Born in Pittsburgh, keyboard/vocalist Bill Heid has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, South America, Europe, and the Far East, including a three year stay in Japan. From 1965 through the mid-70's, he worked the Hammond B-3 organ "chitlin clubs" with his own groups and with jazz greats such as Sonny Stitt, David "Fathead" Newman, Grachan Monchur, Mickey Roker, Joe Dukes, Roger Humphries, Rodney Whitaker, Robert Hurst, Grant Green, Jimmy Ponder, Bruce Foreman, and Henry Johnson, appearing on two Johnson albums for MCA/Impulse. From 1975 to 1984, based in Chicago, Bill toured with blues greats Jimmy Witherspoon, John Lee Hooker, Son Seals, and Fenton Robinson, playing on two albums with Robinson, two with KoKo Taylor, and another with Roy Buchanan for Alligator Records. From 1963 through 1996, Heid pursued another "career" of sorts. He hitchhiked in the 48 continental states, Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and to the Thailand/Cambodia border, earning a place in the Guinness Book Of World Records. Accurately documenting exactly 400,000 miles, he told of some of his adventures on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1985. From 1984 through 1999, Heid lived and worked in Detroit, appearing on numerous records with Detroit blues artists Johnnie Bassett, Joe Weaver, and Alberta Adams, which included sessions for Fedora, Cannonball, and Black Magic Records, and two European tours. In 2000, He relocated to Washington, DC and in 2002, his group toured Viet Nam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia as Jazz Ambassadors for the U.S. State Department, returning to those countries for an extended tour a year later, then backed vocalist Jay Klum on another Ambassadors tour to five African countries in 2004. Between 1996 and 2003, Bill recorded five organ group CDs for the Savant label and a piano trio CD for Doodlin' Records in early 2007. His keyboard work can also be heard on European TV and films and in the U.S. on PBS television and NBC's Dateline show. ---Pete Fallico, KUSP Radio, Santa Cruz, Calif.
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--------------------------------------Discography as leader:
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Muse/Westside CD #2007 This Is My Rifle
Savant CD #2009 Bop Rascal
Savant CD #2018 Wet Streets
Black Magic CD #9042 We Play The Blues
Fedora CD #5004 Bassett Hound
Savant CD #2033 Dark Secrets
Corgiville CD #0001 More Bang For The Buck
Corgiville CD #0002 Blues By Myself
Corgiville CD #0003 Blues Plus
Savant CD #2041 Da Girl
Doodlin CD #0002 Air Mobile
