Although Bullock is actually American, he was born in Osaka, Japan (the son of a CIA agent) on September 11, 1955, and didn't come to the U.S. until he was a two-year-old toddler. As a child, he learned to play piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland, and gave his first concert at the age of six. At eleven, he learned to play the saxophone, switching to the bass guitar at the beginning of his high school years, with his first gigs in rock bands. At 16, he moved up to the guitar to, by his own admission, "meet more girls." Hiram attended music conservatory in Miami, where he studied with Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius, and where he met many of the musicians he would later play with throughout his career as a professional musician. At one of his regular nightclub gigs in Florida, he played with singer Phyllis Hyman, who brought Hiram to New York in the mid-seventies. After arriving in the Big Apple, he started playing with David Sanborn and the Brecker Brothers before forming the 24th Street Band, with Steve Jordan on drums, Clifford Carter on keyboards and bassist Mark Egan, who was later replaced by Will Lee. This formation had enthusiastic followings in Japan and released two records there, the second of which was co-produced by keyboardist Paul Schaffer. Later, when Schaffer put together a house band for the "David Letterman Show" on NBC television, he called on Bullock, Jordan and Lee from the 24th Street Band to play with them on the late night talk show, which first aired in 1981. Another important relationship was with producer Phil Ramone, who recruited Hiram for a succession of gold and platinum best-selling albums by pop stars Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Kenny Loggins. Hiram also appears in numerous credits on recordings by the Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn, Jaco Pastorius, Pete Townsend, Bob James, Chaka Khan, James Taylor, Steely Dan, Sting, James Brown, Miles Davis, Barbra Streisand, Burt Bacharach, Roberta Flack, Spyro Gyra, Eric Clapton and Al Green. In the mid-1980s, Bullock played in the house band on the television show "Saturday Night Live," and in 1985 he released his first record as a bandleader, called First Class Vagabond. The fusion-heavy From All Sides followed in 1986, Give It What U Got appeared in 1987, and then Way Kool in 1992, all on Atlantic Jazz. Two works with bassist and longtime collaborator Will Lee and drummer Clint DeGanon - 1994's World of Collision and 1996's live album Manny's Car Wash, both for Big World Music - marked the apex of Hiram's fretboard wizardry and his carefree lack of inhibition in a highly energetic rock trio. His most jazz-laden disc was 1996's Late Night Talk, a detached organ session featuring the great Dr. Lonnie Smith on Hammond B-3, Idris Muhammad on drums, Joe Locke on vibraphone and Ed Howard on bass. Carrasco - released in 1997 - was his homage to Latin music, while 2000's Guitar Man album represented a return to his rock-fusion roots. With 2001's Color Me, Bullock began to reveal his prolific songwriting disposition and penchant for pop hooks. He took another big step in that direction in 2003 with Try Livin' It, which he now spices up with a hefty pinch of soul at the tender age of 50. Hiram is a musical heavyweight and truly "Too Funky 2 Ignore."