Shows?

Put these on your calendar in pencil!

Sept. 3: West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio (w/ Ellen Burr & Andrea Centazzo, playing Andrea’s music). Wende Museum. 5PM. free.

Sept. 11: West Coast Chamber Jazz Trio. Industry Cafe. 7PM. free.

Oct. 17: Santa Monica Symphony. John Adams Middle School. 3PM. free.

Oct. 23: Vicente Chamber Orchestra. Mozart piano concerti. First Presbyterian Church. 4PM. $10+

Oct. 30: Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble. Live score to Nosferatu. Art Theater. 7PM. $18.

Nov. 5: Jonathon Grasse’s Native Plant Society. Cal State Dominguez Hills. 7PM + live stream. free.

Dec. 11: Santa Monica Symphony. John Adams Middle School. 7:30PM. free.

Recovery?

I recently performed a short streaming show with Anna Homler for the 18th St. Arts Center:

Sea Change/ Sound Kitchen from 18th Street Arts Center on Vimeo.

Coming up this weekend, The Present Quartet (Ellen Burr, Anne LeBaron, Charles Sharp, and I) are recording with guest vocalists Bonnie Barnett, Vetza (of LAFMS fame), and Will Salmon. Product TBD.

The Santa Monica Symphony and Vicente Chamber Orchestra are scheduling 2021-22 seasons. Stay tuned…

Also, RIP Guido Lamell, music director of the Santa Monica Symphony. It was an honor to perform with him.

More Talk

I was recently interviewed by artist Elana Mann about the Soundwaves concert series I ran. This video is part of her residency at the 18th St. Art Center. I wish I hadn’t said “um” so much.

Hungry Ears: Jeff Schwartz from 18th Street Arts Center on Vimeo.

Talking About C.T.

I recently joined Volkan Terzioglu and Robert Reigle for two episodes of their radio show/podcast “Noise and Smoke.” Apparently the people of Turkey want to hear musical and social analysis of free jazz bootlegs, and thanks to the internet you can enjoy it too. Shows 1.22 and 1.23 are the three of us exploring the recording of Cecil Taylor’s November 1969 Berlin concert. It was an honor to be asked, and really fun to work on this. There may be more.

A Short Update

I contributed three videos of solo improvisations to the Deep Tones for Peace project.

My book Free Jazz: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge 2018) is now in paperback, so the price is now a bit more in reach.

I signed a contract to write a second book, also about free jazz, for a series on jazz styles that SUNY Press is launching in 2022.

If there is a third book, I’ll try to expand my range.

Stay safe!

2020 Wrap-Up

This is, predictably, the shortest year-end summary since I started doing them. I had ten in-person shows pre-COVID, and three online events and one socially-distanced outdoor one since. Here’s the tally:

Shows by Band:

Tie for 1st (two each): Collaborations with Ellen Burr, solo, The Present Quartet, Cal State Fullerton New Music Ensemble

Tie for 2nd (one each): Santa Monica Symphony, Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble, Vicente Chamber Orchestra, Opera Povera, Adam Snyder, Robert Reigle & Tim Feeney

Shows by Venue

Tie for 1st (two each): Industry Cafe & Jazz, California State University Fullerton, Facebook Live

Tie for 2nd (one each): SGI Auditorium, Vista Theater, First Presbyterian Church, Battery Books & Music, ArtShare-LA, Zoom, SunSpace, my neighbor’s front yard

News from Limbo

Not much to report, but since March I did participate in two very different online collaborations. There’s the Virtual Bass Ensemble:

and Sean Griffin’s production of Pauline Oliveros’ Full Pink Moon Opera:

Enjoy!

Product

Two new releases: Architecture/Battery from Trio Various, with Tracy McMullen (soprano and tenor saxophones), Rich West (drumset), and myself. A live gig plus a studio track. There may be an album of studio stuff eventually. We did this band for a few months in 2012 while Tracy had a postdoc at USC, and we each wrote for it. This is a band camp pay-what-you-want release, because it’s a slightly scruffy Zoom recording. I did minimal editing and mastering; I’m no wizard. If the studio stuff resurfaces that might be a real release…

The other thing is the video of the last show I did before the lockdown: March 6 at ArtShare-LA with The Present Quartet (Ellen Burr, Anne LeBaron, Charles Sharp, and myself). This was our first outing playing compositions. It’s short, because we were part of a sort-of Downtown arts revue. Hope you dig it…

Tacet

Everything for March and April is canceled. No performances, no Soundwaves, no Thirdsdays. In the words of the late great Jac Zinder, STAY HOME.

Meanwhile, you can watch videos from the last 5 years of Soundwaves on SoundwavesNewMusic.com. I just put up a wonderful Wayne Horvitz/Sara Schoenbeck duo show.

It’s probably also safe to order this new book I contributed to:

I may be able to prepare an online release or two during this hiatus, and I’m trying to do some meaningful practice, to finally apply some of what Mark Helias tried to teach me here:

This is also an opportunity to relax and slow down for a month or two. Hope to see you all soon.

Birthmonth

Some of my friends have taken to claiming the entire month of their birth for festivities. I tend to load mine up with even more action than usual, because one source of creativity is resistance to our mortality. Good times. Anyway, here’s the schedule:

• Feb. 6: presenting Steve Loza & Steven Isoardi talking about LA’s Central Avenue jazz scene and Gerald Wilson. Santa Monica Public Library. 7PM. Free.
• Feb. 8: panelist on “Improvising Composition” at the Society for Ethnomusicology California/Hawaii Chapter Meeting, UC Riverside, 11AM. Free.
• Feb. 9: moderator & panelist for “Prager on the Podium: What Happens When a Right-Wing Radio Host is Your Guest Conductor?” at the Society for Ethnomusicology California/Hawaii Chapter Meeting, UC Riverside, 11AM. Free.
• Feb. 20: playing improvised music with Kathleen Kim (violin), Alicia Byer (clarinet), and Alex Cline (percussion). The Industry Cafe & Jazz. 8PM. Free.
• Feb. 22: playing a live score to “Nosferatu” with the Jack Curtis Dubowsky Ensemble. Vista Theater. 10AM. $12.75-$20
• Feb. 22: playing Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Brahms with the Vicente Chamber Orchestra. First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica. 4PM. $10-$35.
• Feb. 23: playing Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane, Anthony Braxton, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, and Arthur Blythe with the Cal State Fullerton Improvisation Ensemble at SunSpace. 8PM. $TBD.
• Feb. 26: presenting Yves Charuest, Lisle Ellis, and Peter Valsamis. Soundwaves new music series. Santa Monica Public Library. 7:30PM. Free.
• Feb. 27: co-presenting Thomas Kotcheff, who will play and discuss excerpts from Frederic Rzewski‘s “Songs of Insurrection” as a preview of his Pianospheres show. Soundwaves new music series. Santa Monica Public Library. 7:30PM. Free.
• Feb. 29: Improvisation Symposium with the Cal State Fullerton Improvisation Ensemble and The Present Quartet (w/ Ellen Burr, Anne LeBaron, & Charles Sharp), plus Anthony Davis, Mark Dresser, and Michael Dessen. Cal State Fullerton New Music Festival.