Brian Swartz

Trumpet, Vocals, Composer, Arranger, Instructor

Los Angeles, CA

Trumpeter Brian Swartz is a diverse musician with a wide range of influences. He has appeared on multiple Grammy® nominated and winning recordings with artists including The Dixie Chicks' Double Platinum "Taking the Long Way" which won 5 Grammy® Awards, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year in February 2007, John Beasley's Monk'estra which has garnered 6 Grammy® Nominations for it's 3 albums and 1 Grammy® Win for Beasley's arrangement of "Donna Lee," The Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Scott Healy's Tentet and Kim Richmond's Concert Jazz Orchestra. He has also performed or recorded with The Goo Goo Dolls, Michael Bublé, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, Robin Thicke, Saint Motel, Patti Labelle, Natalie Cole, Dianne Reeves, Ivan Lins, Tom Harrell, Chucho Valdés, Brad Mehldau, Rickie Lee Jones, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The O’Jays, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Azar Lawrence, Buddy Montgomery, Joe Henry, Keb' Mo', Jackie Greene, Josie Cotton, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Gerry Gibbs, Connie Han, Taylor Eigsti, Raya Yarbrough, Bob Florence, The Luckman Jazz Orchestra, Francisco Aguabella, The Los Angeles Jazz Collective, Jose Rizo’s Jazz on the Latin Side All Stars and many more. Since 2005, Swartz has proudly held the trumpet chair in Oingo Boingo Former Members.

Brian Swartz has released five jazz albums as a leader: "There’s Only Me" (Noir Records 2000), "Live at the Jazz Bakery" (Summit Records 2005), "Three" (Summit Records 2006) and "Portraiture" (Summit Records 2014), "To Be With You" (DistroKid 2020). As an arranger, Brian has written for his own big band, Ruthie Foster's 2021 Grammy® Nominated "Live at the Paramount," the Ron Jones Influence Orchestra and has served as staff arranger for The Luckman Jazz Orchestra, John Beasley’s Monk’estra, Oingo Boingo Former Members and the ABC TV show, "Duets." Brian's film credits include the 2012 Oscar® Winning Animated Feature "Rango," Jennifer Anniston's "The Break-Up," "The Cooler" starring William H. Macy and "Let Them All Talk" with Meryl Streep. In 2021, Brian appeared with John Beasley's Quintet on the Amazon Prime TV show 'Bosch," Season 7, Episode 1.

Awards

Brian Swartz has performed on the following Grammy Nominated/Winning albums:

"Taking the Long Way"

The Dixie Chicks

Winner of 4 Grammys including Album of the Year 2007

"Hudson City Suite"

Scott Healy Tentet

Scott Healy - Grammy Nomination for best instrumental composition 2014.

"Artisty"

Kim Richmond Concert Jazz Orchestra

Kim Richmond - Grammy Nomination for best arrangement 2014.

"The L.A. Treasures Project"

The Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra

Grammy Nomination for best large jazz ensemble 2015.

"John Beasley Presents Monk'estra Vol. 1"

John Beasley's Monk'estra Big Band

Grammy Nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2017

John Beasley - Grammy Nomination for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella 2017

"John Beasley Presents Monk'estra Vol. 2"

John Beasley's Monk'estra Big Band

Grammy Nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2018

John Beasley - Grammy Nomination for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella 2018

"Monk'estra Plays John Beasley"

John Beasley's Monk'estra Big Band

Grammy Nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2020

John Beasley - Grammy Nomination for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella 2020

2009 John Lennon Songwriting Contest

Brian Swartz was the Grand Prize Winner - Jazz Category - Session II - "Down With Downs"

Gear

Brian Swartz plays Cannonball Trumpets and Bob Reeves Mouthpieces.

Lauren White: Making It Up As We Go Along

Read "Making It Up As We Go Along" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
March 9, 2024

With this, her fifth album, Los Angeles-based Renaissance lady, Lauren White offers eleven intriguing selections across a range of styles and sources, backed up by some of the city's best. While shrewdly avoiding the tried, true and over-recorded, White uses her subtle skills with taste and maturity. Interestingly, the album plays sequentially as if it were a performance. That is one of its attractions. Launching things, Steely Dan's “I'm Not the Same Without You" is a coy ...

Album Review

Mark Winkler: Late Bloomin' Jazzman

Read "Late Bloomin' Jazzman" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
June 24, 2022

Veteran singer, platinum-selling lyricist and songwriter Mark Winkler delivers his twentieth album as leader, Late Bloomin' Jazzman, beginning with a George Gershwin standard, ending with a Gershwin tribute and, in between, presenting romantic ballads, a bit of swing and a touch of bossa. An educator at UCLA who teaches the art of songwriting, Winkler brings this remarkable talent to the fore on this album, providing his own lyrics to seven of the twelve songs which he suddenly realized “talk about ...

