He learned piano, trumpet, and tuba when he was young, and also played flugelhorn and mellophone.
He attended Hendrix College and played professionally with the Louisiana Ramblers in 1927, including in Mexico.
[1] Bishop played with Mart Britt, Al Katz, and Austin Wylie before joining Isham Jones's band for five years.
He was a founding member of Woody Herman's band in the 1930s, but he contracted tuberculosis in 1940 and had to leave the group.
He quit music and opened a store in Saranac Lake, New York, and later retired to Texas.