May 2, 2009
MOON AND LEGEND now available on iTunes
Buy on iTunes here...
April 29, 2009
Here's a pic from the Chinese Culture Center Concert
April 24, 2009
The new ULTRA WORLD X-TET album, MOON AND LEGEND is now available for purchase (CD and mp3) at:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/gsuwxtet
http://www.digstation.com/AlbumDetails.aspx?albumID=ALB000028574
Enjoy the music! And after you order your CD or MP3s, don't forget to post a review
on the CD Baby website. Great reviews will help us support our evolving sound, promote more sales and plan projects for the future. Below, there's a link to our MySpace site where you'll find Music, Pics and more info. By all means, feel free to add us as a friend on MySpace if you haven't already.
Ultra World X-tet My Space
www.myspace.com/ultraworldxtet
All the best ...
Thanks,
Gary
April 14, 2009
The Ultra World X-tet performance at the Chinese Culture Center was a blast!
We got a tremendous response and sold a lot of CDs. It was really cool to get such
a genuine show of support and enthusiasm from this crowd at this historic venue.
We were psyched! Many thanks to the SF Guzheng Music Society for producing
the concert and allowing us to be part of it.
April 8, 2009
New Album!!!
Ultra World X-tet will release our debut album "Moon and Legend" on April 11, 2009. Advance copies will be on sale that day when the group performs at the S.F.Guzheng Music Society 27th Annual Concert April 11, 2:00pm at the Chinese Culture Center, 750 Kearny Street, Third Floor, San Francisco, California 94108.
The album was recorded at S.F. Soundworks and Rocky Outcrop Studios in S.F. and was produced and arranged by Gary Schwantes who also plays Saxophones, Guitar, Keyboards and Bamboo Flute. Additional magic is added by reknowned Guzheng virtuoso Weishan Liu, S.F. Symphony Percussionist Ray Froehlich and L.A. Session Veteran David Keif on Bass, as well as the Ultra-talented and in-demand Guzheng artist Winnie Wong. This music is truly spellbinding. It defines a new San Francisco sound. A mix of Jazz, Psychedelic, Chinese, Funk, Blues, Middle Eastern and Ambient textures. Moon and Legend was Mixed by Justin Lieberman and Mastered by Ken Lee for Giespro Records. Cover artwork is by Antar Irvin. The album will soon be available through many outlets. First up will be CD Baby and various Digital Downloads... with more following soon after. It can also be ordered directly through this website by clicking the "Contact" link . Send me an e-mail, I'll hook you up.
Visit Ultra World X-tet My Space to hear samples...
www.myspace.com/ultraworldxtet
And here's a link to S.F.Guzheng Music Society with the Concert info:
www.guzheng.org/
Oct 2008
Hip Bones will tour the Southeast in Oct. The band will perform in four states including
cities like Asheville NC, Savannah GA, Greenville SC, Knoxville TN and others...Animal Vegetable Television performed at the annual Skronkathon Experimetnal Music event in Oakland recently. An mp3 of this performance has been posted to the AVT My Space site...Work on the Ultra World X-tet CD has been progressing at Fantasy Studios and should be completed soon...I have been playing a lot of Klezmer Music lately with Klezmania, a fantastic modern Klezmer outfit...Have enjoyed teaching bamboo flute lately at Laney College in Oakland.ve enj
More to come...
July 2008
Ultra World X-tet and Animal Vegetable Television have NEW My
Space sites.
Please visit, listen, add, comment, etc.
Ultra
World X-tet My Space
and
Animal
Vegetable Television My Space
H ip Bones will perform in the SF Bay Area July 22, 23.
Tues.
July 22, 9:45pm
Hip Bones
Boom Boom Room
1601 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, California
94115
Cost : $5
www.boomboomblues.com/
Wed..
July 23, 8::00pm
Hip
Bones
Jupiter
2181 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California
94704
Cost : free
http://www.jupiterbeer.com/jupiter/
The X-tet is at Cafe Claude........
