“Some people say to me, ‘You should have been born fifty years earlier’,” conductor/saxophonist/scholar Loren Schoenberg told John Robert Brown in an interview found on The Jazz Museum in Harlem’s website. “Of course, I would have grown up listening to the great music by Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw. I would have spent my entire life interviewing Scott Joplin’s widow. Loren Schoenberg, a historian by birth, became a staple in jazz with his passion for the past and love of keeping it current. Schoenberg is now the Executive Director of The Jazz Museum Harlem. Schoenberg performs, conducts, writes, and teaches. Loren Schoenberg was a New Jersey native, born July 23, 1958 in Fairlawn. His father was a New York Telephone Company employee. Loren’s mother, a children’s librarian, started teaching him piano at age three. One year later, she found a piano teacher in her neighborhood who could teach her son more than simple scales. Schoenberg was a huge fan of old films and became a jazz lover in the 1970s thanks to Goodman’s music. The heyday of jazz as a popular musical form was gone by this point. Schoenberg was busy collecting 78-rpm records from jazz pioneers like Louis Armstrong, Jellyroll Morton and “Fats Waller” Waller. His peers were listening to folk and rock and roll music. There is much debate among scholars about the best way to define jazz. Schoenberg stated in his book The NPR Curious listener’s Guide Jazz (2002): “What makes Jazz music distinct from other genres like country, classical, rock, or other well-known ones is its fundamental malleability.” . . . It is not as if it were spewed out of thin air. Instead, it is a highly structured and (hopefully) spontaneous collection of themes and variations. In the 1950s, rock and roll was popular and had replaced jazz as a popular genre. Schoenberg found it and discovered that many jazz’s most prominent practitioners were no longer in the spotlight. The young enthusiast was able to see the greats in action in small venues near Hackensack, New Jersey. He also had the opportunity to talk to them afterwards. Schoenberg was often invited to show his skills to his idols who were amazed that Schoenberg, a young man, was still interested. Schoenberg was able to take informal lessons from jazz pianists Hank Jones and Teddy Wilson. Teddy Wilson took his protégé to the Waldorf Astoria for a jazz performance in 1972 where Schoenberg met Benny Goodman. Schoenberg started volunteering at the now-defunct Jazz Museum, New York City in that same year. He met more jazz musicians and became more involved in the music scene. Schoenberg met Sanford Gold, a respected teacher of music theory and piano, while volunteering at the Jazz Museum in New York City. Gold helped Schoenberg to build his musical foundations by giving lessons on piano and musical theory. The 15-year-old also met Benny Goodman at the Jazz Museum while helping to create the Goodman exhibit. Two WBAI radio station producers were later referred to Schoenberg by Schoenberg, who was the local jazz expert. They were researching a new show about jazz music. The youngster was interviewed by them. Schoenberg was so impressed by the experience that he produced two additional shows for the station and interviewed several jazz musicians. He began learning how to play the saxophone at age 15 after being inspired by Lester Young, a jazz saxophonist. Schoenberg was able to enroll at the Manhattan School of Music in 1976 as a music theory major with a minor piano lesson thanks to Sanford Gold. Schoenberg was able to play sax with Eddie Durham’s jazz band while he was in school. Schoenberg recently stated that he had been playing sax, waiting for an opportunity and jamming. “I was part of a small group of young jazz musicians at that time. . . . They were delighted to have someone who knew all the old songs. Schoenberg had the opportunity to work with Durham, one the original members the Count Basie Band, which gave him the chance to meet and collaborate with jazz musicians like Al Casey and Sammy Price, Roy Eldridge and Jabbo Smith. Schoenberg changed his major to saxophone after two years at Manhattan School of Music. He organized the songs, assembled the musicians and performed with them at the Carnegie Recital Hall tribute to Charlie Parker and Lester Young in 1979. The concert featured Joe Albany, Buddy Anderson and Dickey Wells as well as Eddie Bert, Herb Ellis, Mel Lewis, Joe Albany and Joe Albany. Schoenberg received one of the many glowing reviews in The New York Times. Benny Goodman called Schoenberg in 1980. The clarinetist wanted to donate his collection historical jazz