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Anton Schwartz has one smooth jazz ensemble. Their Holiday Time EP release is chock full of cool jazz, some of the best I've heard this year. Lineupwise, Anton's quartet is Art Hirahara, piano, John Wiitala, bass, Tim Bulkley, drums, and Anton Schwartz, tenor saxophone.

Anton's style on saxophone is relaxed and smooth as silk. His arrangements are mellow and soulful, in keeping with his instrumental touch. Even when Anton is confronted with a hopping beat, he stays cool, a downhill skier hugging the mountain, even as he picks up speed.

Anton's set is designed for the secular humanist in all of us, with the first four numbers--"Jingle Bells", "Winter Wonderland", "The Christmas Song", and "Sleigh Ride"--Courier & Ives postcards in jazz. But the final song, "In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning," would have knocked my socks off, were I not padding around the house barefoot. The song title was unfamiliar so I searched it on the Tracks database. I got two hits--by Carly Simon and by Barry Manilow--which must have been forgetable because this might has well have been my first intro to it. The Anton Schwartz version gets my vote for Song of the Year, at least in jazz. Melancholy and sweet, not overtly Christmassy, but emotionally apropos only during winter, in its seven minutes and twenty seconds it manages to highlight each of the instrumentalists and also reflect their style as a quartet. It just completely works for me.

I think there is a case to be made that such a good 5-song set deserves to be released as a part of a larger, 40-minute-plus type CD. But this is a very nice 5-song set. If this is what the Anton Schwartz quartet has to say about Christmas, it is already a complete statement.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2004)

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From the liner notes:

Anton Schwartz, tenor sax
Art Hirahara, piano
John Wiitala, bass
Tim Bulkley, drums

Produced by Anton Schwartz & Bud Spangler.
All arrangements by Anton Schwartz.

Recorded October 28, 2003
at Spark Studios, Emeryville, CA.

From the promotional materials:

Born July 16, 1967, and raised in New York City, Anton Schwartz began playing clarinet when he was twelve and switched to the saxophone at age fourteen. He was fascinated by jazz and soon hooked up with two jazz masters as teachers, first Warne Marsh and then Eddie Daniels, who were struck by his musical ability. While in high school he formed a group with Peter Bernstein,and Larry Goldings, and had occasion to perform with jazz legends Woody Herman and Lionel Hampton. At a concert, Hampton singled out Schwartz after hearing him play solo, exclaiming, "Hey, that tenor player has a great tone. Do you think he'd like to play a ballad with me?" Schwartz wound up playing "Stella by Starlight" with one of his musical heroes.

Anton Schwartz

Holiday Time
(EP)

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Track List