Stuart Scharf (1941 – November 8, 2007) was an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themsel ...

, and

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

. Scharf grew up in Crown Heights and attended Winthrop Junior High School. Scharf graduated, with honors, from

CCNY The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, City ...

in 1962 (mathematics major). He was a friend of guitarist

Jay Berliner Jay Berliner (born May 24, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American guitarist who has worked with Harry Belafonte, Ron Carter, Charles Mingus, and Van Morrison, among others. Career Berliner had his first television experience at age seven w ...

, who influenced his career. In the early 1960s, Scharf was lead guitarist for folk-singer

Leon Bibb Leon Bibb (born October 5, 1944 in Butler, Alabama) is an American news anchor and commentator for WKYC in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a member of the BGSU Board of Trustees. Leon Bibb was the first African American primetime news anchor in Ohio. ...

. He also worked with arranger Walter Raim and folk-singer

Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her ec ...

as well as bassist Bill Lee (father of

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...

). For several years he partnered with Martin Gersten, chief engineer of WNCN, in a recording studio at 18 Jones Street in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. They shared this space with

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

broadcaster Skip Weshner. Scharf was a prolific

studio musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a t ...

in New York City in the 1960s, playing guitar with Chad Mitchell,

Janis Ian Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter who was most commercially successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her signature songs are the 1966/67 hit "Society's Child, Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)" an ...

Al Kooper Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt; February 5, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, although he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity. ...

, and

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 Th ...

. He also had a producing partnership with

Bob Dorough Robert Lrod Dorough (December 12, 1923 – April 23, 2018) was an American bebop and cool jazz vocalist, pianist, composer, songwriter, arranger, and producer. Dorough became famous as the composer and performer of songs in the TV series ''School ...

for many years, and together they produced albums by

Spanky and Our Gang Spanky and Our Gang was an American 1960s sunshine pop band led by Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane. The band derives its name from Hal Roach's ''Our Gang'' comedies of the 1930s (known to modern audiences as ''The Little Rascals''), because of the s ...

. Scharf was the composer of Spanky and Our Gang's hit " Like to Get to Know You." In 1980, he moved to

Hamilton Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania Hamilton Township is a township in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 8,635 at the 2020 census. History The Christ Hamilton United Lutheran Church and Cemetery, Fenner–Snyder Mill, and Quiet Valley Farm are list ...

, where he continued his recording business.

Discography

As sideman

With

Charles Earland Charles Earland (May 24, 1941 – December 11, 1999) was an American jazz organist. Biography Earland was born in Philadelphia and learned to play the saxophone in high school. He played tenor with Jimmy McGriff at the age of 17 and in 1960 fo ...

*''

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person ...

'' (Prestige, 1973) With

J. J. Johnson J.J. Johnson (January 22, 1924 – February 4, 2001), born James Louis Johnson and also known as Jay Jay Johnson, was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. Johnson was one of the earliest trombonists to embrace bebop. Biograph ...

and

Kai Winding Kai Chresten Winding ( ; May 18, 1922 – May 6, 1983) was a Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is known for his collaborations with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson. His version of "More", the theme from the movie '' Mondo Ca ...

*'' Betwixt & Between'' (A&M/CTI, 1969) With

*''

You Never Know Who Your Friends Are ''You Never Know Who Your Friends Are'' is the second solo album by American multi-instrumentalist Al Kooper, issued in 1969 on Columbia Records. Background Kooper wasted no time recording this album, coming just seven months after his debut ...

'' (Columbia, 1969) *'' Easy Does It'' (Columbia, 1970) *'' Naked Songs'' (Columbia, 1973) With

Hubert Laws Hubert Laws (born November 10, 1939) is an American flutist and saxophonist with a career spanning over 40 years in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop, and rhythm- ...

*''

The Rite of Spring , image = Roerich Rite of Spring.jpg , image_size = 350px , caption = Concept design for act 1, part of Nicholas Roerich's designs for Diaghilev's 1913 production of ' , composer = Igor Stravinsky , based_on ...

'' (CTI, 1971) With

Pearls Before Swine A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

*''

Beautiful Lies You Could Live In ''... Beautiful Lies You Could Live In'' was the sixth album credited to American psychedelic folk group Pearls Before Swine, and their fourth on Reprise Records. It was released in 1971. Like its predecessor '' City of Gold'', the album was cr ...

'' (Reprise, 1971) With

Phil Woods Philip Wells Woods (November 2, 1931 – September 29, 2015) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and composer. Biography Woods was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. After inheriting a saxophone at age 12, he began ...

*''

Greek Cooking ''Greek Cooking'' is an album by American saxophonist Phil Woods featuring performances recorded in 1967 for the Impulse! label.

'' (Impulse!, 1967)

As producer

With

*'' Like to Get to Know You'' (Mercury, 1968) *''"Anything You Choose b/w Without Rhyme or Reason"'' (Mercury, 1969) wrote 6 songs for this album, including the politically-significant 'Give a Damn', which was adopted as a theme song by the New York Urban Coalition, and by New York Mayor John Lindsay during his 1969 re-election campaign.

Notes

American jazz composers American jazz guitarists People from Monroe County, Pennsylvania Guitarists from Pennsylvania 1941 births 2007 deaths Plastic Ono Band members Guitarists from New York City 20th-century American guitarists Jazz musicians from New York (state) Jazz musicians from Pennsylvania American male guitarists American male jazz composers People from Crown Heights, Brooklyn City College of New York alumni 20th-century jazz composers 20th-century American male musicians {{US-music-bio-stub