Fri. July 25, 7:30pm
Ultra World X-tet
Cafe Claude
7 Claude Lane, San Francisco
www.cafeclaude.com
Weishan Liu-Guzheng
Gary Schwantes-Sax, Bamboo Flutes, Electric Guitar
Doug Ebert- Bass
Dominic Cabrera-Percussion
June 2008
Animal Vegetable Television
had a great performance at the Luggage Store Gallery New Music
Series. We are working out our sound AND IT'S PRETTY DANGEROUS.
Sharing the bill was "Unknown White Male" aka Ferrara
Brain Pan of "Forms of Things Unknown" who performed
a set on multiple reed instruments.
Animal Vegetable Television takes
it's name from a TV show I produced a while back on Public Access
TV in SF. It was a wild psychedelic live show with live music,
call-ins and amazing imagery. We used video as if it was oil paint
and the screen as a canvas. You don't get that stuff with computers.
The show was ambitious...ranging from the totally abstract to
experiments with many genres including, soap opera, computer role
playing games, political commentary and tv game show. I am currently
digitizing and editing alot of this footage for use on the web
and hope to collaborate with video artists in our live shows.
Will start the Mixing process
for the new Ultra World X-tet CD this month.
Had fun performing at the
opening festivities for the Contemporary Jewish Museum (with Klezmania).
North Carolina based Hip Bones
might do a quick West Coast run in July.
May 2008
Looking forward to the first gig with Animal Vegetable Television
this month. This is an experimental music project and we will
have a performance at the Luggage Store Gallery New Music Series
May 15.
Regular gigs at Cafe Claude
have really developed the Sound of Ultra World X-tet.
Exciting new additions to the group are
Dominic Cabrera on Percussion and Doug Ebert on Bass.
The "Sounds of China" Concert at Herbst Theater May
5 was very successful, Sold out house and great nusic. I had the
honor of performing a piece on Ba,mboo Flute with Soprano Yang
Hua in a small ensemble. Winnie Wong and Weishan also performed.
Have been playing Klezmer Music again with Klezmania. Great musicians
and very high energy.
Nov. 2007
Hip Bones tour was a blast.
Highlights included shows with Col Bruce Hampton
at Stone Fest in Greenville S.C., and with EOTO at the Pour House
in Charleston S.C.
The tour ended in Nashville with a gig at Windows on the Cumberland
and a day of recording at the "Moose Lodge" with Bil
Vorndick.
October 2007
Hip Bones will do a South East Tour Oct. 12-23.
Click
here for Tour Dates
Highlights will be shows at the Pour House
in Charleston (with EOTO), Twins Jazz in D.C., and Windows on
the Cumberland in Nashville. The band will record at a studio
in Nashville on the day after their gig.
May 2007
May 2007
-Hip Bones will do a quick West Coast tour
May 21-25.
The recent East Coast tour was a blast leaving
many newly converted Bone Heads to spread the word. The West Coast
dates will feature 3 different Bassists:
David Keif, Jonathan Herrera and Aaron Shaul.
April 2007
-Ultra World X-tet was invited to perform as part of the Middle
Eastern Treasures concert produced by Mary Ellen Donald. The performance
was received with wild enthusiasm
and sparked much interest in the group's first CD which is in
the works.
-Hip Bones embarked on an East Coast tour that covered 4 states.
Highlights included sharing the stage
with Blueground Undergrass at the Pour House in Charleston, SC
and a return engagement at Twins Jazz in Washington D.C.
-Feb. 2007:
Ultra World X-tet performed for San Francisco Symphony
Chinese New Year Celebration.
-Jan 2007: New Services
added!
High Quality Voice/Dialogue Recording
and Fast/Accurate/Affordable Voice Transcriptions. More
Info
October 2006
-The X-tet will be in the Studio at the end of October to lay
down tracks for a new CD.
-Hip Bones recently completed a very successful East Coast tour
which included two live radio performances for WNCW 88.7 FM in
North Carolina. The latest CD "Hip Bones 4" is receiving
Radio Play on both coasts and was the number 2 seller at Horizon
Records in Greenville, South Carolina for the month of September,
2006.