Album Review

Mark Winkler: Late Bloomin' Jazzman

Read "Late Bloomin' Jazzman" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
May 31, 2022

Anyone who can hold their own on a stage on in a studio with Cheryl Bentyne cannot be all bad, right? Even if one's taste runs more to Harry Connick, Jr than to Mark Murphy, it is difficult not to get seriously into Mark Winkler. Oh, he can sing, for sure, but even if he could not carry a tune, he is a lyricist for the ages. Not all ages, mind you. But for those of a certain age, sensibility, ...

Album Review

MONK'estra: MONK'estra Plays John Beasley

Read "MONK'estra Plays John Beasley" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
November 6, 2021

The MONK'estra is actually a number of groups of various shapes and sizes, from duo to big band, assembled under the guiding hand of composer, arranger & pianist John Beasley to—wait for it!—"play John Beasley," an artist whose admiration for Thelonious Sphere Monk is clear throughout this buoyant and resourceful album, as it was on Volumes 1 and 2 of the series, in which the MONK'estra “played Monk." Beasley wrote eight of the album's fourteen genial numbers ...

Album Review

John Beasley: MONK'estra Plays John Beasley

Read "MONK'estra Plays John Beasley" reviewed by Jim Worsley

by Jim Worsley
December 17, 2020

In 2016 John Beasley gifted us with John Beasley Presents Monk'estra Volume 1 (Mack Avenue). The buzz of that superb record led to John Beasley Presents Monk'estra Volume 2 (Mack Avenue, 2017). Both records were Grammy nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. They were both more than Grammy worthy, but alas the competition is fierce. Beasley has been more than a Thelonious Monk fan throughout his life, including his now over forty years in the music industry. ...

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Take Five With...

Take Five With Brian Swartz

by AAJ Staff
March 17, 2007

Meet Brian Swartz:Instrument(s): trumpet, flugelhorn, Akai/Steiner EVI.Teachers and/or influences? Clarence Mitchell, John Coppola, Delbert Bump, Bill Bing, Gary Pratt, Bobby Shew, Tony Lujan, John Thomas, Tom Harrell, Uan Rasey.I knew I wanted to be a musician when... When I started high school, I wanted to be in the band but also play on the football team. I tried out for the team and they wanted me to play tight end. I reported for the ...

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Album Review

Brian Swartz Trio: Three

Read "Three" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone

by Michael P. Gladstone
December 14, 2006

Trumpeter Brian Swartz came up with an interesting concept for this album. Going back to 1979, he cites a series of four albums by Chet Baker made for the Steeplechase label (The Touch of Your Lips, Daybreak, This Is Always, Someday My Prince Will Come) with with a trio that eliminated both the drummer and the pianist. Baker was known for having a preference for drummer-less small combos. The sidemen for these dates were guitarist Doug Raney (son of Jimmy ...

Crowdfunding Campaign

Los Angeles Based Trumpeter Brian Swartz Starts Indiegogo Campaign

Source: Brian Swartz
May 13, 2018

jny: Los Angeles based trumpeter Brian Swartz is running an Indiegogo campaign during May 2018 to raise funds for his 5th album. The working title for the project is “The Tuesday Sessions." It will feature his band, The Brian Swartz Quartet, and will be Swartz's debut on vocals. This band has been performing every Tuesday at Perch in Downtown Los Angeles since January 2013. Since then, Swartz has built a repertoire that is a mix of standards from the Great ...
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Recording

Brian Swartz Tracks Previously Unavailable for Download!

Source: All About Jazz
March 17, 2007

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Recording

Los Angeles Trumpeter Brian Swartz releases latest CD on Summit Records

Source: All About Jazz
June 21, 2006

Los Angeles based trumpeter Brian Swartz has released his latest CD, Three, on Summit Records.

Simplicity. The word expresses what this recording is all about. Three is an homage to the great trumpeter Chet Baker and his trio from the late 1970s, which included Doug Raney on guitar and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen on bass. By channeling the power of simplicity from those landmark recordings, Brian Swartz's trio infuses life into the concept of interpreting standards.

For his trio, the Los ...
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"His (Brian Swartz) playing is rich, probing, thoughtful and expressive; beautiful melodic lines, nearly flawless technique, and harmonically rich compositions..."

- Michael Hackett, ITG Journal Jan. 2016

"Swartz produces a warm relaxed tone reminiscent of Chet Baker and early Miles Davis."

- Douglas Lockard, ITG Journal Mar. 2007

"Swartz has...superior technique and the ability to improvise creatively in wide range of settings."

- Ken Dryden, All Music

"Adventurous, forward thinking yet firmly grounded we have Brian Swartz and The Gnu Sextet establishing their rightful place as one of the finer large ensembles working today."

Primary Instrument

Trumpet

Location

Los Angeles

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

Brian Swartz has taught trumpet and improvisation in West Los Angeles since 1997. Lessons are for all levels and styles of playing and are one on one. Whether a resident of Los Angeles or just passing through you can email Brian Swartz directly for availability and rates at [email protected]