Home » Jazz Musicians » Tony Scherr
Tony Scherr
He still tours, records, and plays around town regularly with a very broad range of artists, and has played on many albums, movie and television scores. In the 1990's, Tony built his own 8 track analog studio where he has recorded and played on numerous albums. A Grammy nominated producer, Tony has produced and engineered a diverse body of work that includes two records of his own music released on Smells Like Records titled "Come Around"(2001), and "Twist in the Wind"(2008).
He is also busy with his own band; Tony Scherr Trio, singing his own songs, performing steadily in the NY area, and touring the US, Canada, and Europe. This band travels light, is self managed and booked, and is currently recording a new live album to be released Spring 2011.
Born in New Haven, CT, Tony began studying string bass at the age of five. He rebelled by picking up guitar at twelve years old and forming a series of garage bands with his brother Pete on bass. After trying music school, Tony spent a couple of years on the road with the Woody Herman band, landing in New York in the late eighties.
This led to a blizzard of bass gigs playing with many of New York's finest jazz musicians (Al Grey, Maria Schneider, Dakota Staton, John Scofield, Stanley Turrentine, pianist Steve Kuhn and many more...), for most of his twenties, after which he rebelled again by picking up the guitar, writing songs, and singing. The New York Times has declared him to be a “singer-songwriter of deep and palpable conviction”.
He is still playing string bass as a member of the Bill Frisell Trio (10 years), and Sex Mob (15 years), and plays guitar as a member of Ursa Minor (8 years), and in Anton Fier's recently reformed rock band The Golden Palominos.
Tony Scherr lives in Brooklyn.
Tags
Chris Cheek: Keepers of the Eastern Door
by David Weiner
In Keepers of the Eastern Door, saxophonist Chris Cheek leads a beautifully played, richly melodic and creatively curated set of performances, which split the difference between enchantment and fun. Cheek and his bandmates--Bill Frisell on guitar, Tony Scherr on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums--offer a mix of distinctive Cheek originals and unexpected takes on works by others. The covers are borrowed from genres outside the jazz and songbook repertoires, and the band outfits them with attractive new arrangements, tempos ...
Continue ReadingKenny Wollesen: LATRALA
by Glenn Astarita
When a February 2022 gig at John Zorn's experimental showcase The Stone was unexpectedly canceled due to Covid protocol, Wollesen seized the lemon juicer and booked the band into Shahzad Ismaily's famed Figure 8 studio in Brooklyn for the following two days. The session was engineered by Lily Wen and produced by Will Shore, a composer who plays vibes alongside Wollesen in the utopian art-jazz group Užupis. Playing together for the first time, LATRALA recorded nearly the entire album and ...
Continue ReadingElan Mehler: There Is A Dance
by Patrick Burnette
David Bowie's album The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (RCA, 1972) includes instructions on the back: “To Be Played At Maximum Volume." Had pianist Elan Mehler's new trio effort, There is a Dance, followed suit, the slogan would be something like “To Be Played Only on Rainy Afternoons." There is a Dance, which celebrates memories of Mehler's mother, is a quiet, meditative album, one more drawn to rubato than momentum. There are moments of ...
Continue ReadingNorah Jones: I Dream of Christmas
by Jim Trageser
With Tony Bennett's retirement, the mantle of legitimate straight-ahead pop crooners is now firmly in the hands of subsequent generations: Harry Connick, Jr., Diana Krall and Norah Jones. Not pure jazz singers, of which there are numerous stellar examples, these singers are more in the Bennett-Sinatra-Fitzgerald mold, bringing a jazz sensibility to pop music. It is in the area of seasonal Christmas music that the crooners have had perhaps their greatest influence. From Andy Williams to Connie Stevens, ...
Continue ReadingPat Donaher: Occasionally
by Jerome Wilson
Occasionally sees saxophonist Pat Donaher reflecting on a few milestones in his life to date. He does this by writing and performing compositions which are all dedicated to occasions and people that have been special to him. Donaher's varied set of tunes is played here by an excellent group with Jason Palmer on trumpet, Tim Watson on guitar, Carmen Staaf on piano, Tony Scherr on bass and Allison Miller on drums. Two selections celebrate family weddings. “Wedding Day," ...
Continue ReadingSlow Poke: At Home
by Donald Elfman
Formed at the home of bassist Tony Scherr, Slow Poke--David Tronzo, Michael Blake, Scherr and Kenny Wollesen--play everything slower and funkier. It's an extraordinary idea for a jam band--bring the groove way down and somehow the vibe and energy go way up thanks to the new focus. It certainly helps that all of these guys are virtuosos and truly care about the aesthetics of sound. This debut disc caught the attention of Paul Simon and producer Lee Townsend, and has ...
Continue ReadingSlow Poke: At Home
by Ralph A. Miriello
This re-mastered recording of Tony Scherr's 1998 basement record, Slow Poke At Home , is a joy for those who can appreciate the slow cooked, steamy sound of master musicians plying their trade in a gutsy, simmering, sweetly rhythmic stew of sounds. The label, Palmetto Records, should be applauded for taking a now defunct band and reissuing the material as a testament to just how good the music was and still is.
Slow Poke was one ...
Continue ReadingTony Scherr "Twist in the Wind" out on March 17, 2008
Source:
All About Jazz
"One of the best guitar players I've ever seen." -Norah Jones
“Tony is one of the most original and soulful musicians I know. I love his slide playing, his voice, his songs...and this new album." -Bonnie Raitt
“Of all the marvelous musical roles Tony plays, I like it when he sings and plays his own songs best. He is a soulful guitarist and honest singer who writes as naturally and casually as he speaks." ...
read more
Photos
Music
Ornette Goes Home
From: All Species ParadeBy Tony Scherr
Tropicalia
From: RETRO TrilogyBy Tony Scherr
The Wind
From: RETRO TrilogyBy Tony Scherr
Lonely Hearts
From: Another Way HomeBy Tony Scherr
Videos
Tony Scherr
Location: New York City
Instrument: Bass
