My favorite blues pianist is back with a blast!

The last time I saw Bill was in JZ Club in Hangzhou about 6 months ago. I regret I never had the chance to really talk to him in depth about some musical rantings and sarcasm that I used have on his backyard outside his residence in Bethesda, MD. Not to mention the endless gigs I had with Bill in the US Post Office and BMW conventions in Maryland. We've been through so much. He taught me everything about the blues.

Unfortunately, in JZ Club, he was playing on his Nord (usually his shining instrument) with nice drummer Al Gordon and one of my favorite saxophonists Lyle Link. But the BA singer really stinked and I was quite overthrown by her starting to sing James Brown, Stevie Wonder and Temptations tunes, albeit not up to standard. I was thinking to myself, did I come to Hangzhou for this? I came to Hangzhou wanting to hear some swinging vicious blues by Bill Heid. I did manage to sit in with the band, but the vibe just wasn't there, and it had a lot to do with the tasteless Hangzhou crowds who went to JZ to have pseudo-intellectual conversations amongst themselves instead of giving respect to the wonderful musicians (minus one) up there on the stage.

Despite all this, when I saw that Bill Heid had a new release out, I was more than thrilled. In HK, I haven't played this kind of blues for a very long time. This is the blues I grew up listening to and loving, but very few pianists in HK can carry the zest (Jezrael and Jason Cheng being the exceptional cases). Check out the reviews from Downbeat Magazine:-

Check out the reviews on In a Blue Mood and Blues Blast Magazine.

Check out the mp3s.

Needless to say, Bill Heid is back and stronger than ever! This inspires me to play the blues the way it is supposed to play.

All I can say is, I'm back too! Deep down inside, I'm a bluesman, and Bill Heid certainly made me realize that!

You dig!