Jonathan Schwartz (born June 28, 1938) is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
radio personality
A radio personality (American English) or radio presenter (British English) is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host, and in India and Pakistan as a rad ...
, known for his devotion to
traditional pop
Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western culture, Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known ...
standards. From the 1960s on, he has been a presence on radio stations in the
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
radio market, until he was fired in December 2017. He then hosted an internet radio show on The Jonathan Station from 2018 until h
retired in March 2021 Additionally, Schwartz sometimes performs as a singer and has recorded numerous selections from the collection of popular music from the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s known as the
Great American Songbook
The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant early-20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes.
Definition
According to the Great American Songbook Foundation: The "Great American Songbook" is ...
. Schwartz has also written novels, short stories, and a memoir, ''All In Good Time'' (2004).
Early life
Schwartz was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the son of composer
Arthur Schwartz (1900–1984)
and 1930s Broadway
ingénue Kay Carrington. Though his memoirs describe an unhappy childhood, Schwartz grew up animated by a passionate interest in musical arts. His father was a composer of Broadway and film scores (
"Dancing in the Dark",
"That's Entertainment!" and "By Myself" are among his works), and from an early age Schwartz developed his interest through this family perspective.
[ Jonathan's half-brother ]Paul Schwartz
Paul Schwartz (born 1956) is an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist. the basic elements of which are voice, piano, violin, and electronic samples. He has collaborated with vocalists Lisbeth Scott and Rebecca Luke ...
(born 1956) is a composer, conductor, pianist, and producer.
Radio career
Schwartz worked at New York's WNEW-FM from 1967 to 1976, followed by stints at WNEW, WQEW and, between 1999 and 2017, WNYC-FM
WNYC-FM (93.9 MHz) is a non-profit, non-commercial, public radio station licensed to New York City. It is owned by New York Public Radio along with WNYC (AM), Newark, New Jersey-licensed classical music outlet WQXR-FM (105.9 MHz), New J ...
. Schwartz also served as programming director for XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio (SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its s ...
Frank's Place, named in honor of Frank Sinatra. Following XM's merger with Sirius, the name was changed to High Standards
High may refer to:
Science and technology
* Height
* High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area
* High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory
* High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...
channel from 2001 to 2008, and appeared on Sirius XM's Siriusly Sinatra
Since 2008, Sirius XM Radio has had a similar channel lineup, with a few differences based on whether the individual has a Sirius, XM, or SiriusXM radio. For technical reasons, separate radios continue to be manufactured for the separate services ...
and '40s on 4
40s Junction'' is a commercial-free music channel on the Sirius XM Radio platform, broadcasting on channel 73; as well as '' Dish Network'' channel 6073. The channel mainly airs big band, swing, and hit parade music from 1936 to 1949, with ...
channels from 2008 to 2013.
Schwartz is best known for ''The Jonathan Schwartz Show'', which aired Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons on WNYC-FM, and was about half talk and half an eclectic mix of music.
In his talk during the shows, Schwartz would hold extended monologues concerning famous pop songwriters and singers, and jazz artists. His music selections incorporated pop jazz
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describes a ...
, pop standards, big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...
and Broadway show tunes, augmented by music of nearly any popular style that has influenced twentieth century American tastes. His playlists reflected the "Great American Songbook
The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant early-20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes.
Definition
According to the Great American Songbook Foundation: The "Great American Songbook" is ...
" or, as Schwartz described it, "America's classical music". Traditionally, Schwartz opened each broadcast with the same secret snippet of music which he had always refused to identify until 2014, at a show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music: slightly more than a minute of "a lilting woman's voice, wordless and yet evocative, over an acoustic guitar." The voice is that of Schwartz's friend since childhood, Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon (born June 25, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, memoirist, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records; her 13 Top 40 U.S. hits include "Anticipation" (No. 13), " The Right Thin ...
; listeners had speculated that the music may have been composed by his father, but it was a joint work of his and Carly Simon's. Similarly, he closed most shows with a song from the late cabaret singer Nancy LaMott, followed by a segment from another instrumental recording by Schwartz's idol, the late Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle Jr. (June 1, 1921 – October 6, 1985) was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. He worked with many world-famous vocalists at Capitol Records ...
, and his orchestra.
