Alex Schultz

Being the son of a world-known fashion designer and growing up in Greenwich Village is an unlikely background for a bluesman, but that's where Alex Schultz' story begins. At ten, Schultz started playing guitar and soaking up to the vinyl likes of <a href="spotify:artist:1iQbAecYvKMXhpaFg7oSRq">Paul Butterfield</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2ScuQMRWThcifBRIvNDFDC">John Mayall's Bluesbreakers</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5xLSa7l4IV1gsQfhAMvl0U">B.B. King</a>. His stepdad exposed him to <a href="spotify:artist:5Z1XZyEFY0dewG8faEIiEx">Django Reinhardt</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0WdDpEeDIDmtYh5sqRrdI6">Charlie Christian</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:03YhcM6fxypfwckPCQV8pQ">Wes Montgomery</a>, influencing Schultz to play jazz guitar. During his sprint at Berklee School of Music, he commuted home weekends to perform with pop and rock groups. To meet the supply-and-demand for bass players, he switched instruments. A near-big opportunity for a songwriter Schultz was working for led him to relocate to Los Angeles in 1979. To keep busy, he played for <a href="spotify:artist:3R0XvRGDJEL5cGXVLiAbDB">Hank Ballard</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5nU57S2m2i7gWujCtGKmAb">Coco Montoya</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2eECVTTCHnDwsBirJPiDke">William Clarke</a>. During this time Schultz returned to his first musical love, guitar. While with <a href="spotify:artist:2eECVTTCHnDwsBirJPiDke">Clarke</a>, Schultz played on <a href="spotify:artist:2eECVTTCHnDwsBirJPiDke">Clarke</a>'s 1990's Blowin' Like Hell, which won a W.C. Handy.

The next ten years, Schultz teamed with <a href="spotify:artist:6pWWzD22irDH0NvNj1slS2">Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers</a>, appearing on Blues in the Dark, Alphabet Blues, California Blues, and Live at B.B. King's Blues Club. Changing directions completely, Schultz partnered with harpist Lester Butler, to form 13, a meeting of two planets from opposite sides of the galaxy that created new forms of life - blues meets alternative. Butler's sudden death in 1998 forced Schultz to take in free lance projects, working on albums with childhood friend <a href="spotify:artist:6Tv4PJFnVdT5JBwyCwBObG">Tad Robinson</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:46K5F7mPKRufLkG2KpXiZo">Big Joe and the Dynaflows</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:572dsYPW4HNee97a7byWg6">Benjie Porecki</a>. ~ Char Ham, Rovi