Siegel-Schwall Biographies - Jim
Jim Schwall (November 12, 1942 - June 19, 2022) , Guitar, Mandolin, singer-songwriter - is the co-leader of the Siegel-Schwall Band, "one of the best acts in America." - Billboard Magazine. The Boston Globe has called Mr. Schwall "undoubtedly the best electric guitarist in the country."
Jim Schwall was born in Evanston, Illinois. A singer-songwriter, he played guitar, as well as mandolin, bass guitar, accordion, and other instruments. He studied music at Roosevelt University. There he met Corky Siegel, and became interested in electric blues music. Schwall and Siegel formed a blues duo in 1964, playing at Chicago bars and clubs. They performed regularly at Pepper's Lounge and at Big John's, where well known, established blues musicians such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Willie Dixon would often sit in. The duo expanded to a quartet and became the Siegel-Schwall Band. Schwall's amplified Gibson B-25 acoustic guitar was a distinctive component of the band's sound.
The Siegel-Schwall Band became quite popular, and by 1967 were touring nationally, performing at large venues like the Fillmore West and sharing the bill with well-known rock bands. Between 1966 and 1974, they released at least ten albums. They were also noted for their collaborations with Seiji Ozawa, combining blues with classical music. After 1974, they disbanded, but the band re-formed in 1987. They played occasional live dates and released two albums of new material over the following decade until May of 2016 when Jim decided to retire from music performance.
Schwall was also the leader of his own blues-rock band, the Jim Schwall Band. This band formed in the mid-1970s, and versions continued playing live on an intermittent basis into the 2000's.
Schwall was also involved in numerous other musical projects. He played guitar and accordion in the band So Dang Yang, and was the bassist for the Cajun Strangers. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) degree in Music Composition from the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Music in 1994, submitting his composition Triptych: Dance Music in Three Acts for Eleven Players in partial fulfillment for the requirements for the degree. He taught music at the college level. As a composer, he specialized in ballet, opera, and other music for the stage.
Schwall was also a professional photographer, and did different types of photography. In his later years he worked at creating art prints that combined human figures and natural landscapes. He sometimes used 19th-century photographic techniques such as kallitype, cyanotype, and gum printing, non-silver techniques that predate the gelatin silver process.
Schwall was active in progressive political causes. In 2002 he ran for mayor of Madison, Wisconsin.[12]
After retiring and settling in Tucson, Schwall took to writing. At the urging of friends, he wrote a memoir titled "My So-called Career(s)" still unpublished, and was working on a novel tentatively titled "Organ Pipe Incident."
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In the 1960's, the Siegel- Schwall Band was signed overnight by Vanguard Records and later RCA. During the late 1960's and early 1970's the band drew capacity crowds to the most popular clubs and auditoriums in the U.S., while their records received world acclaim. Along with their peers, Paul Butterfield and Charlie Musslewhite, Siegel-Schwall introduced Chicago blues to the large rock audience.
At the suggestion of world-renown Music Director, Seiji Ozawa, Siegel-Schwall recorded an historic landmark work William Russo's Three Pieces for Blues Band and Symphony Orchestra with Seiji Ozawa conducting the San Francisco Symphony on premier classical label Deutsche Grammophon. This 1971 recording was a block-buster in sales world-wide, and scored very high on the Billboard charts. In 1974, at the height of their career, Siegel-Schwall disbanded.
In 1988, the group reunited for a reunion concert for popular radio station, WXRT in Chicago, which resulted in their 13th recording, this time live on Alligator Records. The Chicago Tribune cheered the recording as, "...something to celebrate." and Billboard calls it a "...stellar live performance."
Mr. Schwall has recently recieved a PhD. in music, and has divided his time between performances and as a Professor of Music. Currently, Mr. Schwall lives in Madison where he was a candidate for Mayor of that city, as well as a high school subsititute teacher and a grad student in art at the University of Wisconsin. He has had many critically acclaimed shows of his photography work, and still plays the classic electrified Gibson B-25 acoustic guitar which he's used extensively since acquiring it in 1959.
Update. Jim Schwall subsequently moved to Nashville and then Tucson AZ where he retired in 2016 to write his memoirs, read, and take courses at the University. Jim passed away on June 19, 2022 preceded by Sam Lay 1/29/2022.
A note from me to Jim and his family, friends, and fans:
Dear Cousins,
My life long buddy Jim Schwall passed away on June 19, 2023 . He was a unique genius, a humanitarian, a lover of life, my brother, band-mate to all the paradigmatic fatherly blues players (Wolf, Muddy, Willie, Walter) and rhythm sections, in 1965, that joined us at Pepper's Lounge and took us under their compassionate wings, to our bass players; Jos Davidson, Jack Meyers, Jack Dawson, John Sauter, Rollo Radford, our drummers; Russ Chadwick, Sam Lay, and Shelly Plotkin. And his most recent bandmates on our last run from 1987 till 2016; with Sam, Rollo and me.
Six decades
For almost 60 years, having hit it off from the beginning, with some rests and one grand pause, together we made music for life and we made friends for life. He was loved by everyone and everyone who knew him understood why that was the case.
By my side
I spoke with Jim a number of times over this last year. I also told him I loved him. I explained how much a profound part of my life he has been and will continue to be. I have always shared that truth with him.
My own music will always carry the spirit of Jim Schwall
- - Corky Siegel
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