylor in 1977 (Places, ECM), with Garbarek, Taylor, Jon Christensen and Eberhard Weber in 1978 (Photo with Blue Sky, White Cloud, ECM), and with Tom Van Der Geld and Richard Jannotta in 1979 (Path, ECM).

Stanley Clarke: The Complete 1970s Epic Albums Collection

by John Kelman
February 29, 2012

Legacy Recordings' recent spate of Complete Albums Collection box sets have righted a whole slew of wrongs by bringing long out-of-print recordings back in a reasonably priced and tidily collected series. They may be relatively light on production values--simple clamshell-style boxes, mini-LP cardboard sleeves, and booklets whose information, beyond detailed track and personnel listings, is largely dependent upon how much the artist has to say, if anything at all--but the opportunity to collect an entire discography from a specific period ...

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Album Review

Return to Forever: Return to Forever: The Anthology

Read "Return to Forever: The Anthology" reviewed by Tom Greenland

by Tom Greenland
August 11, 2008

In support of their 2008 reunion tour, Concord Records has released Return to Forever: The Anthology, a selective overview of the quartet's classic 'middle period.' Formed by principal composer/keyboardist Chick Corea, RTF included bassist Stanley Clarke, drummer Lenny White and guitarists Bill Connors or Al DiMeola. An alumnus of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1969), inspired by Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, as well as Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Yes, Corea recorded two RTF albums with Clarke (a former compatriot ...

924

Extended Analysis

The Anthology

by John Kelman
June 5, 2008

One of the seminal fusion bands of the 1970s, keyboardist Chick Corea's Return to Forever, alongside like-minded but completely different groups including Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report, not only went to vinyl sales territory few jazz artists had gone before, but to arena tours more normally associated with big ticket rock groups. But the music of RTF was never meant to be intimate. The high velocity and high volume playing was far more fitting ...

179

Album Review

Bill Connors: Return

by Jim Santella
August 14, 2005

Combining light Latin smooth jazz with searing contemporary thrills, Bill Connors proves that he's been hard at work practicing, writing music, and studying since his last two albums, Double Up and Assembler, were recorded in the late 1980s. No sense in letting such great guitar chops get stale. With Return, he's able to turn it loose and demonstrate the same fiery technique that he displayed with Return to Forever in 1973-74 and later with a wider selection of contemporary jazz ...

178

Album Review

Bill Connors: Return

Read "Return" reviewed by Woodrow Wilkins

by Woodrow Wilkins
March 10, 2005

At first the guitar licks might bring Pat Metheny to mind. Then the overall sound may give the impression of a Chick Corea ensemble. Both impressions would be wrong--but not entirely. It's Bill Connors, a veteran who has recorded or performed with many modern jazz legends, including Jack DeJohnette, Steve Khan, and Lee Konitz. He's even spent time with Return to Forever, Corea's pioneering 1970s fusion group, and Dave Weckl, who toured and recorded with Corea's Elektric and Acoustic bands ...

241

Album Review

Bill Connors: Return

by John Kelman
January 25, 2005

A musical chameleon, guitarist Bill Connors has gone through at least three different incarnations in the past. As the first guitarist in Chick Corea's Return to Forever, Connors attracted attention for his stinging and passionate work on Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (Polydor, 1973). But no sooner had his star begun to rise than he left the band, the more aggressive fusion stance of the band being a far cry from the more Latin-informed group that he joined on the ...

Recording

Of Mist and Melting (ECM 1120)

Source: Between Sound and Space - An ECM Records Resource
February 12, 2011

Bill Connors Of Mist And Melting Bill Connors guitar Jan Garbarek saxophones Gary Peacock bass Jack DeJohnette drums Recorded December 1977, Talent Studio, Oslo Engineer: Jan Erik Kongshaug Produced by Manfred Eicher Three years after his astonishing acoustic turn on Theme To The Guardian and fresh from Jan Garbarek's Places session, guitarist Bill Connors returned as leader for this moody quartet, for which one could hardly ...
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Performance / Tour

Bill Connors to Join Corea, Clarke & White for September 2nd Hollywood Bowl Concert

Source: All About Jazz
June 26, 2009

It's official: pianist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White will be joined September 2nd by guest guitarist Bill Connors at the Hollywood Bowl kick-off gig of their fall tour. The band, now billed as Corea, Clarke & White, will also be joined by legendary violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and song stylist Chaka Khan.

Inspired by what his friend and fellow Miles Davis alumnus John McLaughlin was doing with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Corea originally brought Connors extraordinarily expressive electric guitar ...
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