Guy Schwartz

Guy Schwartz (born 1952) is an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, videographer, music journalist and media activist, most known for his collaborative involvement with other Texas musicians.

Career

Music

Schwartz began taking piano lessons and doing voice work on radio commercials at age five. The crew assembled to record spots for his father's furniture store in Newark, New Jersey, included the voice of Pat Canal, a local DJ on a 'race-music' station (who later became the first black network announcer), and two teenagers who wrote (Don Kirshner) and sang (Bobby Darin) the jingles. Schwartz credits the witnessing of Darin's rise on the music charts as his primary inspiration for a lifetime in music. At ten, after his family moved to Houston, Texas in 1962, he switched to drums, then bass at 15. He attended Houston's Memorial High School and was classmates with Vince Bell, and Bill Browder. In 1966, as a fourteen-year-old, Schwartz met vocalist Ray Salazar and began gigging at Old Market Square in downtown Houston, at all-night clubs and dancehalls in Texas and southern Louisiana, and on the east Texas soul circuit. Schwartz did some of his early basswork behind Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, BW Stephenson and Blaze Foley. While a featured vocalist with Pete Samson & Roadmap in 1973, Schwartz met recording studio manager Roger Tausz and began his recording career and a lifelong association with Tausz. Using Roadmap as a studio band, Schwartz recorded four songs, including 'Ride That Train', which broke onto local, the regional radio, and 'I Found God At A Truckstop', which was recorded by many, including Pete Samson & Kinky Friedman, but only released by Samson & Schwartz. These small successes gave Schwartz the credibility and momentum on which he built his regional music career. In 1976, Schwartz co-founded the band RELAYER, who only released one (RELAYER - 1977) of the three albums they recorded, but, found an underground prog-rock audience in the US and parts of Europe (partially thanks to the guitar work of Michael Knust from the Texas band Fever Tree, and the similarity of the band's name with that of an album by British prog-rockers, Yes). In 1978, Schwartz released his first solo album, featuring collaborations with two dozen Texas musicians with whom he performed live (on guitar for the first time) in a loosely-knit group called Guy Schwartz & The Zap Rhythm Band, including Knust, Tausz, Tony Braunagel and Billy Block, each of whom found careers in music. In 1980, Schwartz teamed with Randy Soffar and formed Z-ROCKS, a new-wave power-pop band that had 3 minor regional hits Fueled by touring with the likes of Duran Duran, Todd Rundgren and Huey Lewis and The News. After their first album was added to over 200 radio stations across the US, it was reviewed as 'too derivative'. Z-ROCKS never released its second album and soon faded. From 1987-1997, Schwartz recorded and toured as a sideman, and went back to school (University of Houston) to study video production and digital media to keep up with the new digital music business. In 1997, Tausz & Schwartz reunited to update and remix that first solo album, and went on to record another two dozen albums together, forming a band, THE NEW JACK HIPPIES, which toured the US and western Europe from 1999 until 2004, and still performs regionally in Texas. Schwartz tours as a solo, and performs on tour with other bands in their locales. Schwartz' repertiore includes rock songs, blues, funk and americana, with a bit of humor and songs AbOUT [...] thrown in for good measure.

Video & Film

Guy Schwartz & Marlo Blue have produced, and Schwartz has directed several films and television series based upon the careers and live performances of Texas musicians and the Texas music scene, as seen through Schwartz' events, concerts and ad-hoc unconventional touring.

Directing concert films on Billy Joe Shaver, Mr. Scarface and Carolyn Wonderland, as well as films about SOUTH BY DUE EAST and Schwartz' own New Jack Hippies, Schwartz, Blue & their SIRIUS HIPPIES PRODUCTIONS have created three successful TV series - 'Hippies.TV' (10th season), 'SOUTH BY DUE EAST TELEVISION'(4th season), and 'Guy Schwartz' Road Journal'(3rd season)

Community Events & Activism

Guy Schwartz has served 5 elected terms on The Harris County Democratic Party Executive Committee, was a founding volunteer at Houston's Pacific Radio station KPFT, founding the first 'local music' program on the station in 1975, and has been ACTIVE in movements to legalize [...] and protect consumers and the middle class. He and Marlo Blue shoot & record bands and musicians at SOUTH BY DUE EAST (a Guerilla Marketing Experiment, Movie Shoot, & Indie Music Festival in Houston, Texas, USA.) every March since 2003, making TV shows, indie films, radio shows, podcasts and compilation CDs, and put them out there to promote the artists, and the Houston, Texas, USA original music community. They say that they "give the artists free video and mixed audio and hope it helps."

Discography

Filmography

Feature-Length

• GOTTA KEEP THE MUSIC ALIVE - New jack Hippies On Tour, 2002
• BLOODLESS REVOLUTION:Carolyn Wonderland In Amsterdam, 2004
• THE FORMALDEHYDE FUNKMEN LIVE 1.23.2005 starring Mr. Scarface, 2005
• Billy Joe Shaver: North Carolina 2006, 2007
• BLUESGUY'S ROCK-N-ROLL HOUSE PARTY, 2007
• PERFORMANCES, 2007
• SOUTH BY DUE EAST 2007, 2008
• Guy Schwartz' Guide To Jams & Open Mics. 2008

TV

• Hippies.TV - 10th Season
• SOUTH BY DUE EAST Television - 4th Season
• Guy Schwartz' Road Journal - 3rd Season
• MUSICeveryMARCH - 2 Seasons