I found Tony Schwartz accidentally, filediving on SoulSeek back when it was working for me… a record called Music of the Streets. He recorded the sounds of New York City – actually, a small part of it, as he suffered from agoraphobia – on a portable tape recorder he created, and shared those sounds on LPs and via a radio show he did for WNYC for 31 years. According to the TonySchwartz.org site, he “…had a unique philosophy of work: He only worked on projects that interested him, for whatever they could afford to pay.” He made a huge name for himself with political advertisements, as well – but it’s the sound recording that’s interesting me.
I’ve been collecting what I can find, slowly; eMusic sells some, and Folkways sells downloads, and I nick what I can (he’s shuffled off the coil, rip). The Library of Congress has the whole collection now, but they haven’t posted much of it yet.
This piece that I found (at abmp3.com) reminded me a lot of the Charles Spearin album I devoured last year (the Happiness Project), and also of a walk I recorded (sloppily, on a camera, in Central Park last March). Enjoy. More to follow.
Music in Marble Halls – Tony Schwartz
Central Park Buskers – me, recorded in the spot below.
Also worth checking out (just found it while searching for a photo of Schwartz – the one at top): Continuo (a blog) with a feature on TS.
(bad) monkey X 
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