Jazz musician Bill Heid to perform at Joey's in Export

Bill Heid can remember being in his father’s studio, George Heid Productions, and seeing famous musicians like Billy Strayhorn, Henry Mancini and George Benson walk through its doors to record.

“A lot of the Pittsburgh jazz greats recorded their first demo at my dad’s studio,” said Heid, who has been playing jazz and blues and touring the world for nearly the past six decades, and who will play a solo show April 16 at Joey’s the Edge in Export. “When I was young, we’d listen to Porky Chedwick on WAMO-FM, and he played ‘authentic’ rock ’n’ roll but also old R&B, ‘jump’ records, Chicago blues. And that was some of my earliest exposure to that music.”

Heid, who grew up in the South Hills, began life as a professional musician in 1965, playing at primarily Black jazz clubs in Pittsburgh.

“The Hill District had the Hurricane Bar on Centre, which mostly featured organ groups, and the Crawford Grill No. 2 on Wylie (Avenue) always featured piano groups,” Heid said. “Coltrane, Miles Davis, a lot of the greats played at those places, and also a lot of local groups with guys like me.”

From the mid-1970s to the mid-‘80s, Heid was based out of Chicago, where he recorded with some of the city’s blues greats like Son Seals, Koko Taylor and Fenton Robinson.

In 2000, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he formed a group that became part of the U.S. State Department’s Jazz Ambassadors program, touring Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia in 2002, and returning a year later for an extended tour.

“It was hard work,” Heid said. “In the daytime, you did these clinics and jammed with other musicians, do question-and-answer sessions, then at night you’d perform.”

In addition to performing in Export, Heid also has some Westmoreland County connections of his own.

“My mother was born in Jeannette, and my grandparents lived in Claridge,” he said. “I remember being in Westmoreland County, reading the Jeannette News Dispatch and going to picnics at Bushy Run.”

Below, see a July 2021 performance recorded in Michigan.

On April 16 at Joey’s, Heid will be performing a solo show.

“My favorite part of playing live is getting the crowd into it,” he said. “Most places you work, you have a lot of people making noise. It’s very rare to have a quiet audience.

”I really love places where you can hear a pin drop, where I can talk about songs and engage the audience. But for the most part, if you can get people to dig it, so much the better.”

Heid will perform from 7-10 p.m., April 16 at Joey’s the Edge, 5904 Washington Avenue in Export. There is no cost to attend.