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 Paul Butterfield, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and B.B. King. His stepdad exposed him to Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, and Wes Montgomery, 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 Hank Ballard, Coco Montoya, and William Clarke. During this time Schultz returned to his first musical love, guitar. While with Clarke, Schultz played on Clarke's 1990's Blowin' Like Hell, which won a W.C. Handy.

The next ten years, Schultz teamed with Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, 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 Tad Robinson, Big Joe and the Dynaflows, and Benjie Porecki.