A maverick guitar hero who could turn his hand to jazz, blues, rock and funk, Hiram Bullock was a highly sought-after session musician in the 1970s and '80s and a charismatic band leader who came to wider recognition as a key member of David Letterman's 'Late Show' group.

Born on a US army base in Osaka, Japan but raised in Baltimore, Bullock took up the guitar at 16 and studied jazz at the University of Miami, where he cut his teeth playing night clubs with disco diva Phylliss Hyman. As a session musician he spent his twenties playing with the likes of Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Chaka Khan and forming the 24th Street Band, who released three albums and evolved into one of New York's great jam bands. Paul Schaffer was so impressed by the group that he hired Bullock and two other members to join the 'Late Show' in 1982, and despite his wild lifestyle, Bullock quickly became a prominent figure who played bare footed and embarked on electric improvised solos.

He left the show to record the albums 'From All Sides' in 1986 and 'Give It What You Got' in 1987, and around that time also memorably recorded a blistering version of Jimi Hendrix's 'Little Wing' with Sting. He also created a swaggering Latin-funk meltdown on 'Carrasco', played with organ great Lonnie Smith on 'Late Night Talk' and was at his most raw on the confessional blues rocker 'Try Livin' It', and remained a flamboyant live performer and giant imposing figure. He recorded his final album 'Too Funky 2 Ignore' in 2005 and toured Japan where he was greatly loved for his work with the Miles Evans Orchestra, before succumbing to cancer. He died in 2008, aged 52.

Hiram Bullock

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