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John Bishop

As a drummer, educator, record label owner, graphic designer, 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, Bobby Hutcherson, Ernestine Anderson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Sonny Fortune, Herb Ellis, Gary Peacock, Buddy DeFranco, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, and countless others. He’s appeared on more than 100 albums, including sessions with Hal Galper, Larry Coryell, Ernie Watts, Mark Murphy, Joe Locke, Bud Shank, George Cables, Ralph Towner, Teo Macero, and Jerry Bergonzi. He was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame in 2008 and was named a “Jazz Hero” by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2019.

In 1997, Bishop started the jazz label Origin Records, and OriginArts, a graphic design & CD production company, to help further the exposure of creative artists and their music. With the help of his ex-drum student, Matt Jorgensen, they have released over 800 recordings by 370 artists from around the world. Origin was named Jazzweek’s 2009 “Label Of The Year” and is regularly a DownBeat Magazine Reader’s Poll Top 20 Jazz Label. 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 850 CD packages and numerous 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 JazzCongress (NYC), JazzWeek (San Jose), JazzAhead (Bremen), Jazz Education Network, and occasionally, NAMM, PASIC, MIDEM (Cannes), and the Grammys.

Along with bassist Jeff Johnson, Bishop was a member of New York pianist Hal Galper’s Trio over the last 15 years, releasing 7 acclaimed albums and touring internationally. They also performed with Spanish pianist Chano Dominguez, including an appearance at the 60th Monterey Jazz Festival, and are members of the 25-year-old collective Scenes with guitarist John Stowell & saxophonist Rick Mandyck. Bishop has also toured Belgium and recorded 3 albums since 2009 with the Chad McCullough / Bram Weijters Group, a Belgian/American project. Bishop’s 2023 trio album “Antwerp,” was recorded in Belgium with Piet Verbist & Bram Weijters.

Born in Seattle and raised in Germany, Washington, DC, San Antonio and Eugene, Bishop started playing drums at 7 in Washington, DC with the Patriots drum corp. He performed professionally while attending high school and college in Oregon, and studied privately with Motown great, Mel Brown, at the University of Oregon with Charles Dowd, and with Ray Hair at North Texas State University. He moved to Seattle in 1981 for an extended engagement with the original jazz/fusion group Glider and never left. An unusually creative and fertile scene at the time, Seattle offered performances with top touring artists and the opportunity to create long and substantial musical relationships with inspired Northwest musicians.

In the early ’80s, he was a member of the fusion group Blue Sky, which released two Top 10 albums and performed extensively throughout the decade. For 20 years, he was with the piano trio New Stories along with pianist Marc Seales and bassist Doug Miller. They had 4 CDs of their own, 6 with be-bop saxophonist Don Lanphere, and a Grammy-nominated RCA release with Mark Murphy. They were regulars at Bud Shank’s Pt. Townsend Jazz Festival, headlined the 1993 JVC Jazz Festival in Vladivostok, Russia, and appeared in concerts with Tom Harrell, Julian Priester, Charles McPherson, Vincent Herring, Nick Brignola, Conte Condoli, Bobby Shew & Larry Coryell. They also performed around the country as a trio or touring with Mark Murphy, Ernie Watts or Don Lanphere. Their tune “Highway Blues,” from Speakin’ Out, was embedded as one of two music samples in Windows XP, which went on to sell 700 million units. Their 2014 recording, Hope is in the Air: the Music of Elmo Hope, was produced by Don Sickler & engineered by Rudy Van Gelder at his studio in NJ.

He’s taught drums privately since 1976 and was on faculty at the University of Washington from 2005-2009. He regularly does drum and jazz workshops throughout the country with the Hal Galper Trio, including events at the University of North Texas, University of Indiana, Dartmouth, Cal Arts, The New School, Purchase Conservatory-NYC, William Paterson University, University of Louisville, San Jose State University, The California Jazz Conservatory, and Kent State University. In 2018, Bishop co-founded The Real(ity) Book, a web-based, HD Video Play-Along education system for jazz musicians.

Bishop has also toured internationally with Buddy Greco, the McGuire Sisters, and the Harry James Orchestra, and performed with Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Bob Newhart, Rich Little, The Hi-Los, Frankie Avalon, the Drifters, the Coasters, the Platters, Pete Barbutti, and with Bobby McFerrin & the Seattle Symphony, among many others.

He has an understanding wife, 2 dogs & a cat, and drives Volvos exclusively…

Awards

"Jazz Hero," Jazz Journalist Association, 2019
Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame, 2008
JazzWeek "Label of the Year," 2009

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John Bishop: A Multi-Dimensional Journey in Jazz

by Paul Rauch
March 9, 2026

John Bishop has spent the past 50 years traversing a jazz landscape that has been in a state of constant change. The music has continued to evolve at a rate one might expect from art in general, while the business end of it has seen radical change that most would consider a state of de-evolution. As a jazz drummer, record label principal, and all-around entrepreneur, he has ridden the wave of massive change within a philosophical framework rooted in honesty, ...

Album Review

Jared Hall: Influences

Read "Influences" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
June 15, 2024

Jazz music has proliferated through generations traditionally by means of the oral tradition--meaning that knowledge is passed on by mentors, some by personal connection and others by more casual means. In modern times, this tradition lives alongside the jazz school phenomenon, where classrooms and studios incubate talent, while students inescapably still must pay their dues on the bandstand, playing with musicians that are more accomplished and more experienced. Trumpeter Jared Hall has for years straddled that fine line ...

Liner Notes

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 ...

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

“The set has a life-affirming, celebratory quality … Antwerp stands out as a blue-ribbon piano trio album, certainly one of the year’s finest.” Dan McClenaghan, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

“One can hear many influences in Bishop’s playing, including more than a touch of Elvin, but he is clearly an original voice…” – Percussive Arts Society

"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