Sept. 2006
On
Aug 25, 2006, Hip Bones did a live-in-studio radio performance
for WNCW 88.7 FM in North Carolina. The next day the band performed
at Horizon Records in Greenville, SC. This show was recorded and
also broadcast on WNCW. WNCW has been playing several tracks from
the latest CD "Hip Bones 4". Hip Bones 4 is receiving
Radio Play on both coasts and is the number 2 seller at Horizon
Records for the month of September, 2006.
Summer 2006
-Hip Bones will be doing an East-West Coast tour during Aug - Sept
, 2006. For more info visit the gigs page on this site and
www.hipbones.net
and
www.myspace.com/hipbones4
-The X-tet is working on a CD project.
Basic tracks for 5 tunes have been recorded.
-The latest X-tet lineup features Weishan
Liu (Gu Zheng) , Jie Ma (Pipa) , and Percussionist Ray Froehlich as
well as ( at different times) Bassists Andrew Currier , and
David Keif, and Percussionist Fasica Alemayexa. Of course
Gary is on Sax, Bamboo Flutes and Electric guitar.
-Hip Bones CD "4" was recently
released and is receiving Radio Play in North Carolina.
Digital distribution with itunes, etc. is currently being set
up.
Spring 2006
-Hip Bones will tour on both East
and West Coasts in March and early April 2006.
-Hip Bones new CD "4" is
set for release in March 2006. The CD features 5 of Gary's
Compositions.
Nov 2005
-Featured with the Xtet for gigs
in Dec. 2005 and Jan. 2006 will be Gu-Zheng virtuoso
Wieshan Liu. The Gu-Zheng is the 21 (sometimes 25) string Chinese
zither widely used in Chinese traditional music.
Sept 2005
-Fisher Price has just released 3 products featuring Gary's music
and sound effects. They are: "Teen Titans", "Jimmy
Neutron in Space" and "Alphabet Forest". All three
are for the Color Pixter platform. Gary composed all the music,
and created and implemented the instrurment sets burned into ROM
in each product.
Spring 2005
-Latest Hip Bones tour dates. Go to www.hipbones.net
for the latest tour schedule.
-Gary has finished two pre-recorded pieces created especially
for Dimensions Dance Theater season concert w/Linda Tillery and
the Cultural Heritage Choir. Choreography by Deborah Vaughan.
Saturday, May 7, 8pm
Calvin Simmons Theater in Oakland
www.dimensionsdance.com
-China Spirit Ensemble and the Gary Schwantes Xtet will perform
in a joint Concert sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Board Saturday
April 2, 12noon-2pm... Winnie Wong-Guzheng, Hou Wei-Chinese Wind
Instruments, Ray Froehlich-Drums, Matt Thibeault-Bass, Gary Schwantes
Sax...Union Square, Festival Main Stage, downtown San Francisco.
Fall 2004
-Popular Jazz-Funk trio Hip Bones has been busy touring and recording
tracks for their new CD at Bellboy Studios in Richmond. The Bones
recorded some of Gary's tunes, some covers and some completely
spontaneous creations. Another set of sessions is slated soon
in North Carolina. Hip Bones is Gary on Sax and Bamboo Flutes,
Drummer Robin Tolleson, and Bassist Dan Andrews (West Coast) and
Dustin Hofsess (East Coast). Visit
www.hipbones.net for more info.
- Gary recently completed several projects for Fisher-Price/Mattel
including composing music and technical implementation for two
multimedia products featuring characters from popular TV shows
which are slated for release in 2005. Other products from FP currently
in release that feature Gary's music-Girls Team
Van, The Victorian House, The Pony Stable.
-The Gary Schwantes Xtet has been doing
a regular monthly gig at Cafe Claude in downtown S.F. Check their
website www.cafeclaude.com
for date and time. The group features top-notch local musicians
like SF symphony percussionist Ray Froehlich, Bassists Matt Thibeault,
Ariane Cap and Sascha Jacobsen, and Chinese Zither artist Winnie
Wong.
-Gary is close to finishing the soundtrack
for American Mutant a film by Marc Olmsted, with appearances by
William Burroughs, Timothy Leary, and Allen Ginsberg
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