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Jeff Schwartz

Jeff Schwartz is a writer, bassist, librarian, and activist in Los Angeles.

About Me

Jeff Schwartz is very active in Los Angeles’ improvised and experimental music communities. He co-leads the Decisive Instant large ensemble, the Present Quartet, and the Soapbox, and collaborates regularly with Andrea Centazzo, Jack Curtis Dubowsky, Anna Homler, and many others. He has also performed with artists including Anthony Braxton, Glenn Branca, Dana Reason, Nicole Mitchell, Elliott Levin, and Adam Rudolph and attended the Creative Music Studio and the Vancouver Creative Music Institute. As principal bass of MESTO, he has toured the Middle East playing Arabic music, and he works with classical groups including the Santa Monica Symphony, the Vicente Chamber Orchestra, and the Sonic Open Orchestra. The author of a popular online biography of Albert Ayler, Free Jazz: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge 2018), and Free Jazz (SUNY Jazz Styles) (SUNY Press 2022), his writing has also appeared in the journals American Music, Popular Music, Postmodern Culture, Notes, Kirkus Reviews, Critical Studies in Improvisation, and in the 4th edition of A Basic Music Library. His day job is as a reference librarian at the Santa Monica Public Library, where he created the Soundwaves new music series.