Bill Connors

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Born (Sep 24 ,1949 Los Angeles, CA), a legato technique master, Bill Connors Equally adept at acoustic and electric guitar, he has successfully played jazz-rock, free and fusion material in the '70s and '80s. His best solos have been in the jazz-rock genre, where his use of distortion and electronics has been balanced by fine phrasing and intelligent solos. His great moment of fame occurred when he was with Chick Corea's Return to Forever from 1973 to 74, recording Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy. in 1974 he quit Return to forever and has been replaced by the young influental fusion and flamenco guitar master Al Di Meola His decision to leave Return to forever to concentrate more on acoustic guitar may have been satisfying artistically but since then he cut it short at commercial success.

Previously he had played electric guitar with Mike Nock and Steve Swallow in San Francisco but his post-1974 work has been primarily acoustic, particularly in the 1970s when he recorded a series of atmospheric albums for ECM (including with Jan Garbarek). In the mid-'80s recording for Pathfinder Connors' music became more rock-oriented but those releases were not successful as the return to forever days , he returned back in 2005 with Return with fusion behind his back he played Post-Bop sounding like Kenny Burrell.

Discography

Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy (1973) With Return to Forever

Theme To The Guardian (1974)

Of Mist And Melting (1977)

Swimming With A Hole In My Body (1979)

Step It (1984)

Double Up (1986)

Assembler (1987)

Return (2005)

Bill Connors speaks, others speak on bill

"It's hard to overlook the early Return to Forever or the Stanley Clarke debut solo recording, but.. again sentiment has taken over...but here is truly the FIRST guitarist to play fusion with a KILLER 'rock' guitar sound". - Steve Kahn

"The reason I use a Les Paul is because it has a function. It doesn't have a traditional sound, but it's rapidly becoming a tradition."

"I'd been playing for about four years and suddenly had an overnight change. I didn't want to be a blues guitarist anymore. I began listening to people like Bill Evans, Jim Hall, Wes Montgomery, [bassist] Scott LaFaro, Miles Davis, John Coltrane -- anyone who had a 'jazz' label. Django Reinhardt really got to me. The first time I heard one of his records, I thought that was just what I wanted to be. He had all the fire, creativity, and energy that rock players have today. And the amazing purity of his melodies -- you just knew they came from a totally instinctive place."

"Chick was my hero. I wanted to be Chick Corea on guitar. I didn't know him, but whenever I really wanted to get off on music I'd play some of his piano solos and Return To Forever songs. I heard that Chick was looking for a guitarist. Steve encouraged me to call Chick, and though I was very nervous, I did, and he invited me to come over to the club where he was working and sit in. I was so scared that I almost turned him down. But after running around and saying to everyone, 'Guess who I'm going to play with tonight,' and everyone telling everyone else, all this energy was formulating -- and I took to my room and practiced my ass off."

"SOMETIMES I FEEL like I deserted my own boat," Bill Connors explains, surrounded by guitars in his loft in New York's Chelsea district. "When I got out of Return To Forever in 1974, I threw the concept of fusion out for myself -- I figured by '76 or '77 it'd be totally dead. But then all these guitarists came up sounding like me, doing things that I was trying to do. In the last two years, I've decided that there was something about what we were trying to do that I want to do again, that I *feel* again. Bad timing, huh?"

"I had my Wes Montgomery period where I played with my thumb and I put flat wounds on my Les Paul. [Laughs] I had Wes on my brain, you know. I had to go through all these things, and usually someone would tell me, "Hey, stop doing that."

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