Jay Schwartz (“Black & Blue Jay”) is a songwriter whose band “Five Easy Pieces” put out an eponymous album (produced by Don Smith and T-Bone Burnett) in 1998 on MCA records. Songs were included in the movie “American Pie”, “Melrose Place”, as well as the theme song for “Significant Others”, a Fox TV show starring Jennifer Garner. The arrival of his 2nd set of twins, seven years after the birth of his first child, brought a whole new definition of Five Easy Pieces.
For his Fiftieth birthday gift, his two best friends surprised him with a gift of two days in Phil Nicolo’s Studio 4 with the Funk Rock Band “Darla” and Singer Ben Arnold. Arnold brought in additional Philadelphia based musicians for overdubs and mixing at Kawari Sound with Matt Muir, turning what was supposed to be a 2-day demo session into a fully realized EP.
The collection juxtaposes Schwartz’s twists and turns of phrase, with the youthful energy of Darla, and tops it with the gravity and authenticity of Arnold’s vocals. Schwartz and Arnold had similar experiences with major labels in the late ‘90s. They took different paths afterwards. It might be summed up as Arnold delivers the final lines of “Boy”,
“Out in the streets, kids don’t understand the repetition
Hindsight is history’s bitch, we only miss what we’re missing
Hindsight is history’s bitch we only hit what we’re missing”
The EP is being independently released and will be available December 20, 2019 on all outlets.
Black & Blue Jay
Produced by Ben Arnold and Jay Schwartz
Engineered and Co-Produced by Matt Muir
Recorded and tracked by Phil Nicolo at Studio 4, Conshohocken, PA
Musicians
Live tracking, Ritchie Straub (drums), Michael Morrongiello (bass), Brendan Monahan (guitar), Wil Schade (keys and sax) David Bartler (sax)
Overdubs at Kawari and Retro City Studios (Philadelphia):
Ben Arnold (Piano/Lead Vocals), Matt Muir (Percussion/BG Vocals), Kevin Hanson (guitar), Matt Spitko (guitar), EJ Simpson (bass), Ali Wadsworth (BG Vocals), Adam Flicker (Piano/B-3, Moog, Trumpet), and Wil Shade (horns/keys)
All songs written by Jay Schwartz (Monk Foo Music)
“The Single” written by Jay Schwartz and Marc Dauer (Aural Fix Music)Mastered by Kurt Reil/House of Vibes
Design by Bruce Hanson
Jay Schwartz, in my own words
It was a Saturday at the end of the sixties, I was around 3 years old, looking out the window of our apartment, waiting for my dad to take me to the carwash, the highlight of my week. It scared the crap out of me, but when it was over everything was clean. Don Maclean’s American Pie was on the radio when we pulled in to the car wash. After surviving the monster brushes, the fragrance guns, and the big dryers, we came out. Everything was clean and fresh. But American Pie was gone… and I have been looking for it ever since.
I put on giant yellow sunglasses and played “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” on the dining room table. I joined the Barry Manilow Fan Club and sang the songs that made the whole world sing. Chicago, The Beatles, Whitney Houston, The Clash, Jeffrey Osborne, B-52’s, Run DMC, Simon, Fogelberg, Dylan, Petty, The Grateful Dead, Zevon, Costello, Cockburn… I wrote my first song on the back of a paper bag about a girl from the Bronx I met while we were both studying in London.
I woke up in LA at the age of 23 working a day job in the office of Peter, Paul and Mary’s Manager. I built a studio in my garage and recorded my first band “Lost but Looking,” and started recording friend’s bands. I went to work as Robbie Buchanan’s as a keyboard tech and assistant/engineer where i was lucky to work with not only Jeffry Osborne and Barry Manilow, but Bonnie Raitt, Jon and Richie, Barbra and Marvin, Phil Ramone, Emilio Estefan among others.
I met Doc Dauer, a singer disguised as a UCLA med student. We wrote an album and created the band Five Easy Pieces which signed to MCA records (while I was on my honeymoon in Bali with my original muse that I met in London). Our eponymous record (produced by Don Smith and T-Bone Burnett) got a lot of critical acclaim, which means it didn’t sell. Our first single was chosen as the theme song to a Fox TV show that died on the air (its star was Jennifer Garner). We got a song in a Russell Crowe movie! (Mystery Alaska, the only Russell Crowe movie you’ve never heard of). We got to lip synch 3 of our songs on Melrose Place, and hang out in the fake bar with Heather Locklear and the crew.
It was slipping away, and we knew it. But just before it left, we got a request for the 9th of 10 songs on our album, Turn It Around, to be included in a new movie, a comedy called American Pie. A fitting end to that chapter of my life. I was 33 and back in New York.
Five amazing kids later (including 2 sets of twins), while flying around the world for business, I stumbled upon an open mic in Dubai, where I keep an office. The vibe reminded me a bit of my days back in The Kibbitz Room in Kanter’s Deli on Fairfax. I found that the best medicine for all the trials and tribulations of life were bouncing around my head, and now would be a good time to let them out, bottle them, and send them out to the world.