By: Jonathan Schwartz Publisher: Random House Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 304 Publication Date: March 02, 2004 Release Date: March 02, 2004 Studio: Random House
Product Description: All in Good Time is a luminous memoir about growing up in the shadow of the golden age of songwriting and Sinatra, from the celebrated radio personality and novelist Jonathan Schwartz.
“Dancing in the Dark.” “That’s Entertainment.” “By Myself.” “You and the Night and the Music.” They are part of the American Songbook, and were all composed by Arthur Schwartz, the elusive father at the center of his son’s beautifully written book. Imagine a childhood in which Judy Garland sings you lullabies, Jackie Robinson hits you fly balls, and yet you’re lonely enough to sneak into the houses of Beverly Hills neighbors and hide behind curtains to watch real families at dinner.
At the age of nine, Jonathan Schwartz began broadcasting his father’s songs on a homemade radio station, and would eventually perform those songs, and others, as a pianist-singer in the saloons of London and Paris, meeting Frank Sinatra for the first time along the way. (His portrait of Sinatra is as affectionate and accurate as any written to date.)
Schwartz’s love for a married woman caught up in the fervor of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and his other relationships with both lovers and wives, surround his eventually successful career on New York radio.
The men and women who have roles to play include Richard Rodgers, Nelson Riddle, Carly Simon, Jimmy Van Heusen, Bennett Cerf, Elizabeth Taylor, and, of course, Sinatra himself.
Schwartz writes of the start of FM radio, the inception of the LP, and the constantly changing flavors of popular music, while revealing the darker corners of his own history.
Most of all, Jonathan Schwartz embraces the legacy his father left him: a passion for music, honored with both pride and sorrow.
Catastrophes & Pitchforks ^ This is a wonderful book! Mr. Schwartz bears his soul in this memoir of a sad, yet truly extraordinary life.
well written but disappointing ^ Like many others who read this, I was a teen in the 70's, and Jonathan Schwartz was a big part of my life, along with Scott Muni and the rest of the WNEW-FM team. And I've read other works by him and really enjoyed them.
But this book...this book left me thoroughly unmoved. He comes across as a somewhat spoiled child of priviledge, a kid who had so much and didn't value it at all. His bout with alcoholism comes across like a petulant episode, rather than a life-changing struggle.
What was particularly disappointing to me was his take on the music. Now, let me preface my remarks by stating that I've spent my whole life in the music industry...I have a lifelong love of music of all kinds, and a deep appreciation for Sinatra, and everything from classical to jazz to rock and beyond. That said, Schwartz comes across as caring little for the music he helped to popularize in the 70's. Yes, he has praise for many of the artists of the era, but in the end I was left with the feeling none of them, in his opinion, can hold a candle to Frank the Almighty. It's a disturbing impression from someone who, in my nascent days of discovering music and musicianship, was instrumental in opening my eyes to so much new music of the day.
Several years before reading the book, I emailed Schwartz with a question. Every evening he closed his show with a particular recording of Chopin's Prelude in E minor, played on flute and classical guitar, and I wondered who it was. He replied he couldn't recall. (Turned out to be Laurindo Almieda and Sali Teri...hope I spelled that right) At the time I was mildly surprised he'd not remember something he played literally every night for so many years, but after reading this book it only served to reinforce the feeling that, rather than having a true love of the music he was playing, he was in some sense just along for the ride. What a letdown.
nothing ever goes away ^ when i was stressed out in medical school in brooklyn, i think jonathan schwartz saved my life. by that time, he was on the nytimes station, wqew, but his voice and his show were similar to the show he had on wnew. in his memoir, i hear the same distinctive voice and gift for storytelling that his show featured. in the age when radio was turning fom disc jockeys to programmers, he was a singular talent. and the music he introduced me to! sinatra, garland, cole, fitzgerald, nancy lamott, etc singing gershwin, cole porter, berlin, rodgers & hart. most of all, he intorduced me to nelson riddle and the idea that arrangements matter a great deal.he attracted many fans, including the voice of the mets, tim mc carver. and as a met fan, it made it all the more personal to me. i thought his memoir was wonderful, and yes, singular. as was his life story. all of it. i loved every word.
Whiny Autobiography ^ Several times during my reading of this book I said to myself, "This is one weird kid."
As so many other people in these reviews stated, Jonathan Schwartz is a great singer and DJ with a huge knowledge of his subject. But he comes across to me as thoroughly unlikeable in this book.
A good deal of the book talks about how terrible things have been , yet he never lacked for money. His dad and stepmom may have been quite odd (or eveil, in his stepmom's case), but he never lacked any material things.
Speaking of odd, didn't they take pictures in the Schwartz house? None are in this book, I would have liked to see some of his dad.
BTW, didn't Jonathan have one friend in any of the schools he went to?
A memoir of one who seemed to know them all... ^ For those of you familiar with the mellifluous tones of Jonathan Schwartz from XM73 or WNYC-FM, you will no doubt hear his voice as you read this engaging memoir. And for those of you who've never heard of him, you will be astounded by the who's-who list of people he's crossed paths with: Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Judy Garland, Carly Simon, Jackie Robinson, and of course, Frank Sinatra.
Despite a somewhat irritating quirk in his writing style -- related to some vague pronoun references that constantly had me asking: "Wait, what's he saying?" -- this is really a wonderful, interesting, and compelling memoir of a real Renaissance Man. Schwartz is and was a singer, composer, writer, American Songbook DJ, as well as album-oriented rock DJ (with the old WNEW-FM) who bravely reveals to us his hopes, sadness, loves, and demons. This is a book that builds as you go along.
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