arrangements to New York Public Library. Schoenberg is a jazz legend who is a history buff and a specialist on Goodman’s music. He was the ideal choice to compile the archive as well as write the accompanying documents. Schoenberg quit the Manhattan School of Music in order to begin work on the collection. The library would receive the collections in yearly installments. Schoenberg also formed the Loren Schoenberg Big Band to perform obscure songs from the ’30s and ’40s. However, it later performed newer works. Stuart Troup, (New York) Newsday, May 26, 1989: Schoenberg said that it was hard to keep the men together because there was no work. “We would spend ten years rehearsing, and then have a one night gig.” However, it was the talent of the performers and the high quality of the arrangements that made a difference. Troup said that they began to receive enough gigs that it became difficult to find the time to practice. Jazz critics loved the band’s musicality and skillful handling of classics. “Mr. Schoenberg . . . Peter Watrous, after having seen the band perform at Village Vanguard, wrote that he knows how to calibrate his orchestra. “. . . Watrous said that the band “crackled with energy, intelligence” and “never once raised its voice without a reason.” The band has performed at numerous other venues including the Blue Note and Michael’s Pub as well as Carnegie Hall. Benny Goodman stopped donating his arrangements the New York Public Library a few years after he started. Schoenberg was hired as his assistant and, later, as his personal manager and business manager. Schoenberg started his weekly radio program on WKCR in 1982. He played old jazz recordings and interviewed musicians. Schoenberg hosted jazz shows on WKCR from 1982 to 1990. Schoenberg was appointed co-host of Jazz from the Archives in 1984. This radio program on WBGO is run by the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. Schoenberg continues to host the show occasionally as one of the hosts. The Loren Schoenberg Big Band also released their first album in 1984, That’s how It Goes. The band would release Time Waits for No One (1987), Solid Ground (88), Just A Settin’, A-Rockin’ (1989), Manhattan Work Song (92) and Out of this World (1999). Schoenberg recorded S’posin’ with a quartet in 1990. He has also recorded with John Lewis, Jimmy Heath, and Benny Carter. Schoenberg’s group formed an association in 1985 with the New York Swing Dance Society and began to provide accompaniment for their dance events throughout the city. Schoenberg’s boss had not shown much interest in the Loren Schoenberg Band until that point. It was frustrating. . Schoenberg said it to John McDonough in Chicago Tribune (April 2, 1989). He didn’t see me as a musician. Schoenberg had been hinting that Goodman would not be able to see rehearsals or hear the band’s first recording, but Goodman never did. To Schoenberg’s delight, Goodman then asked the band to perform alongside him in a 1985 PBS TV special, Let’s Dance. This was Goodman’s final televised performance. Schoenberg recalled the first rehearsal with Goodman and said to McDonough that his knees shook when Goodman walked into RCA carrying his clarinet. Benny Goodman would be playing with my band. He could have any kind of band he wanted with any number of players. He didn’t care about money. He chose this band. “I had to get down.” Benny Goodman, who died in 1986, stipulated that all of his jazz arrangements and recordings be given to Yale University. Schoenberg was the obvious choice to appraise the Goodman Archives, and Yale later hired him to help curate the collection, and to compile a 10-CD set of never-before-released Goodman recordings. Schoenberg also joined the American Jazz Orchestra in 1986. He played tenor sax, and then became its musical director. Schoenberg has also directed the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Schoenberg led the West German Radio Orchestra in a series concerts that featured George Gershwin’s and Duke Ellington’s works for Cologne audiences between 1988 and 1989. He also led a group for Gunther Schuller, the “third stream” jazz great, in Japan, during this period. Schoenberg was the 1993 International Duke Ellington Conference’s musical director. Schoenberg won two Grammys for his writing. In 1994, Schoenberg was paired with Dan Morgenstern and won a Grammy Award in Best Album Notes. This set included the accompanying materials to Louis Armstrong’s Portrait Of The Artist as A Young Man 1923-1934. He also won a Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Liner Notes on The Complete Columbia Recordings Of Woody Herman and His Orchestra.
