"How many producers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"

Doug Schwartz, mastering engineer, started listening to music literally at conception. After recording as a child with icons like Burt Bacharach, Richard Harris, Johnny Mann, and Jimmy Joyce, he began a career behind the glass at famed Whitney Studios in Glendale, assisting on sessions as diverse as Hanna-Barbera scoring dates and Barry White records. Good fortune brought him the chance to work with Mike Chapman, engineering records for Blondie, Suzi Quatro, and Pat Benatar. Sessions at United-Western Studios, Sunset Sound Factory, and Cherokee brought projects with Fishbone, Los Lobos, T-Bone Burnett, and Motley Crüe. MCA Records hired him on to begin remastering their vault gems at the dawn of the CD era, and Grammy awards soon followed for his work on Billie Holliday and Chuck Berry box sets. Independence beckoned, though, and his credit list diverged ever wider, responsible for an extraordinary run of highly successful Now That’s What I Call Music projects, M-G-M music soundtrack restorations, film audio restoration, and independent jazz, rock, pop, and remarkably diverse cultural works from far-away Cambodia and Iran.

Doug comes from a very musical family:
Father Willie Schwartz played lead clarinet with Glenn Miller and went on to a very successful career as a Hollywood session woodwind player, for Billy May, Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, Neal Hefti, Henry Mancini, and many others.

Mother Peggy Clark and her sisters sang with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra as The Sentimentalists and made four albums as The Clark Sisters; all the while she, too, was very much in demand around town as a sightreading phenom, with Jud Conlon, Johnny Mann, and Earl Brown.

Sister Nan Schwartz is a Grammy winning, seven-time Emmy nominated composer and arranger with an extraordinary sense of harmony (check out her webpage), who just happens to be married to
Conrad Pope, an incredibly well-schooled musician who scores films, writes commissioned orchestral works, and orchestrates for guys like John Williams and Alexandre Desplat (here's his site).

Sister Karen Schwartz, like her Mom, is a great sightreader, and has sung on record dates and film scores. That great choir on Edward Scissorhands? Yeah, that was her (here's her site).
Uncle Bob Bain was the triple-threat composer-arranger, record producer, and guitarist who, when he wasn't dubbing (among a million other credits) held the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson band together all those years with Doc Severinson.
Uncle Derf (Vern Friley) played brilliant trombone with everyone from Duke Ellington to Bill Holman to Buddy Bregman, and made a slew of other great records in the '50's and '60's.
Aunt Jean Friley sang with Sy Oliver, Jack Smith, and Ray McKinley and then transitioned on to film and television work in the '50's and '60's.
Uncle Jack Schwartz played sax with Terry Gibbs and Gene Krupa, and played extensively in the LA club scene in the '40's, '50's, and '60's.
Aunt Ann Terry sang on radio, records, film, and television for Henry Mancini, Andy Williams, Carol Burnett, and many others, and was married to
Uncle Pete Terry, who likewise played with Ray McKinley before joining the NBC staff orchestra, livening up Laugh-In when he wasn't playing for Johnny Mandel or The Mamas and the Papas.

We'll save the story of cousins, nieces, and nephews for another page...

When not lending his ears to musicians, producers, and composers, Doug can be found tending his citrus orchard, observing the night sky, or wandering the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area.