Schwartz is known for his lengthy and detailed on-air stories about his interactions with famous people, most often Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
. He also claims an encyclopedic knowledge of Sinatra, and claims that Sinatra himself was amazed by Schwartz's knowledge of every song he had ever recorded. He champions young artists who carry on the traditions of the American Songbook, as well as loquaciously reveling in the songwriters and performers of the Sinatra era. In 1986 Schwartz won a Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
for Best Album Notes
The Grammy Award – Best Album Notes has been presented since 1964. From 1973 to 1976 (the 15th through 18th Awards), a second award was presented for Best Album Notes – Classical. Those awards are listed under those years below. The award recog ...
for ''The Voice - The Columbia Years 1943-1952''.
In 2013 WNYC launched The Jonathan Channel, a 24/7 streaming Internet radio station programmed by Schwartz and dedicated to American songs selected by him. The channel also featured live programming hosted by Schwartz, along with simulcasts and replays of his Saturday and Sunday WNYC shows.
On December 6, 2017, as the MeToo movement
#MeToo is a social movement against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in ...
swept the US, WNYC announced that Schwartz and longtime WNYC host Leonard Lopate
Leonard Lopate (born September 23, 1940) is an American radio personality. He is the host of the radio talk show ''Leonard Lopate at Large'', broadcast on WBAI, and the former host of the public radio talk show ''The Leonard Lopate Show'', broad ...
were being put on leave "pending investigations into allegations of inappropriate conduct." On December 21, 2017, WNYC fired both Schwartz and Lopate, stating that "investigations found that each individual had violated NYC'sstandards for providing an inclusive, appropriate, and respectful work environment". The station's Jonathan Channel stream was concurrently renamed American Standards, and as of 2020 is known as New Standards.
On June 17, 2018, Schwartz began broadcasting on an internet radio station
The Jonathan Station
that was created for him a few months before by Bob Perry of Big Sticks Broadcasting. It is a live streaming station that presents the American Songbook twenty four hours a day with live programs with Jonathan Schwartz on Saturdays and Sundays. The long tradition of presenting a Christmas Show, something that Schwartz started in 1971 while at WNEW, continues at the new station.
In February 2021, Schwartz announced that he was retiring from radio. His final show aired in early March and continues to be repeated on his channel.
Other works
In addition to his radio work, Schwartz has performed in New York City cabaret, recorded three albums as a singer, and authored five books:
* ''Almost Home'' (13 short stories), 1970 Doubleday
* ''Distant Stations'' (a novel), 1979 Doubleday
* ''The Man Who Knew Cary Grant'' (a novel), 1988 Random House;
* ''A Day of Light and Shadows'' (about one baseball game), 2000 Akadine Press
* ''All in Good Time'' (a memoir), 2004 Random House
He does most of his writing in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...
.
Personal life
Schwartz was married to the author Sara Davidson
Sara Davidson (born 1943) is a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. She is the author of the best-selling ''Loose Change''. . From ''The New York Times'' It was adapted as a television mini-series. In addition, she has written other series and ...
in the late 1960s. In 1979, he married the journalist and '' Vanity Fair'' correspondent Marie Brenner
Marie Harriet Brenner (born December 15, 1949) is an American author, investigative journalist and writer-at-large for '' Vanity Fair''. She has also written for ''New York'', ''The New Yorker'' and the ''Boston Herald'' and has taught at Columbi ...
,[ ] with whom he has one daughter.[ Schwartz later married Elinor Renfield, with whom he has a son.][
In March 2010, Schwartz married actress ]Zohra Lampert
Zohra Lampert is an American actress, who has had roles on stage, film and television. She performed under her then-married name of Zohra Alton early in her career.
Among her performances were as the title character in the 1971 cult horror film ...
in New York City. At the wedding, his long-time friend Tony Bennett sang " I See Your Face Before Me", a 1937 composition by Schwartz's father and Howard Dietz
Howard Dietz (September 8, 1896 – July 30, 1983) was an American publicist, lyricist, and librettist, best remembered for his songwriting collaboration with Arthur Schwartz.
Biography
Dietz was born in New York City. He attended Columbia Colle ...
.
References
External links
The Jonathan Station
The Jonathan Channel
WNEW, The World's Greatest Radio Station
WNYC-FM Radio programs
SiriusXM Radio programs - see Hosts
by Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic.
Biography
Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...
, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', July 14, 2011
''Playbill'', April 11, 2011 Mervyn Rothstein
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Jonathan
1938 births
Living people
American male singers
American memoirists
American radio DJs
Grammy Award winners
Radio personalities from New York City
Singers from New York City
New York Public Radio