John Schott

Guitarist John Schott graduated from Seattle's Cornish College of the Arts, where he had studied with Gary Peacock and Jerry Granelli, in 1988, with a degree in composition. That year he was musical director for a Shakespearean production, and collaborated with a choreographer for a dance performance piece. In 1989, Schott moved to Berkeley, CA, where he co-founded the group Planet Good, who released their own album Prozac Holiday and became a popular Bay Area band. He remains based out of that locale and regularly collaborates with other creative and accomplished area musicians, like clarinetist Ben Goldberg. In 1994, the NEA funded a series of concerts by Schott and Goldberg (in which they were joined by saxophonist John Zorn) that featured the music of piano legend Herbie Nichols. The two also formed the band Junk Genius — with bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Kenny Wolleson — that had a self-titled release on Knitting Factory (1994), and 1999's Ghost of Electricity on Songlines. Schott is also a member of a part-time project with guitarist Charlie Hunter, called T.J. Kirk, whose second album received a 1997 Grammy nomination. Schott performs on many of the Tzadik label's releases, including his own date as leader, In These Great Times (with texts of Kafka, Karl Kraus, and Jacob Glatshteyn sung in Hebrew, German, and Yiddish, respectively); as well as the 1998 trio recording with Goldberg and Michael Sarin, What Comes Before. The close of the '90s found John Schott leading Ensemble Diglossia, his 11-piece group including Rova's Steve Adams and percussionist William Winant.