Jeff Schwartz - ProfilesArchive

About Me

I play double bass and bass guitar.

I'm always looking for interesting playing situations in the LA area- drop me a note

regular groups include:

Surrealestate: improvised and experimental music co-op with variable personnel, including: Phil Curtis (guitar & laptop), Jonathon Grasse (guitar), David Martinelli (percussion & electronics), Ken Luey (reeds), Bruce Friedman (trumpet), Charles Sharp (reeds, cornet, percussion, etc.)Emily Hay (flute & voice), Robert Reigle (tenor sax), Gustavo Aguilar (percussion), David Borgo (reeds), Alan Lechusza (reeds), Andy Connell (reeds), Cristian Amigo (guitar), Nina Sun Eidsheim (voice & electronics), Douglas Wadle (trombone), Kaye Lubach (percussion), John Vallier (percussion), and others. MESTO the Multi-Ethnic Star Orchestra, playing "world music," with an emphasis on the Middle East Junk Science: avant-jazz and other mostly improvised musics with David Martinelli and Bruce Friedman Rich West's Homunculus, with Bruce Friedman, Dan Clucas (trumpet & flute), Lynn Johnston or Brian Walsh (reeds), and Emily Beezhold or Ben Rosenbloom (keyboards). solo bass improvisation The Watts Ensemble: chamber big band playing Third Stream/film music-inspired orignals. duo with Bruce Friedman Melic Sub Rosa : improv power trio with Darryl Kanouse and Pat Palma

I'm also the author of a biography of Albert Ayler, assorted journal articles and conference papers on music, cultural studies, and libraries, and am adapting my dissertation: New Black Music: Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and Jazz, 1959-1965 into a book.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 26/05/2006
Band Website: http://www.geocities.com/jeff_l_schwartz
Influences:

teachers: David H. Young (classical), Jennifer Leitham (jazz), Paul Rinzler (UCSC jazz ensembles), Joe Nazaretta (Culver City junior high & high school band director), Elaine Barkin (UCLA experimental music ensemble), John Butcher, Gino Robair, Ellen Burr, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Benoit Delbecq, Raymond Strid, and Wolfgang Fuchs (improvisation workshops)

bass icons: Mike Watt, Peter Kowald, David Izenzon, Joel Quarrington, Maarten Altena, Gary Peacock, Barry Guy, Barre Phillips, Jaco Pastorius, Bertram Turetzky, Drew Gress, Stefano Scodanibbio, Torsten Muller, Mark Dresser, Lynn Seaton, NHOP, Bill Laswell, Ken Filiano, Joelle Leandre, etc.

bands and composers: Joni Mitchell, LaMonte Young, Merzbow, Anthony Braxton, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Hank Roberts, Howling Wolf, Prince, Pierre Boulez, Captain Beefheart, Patti Smith, Miles Davis, X, P-Funk, Steely Dan, Cecil Taylor, Scelsi, Evan Parker, and so on.

Record Label: Redline Park
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

from meat to skin

Last year the Culver City Meat Company left Culver City. I'm a vegetarian, so I shouldn't have any positive feelings about a commercial butcher, but I would drive by there every day on my way to work ...
Posted by on Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:43:00 GMT

Getty Jazz Conference

I tried to post this as a comment on Downbeast's coverage but it didn't go through. Maybe it was too long. Anyway, here is my relatively quick & chatty take on the first half of first day of the Getty...
Posted by on Mon, 03 Dec 2007 09:46:00 GMT

Jerash gig

I'm off to Jordan July 25 to play a couple of shows with MESTO (www.mesto.org). Should be quite an adventure. I'm starting to prepare, getting together clothes, books, etc, and I visited the website f...
Posted by on Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:49:00 GMT

MESTO Videos

Two clips of MESTO (the Multi-Ethnic STar Orchestra) can now be seen at http://www.mesto.org/videos/index.shtml I think these are from last year's gig at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall. One original by our l...
Posted by on Sun, 27 May 2007 14:19:00 GMT

New Song

Now playing - a version of Christian Wolff's "Exercise #3" (1973) by Junk Science (Bruce Friedman-trumpet, David Martinelli-percussion, and me) at a rehearsal at Bruce's house. Neither an audiophile r...
Posted by on Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:27:00 GMT

Making Records

Monday night is the first session for Rich West's next CD. I'm stoked about it. Some rehearsal clips are on Soundclick, if you'd like a preview. Brian Walsh (clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor sax), Dan C...
Posted by on Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:15:00 GMT

100 Guitars

I got to work today and popped disc three of the Velvet Underground "Bootleg Series Vol. 1" (will there ever be more volumes?) in my CD drive. Lou strums the first chord of "Rock & Roll," listens to t...
Posted by on Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:32:00 GMT

Most Significant Musican of the 20th Century

Saturday night I went to Kenny Burrell's 75th birthday concert at UCLA. Burrell, introducing a solo rendition of "A Single Petal of a Rose," described Duke Ellington as the most significant musician o...
Posted by on Mon, 04 Dec 2006 09:47:00 GMT

Standards

On Talk Bass there's a long-running thread about giving up the Real Book, learning to play standards from memory or by ear, rather than using sheet music. John Clayton, who's one of Ray Brown's main d...
Posted by on Mon, 11 Sep 2006 11:06:00 GMT

new song

So, I finally got some normal-ish bass playing on here - about 5 minutes of me playing around with "St. James Infirmary." If that tune isn't old enough to be in the public domain, I am considering doi...
Posted by on Sat, 03 Jun 2006 17:21:00 GMT