Bio:
Brian Stoltz has released four solo albums, has toured and recorded with Rock ‘n Roll Royalty and has performed on a string of recordings – playing, producing and writing for various artists. Basing his art on street virtuosity, raw emotion and a stinging signature style, he is New Orleans’ premiere guitarist and songwriter extraordinaire.
While touring, writing and recording throughout the 80′s with the world-renowned Neville Brothers Band and for fourteen years with The 'funky' Meters, Brian has created unique bodies of work. In addition to being in demand as a phenomenal guitarist, his skill as a songwriter has caught the attention of artists like Aaron Neville, The Neville Brothers, Coco Montoya, The Wild Magnolias, Zydeco artist Zachary Richard and writer/film director John Sayles.
Stoltz's guitar style evolved naturally from growing up on 60's pop/r&b radio and from traveling the dark roads of South Louisiana up through the Mississippi Delta, absorbing the many musical genres and haunting styles of the deep south. In reviewing Bob Dylan's album, Oh Mercy, UK writer Andy Gil of Q Magazine best described it when he wrote, "Stoltz's guitar is like stinging rain pinging on a barbed-wire fence." His unmistakable sound is featured on recordings by artists as diverse as Dylan, Edie Brickell, Dr. John, Linda Ronstadt and the Neville Brothers. Stoltz's discography also includes the release of four solo albums: Up All Night/Live (2007), God, Guns & Money (2005) and East Of Rampart Street (2003) and the now out-of-print Starving Buddha (1999).
His television appearances include The Tonight Show (with Jay Leno & Johnny Carson), Saturday Night Live, Late Night with David Letterman, Austin City Limits, Cinemax and Showtime specials, and concerts with the Grateful Dead.
Ever socially conscious, Brian toured, along with the Neville Brothers, U2, Peter Gabriel, the Police and Lou Reed as the torch-bearers of the first Amnesty International Tour in 1986 to raise consciousness of the fate of political prisoners around the world.
Stoltz has received awards from CMJ (College Music Journal) and the New Music Corporation for Lifetime Achievement. His co-written Healing Chant, performed by the Neville Brothers, won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental in 1991and Brian was nominated for a 2004 Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues category for his solo rendition of You Gotta Move on Telarc Records’ Preachin’ The Blues: The Music Of Mississippi Fred McDowell.
He has performed in numerous music videos and his songs and performances have found their way to film soundtracks such as The Mighty Quinn, John Sayles’ City of Hope, post-Hurricane Katrina film, 'Desert Bayou', nominated for the 2008 Image Award (theatrical and television) and the Harry Shearer film, The Big Uneasy.
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).