The Marty Schmidt Band

Based at the Jersey Shore, The Marty Schmidt Band is an original band with an eclectic mix of styles and influences. With music writing rooted in rock, jazz, and classical, the music brings something to the table for nearly everyone*. Lead by the vocals and writing of Marty Schmidt, the band is rounded out with bass from Mark Donley and the percussion of Bob Jakuc, and guest soloists we like to call the Army of Musicians. We invite you to listen to some of our samples below, but mostly to come see us play LIVE.

* Ah, who am I kidding. No music is for everyone. I grew up in the 60s and 70s and am influenced by everything from the Beatles to Bach, Oscar Peterson to Incubus. More likely there's something in here for virtually everyone to hate.

About

Marty Schmidt

lead vocals / keys / guitar / lead ‘keytar’ / composition

Primarily a studying self-taught pianist since my mid-teens, and composing music all this time, I didn't really begin to get the groundwork for this band started until I first hit the stage in the early 2000s — in a church play. It was a musical, and I got to explore my vocals while simultaneously getting live performance experience.

Sure, I'd played in bands before, mostly cover bands like He Said, She Said and the occasional heavy metal original band like Rathe, but mostly I played at home. Beethoven, Mozart and Bach on acoustic piano and hard rock hybrids on electronic instruments. I still wrote, recorded, and played all the instruments (digitally) on my own.

Because of the stage experience in those church plays, I finally got up the guts to try playing my own music, live, at open mics. It was a love/hate experience, in that I love music and sharing my music, but I was so nervous and self-critical that my hands sometimes shook when I played. It was valuable experience though and I persevered. Eventually the nervousness would subside and I would discover a new joy: playing my music with other real musicians.

That lead to this project, to make this music come alive as only a true live band can bring it. The result is an eclectic collection of styles that I call Adultica, and described by my drummer as Elton John meets Black Sabbath in Hell. I'll let you decide but I kinda like it.

Bob Jakuc

drums / percussion

Bob has been studying and playing drums and percussion for 43 years starting with four years of formal training in his late teens. In 1988, after 10 years of OK, what now?, Bob was a founding member of the refreshingly original yet weirdly absurd NYC band, VERGE (a band he's never left evidently since time and space mean nothing to them). During the intense six year period 1989 to 1995, he also cast his lot with other NYC original bands including The Falafel Mafia, TV Goodbyes, Elizabeth City, The Garage Ensemble and The Rubber Dahls.

After 10 years on sabbatical pursuing extended studies of non Western rhythmic patterns and scales (and raising two sons), Bob returned to active performing of Western popular music with time spent in classic rock cover bands Seven Star and Late For Work. During this time, Bob could also be heard laying down his train beat for The Clayhole Brothers and later The Clayhole Family (when they added a girl to the band), a band that specialized in Civil War era music, scintillating 1860s pop, good old fashion cowboy ditties and prairie home Americana with the occasional excursion into 1950s rockabilly. These days, he bangs it out for his band of co-workers, Trusting Strangers (formerly known as Disaster Recovery). He continues to flirt with the BLUES and other genres including funk, reggae and afro-cuban rhythms. Last but certainly not least, Bob keeps the beat for the original music of the Marty Schmidt Band.

Mark Donley

bass / backing vocals

Electrician by day, musician by night. Mark's musical life started before he could walk. Raised in a musical family, he sang regularly in the church choir. Throughout high school Mark played trumpet, learned guitar, and sang in the musicals and chorus. In the fall of '77 he headed to college as a music major.

If you like cheese dogs, and hey, who doesn't, perhaps you caught his college band back in the 80's. The Cheesedogs rocked the Glassboro scene with an eclectic mix of cover tunes and originals. Not only an accomplished guitarist and songwriter, Mark added playing bass to his bag of tricks.

As he transitioned into "grown-up life" he continued to pursue his passion for original music as part of The Antennas, with stints at CBGB's, The Dirt Club, and the Court Tavern, as well as other fine venues.

Following along life's road of twists and turns, the next stop on his journey found him rocking for the Christian youth scene. Serge, touted as praise music on caffeine, inspired audiences around NJ . This was a natural segue into weekly Saturday night church gigs with The River of Life Band at PCTR.

As luck would have it, he was able to join forces with the talents of Marty and Bob driving the bass line for MSB.

Upcoming Events

Jul 17 2020Crave, Toms River @ 7pm
Oct 23 2018Café Artiste, Ocean Grove @ 7pm
Oct 04 2018Crushed Beneath Poetry, Point Pleasant Boro Library @ 7pm
Sep 29 2018Rock2Adopt, Whiting @ 12pm
Jul 17 2018Café Artiste, Ocean Grove @ 7pm
Jul 05 2018Crushed Beneath Poetry, Point Pleasant Boro Library @ 7pm
Oct 14 2017BeachWalk, Sea Bright @ 2pm
Sep 30 2017Murray Grove, Lanoka Harbor @ 2pm
Sep 16 2017Classic Car Show, Bradley Beach @ 2pm
Aug 19 2017Art in the Park, Toms River @ 2pm
Jul 30 2017The Green Planet Coffee Co., Point Pleasant @ 2pm
Jul 21 2017The Green Planet Coffee Co., Point Pleasant @ 7pm
Jul 16 2017The Green Planet Coffee Co., Point Pleasant @ 3pm
Jul 07 2017The Green Planet Coffee Co., Point Pleasant @ 7pm
Jun 14 2017Patrick’s Pub, Neptune @ 8pm
Aug 12 2016The Green Planet Coffee Co., Point Pleasant @ 7pm
Jun 05 2016Riverfest @ Red Bank @ 5pm
Apr 12 2016Ocean County Library, Toms River @ 7pm
Mar 15 2016Brickhouse Pub @ 9pm
Jan 16 2016Espresso Joes @ 7pm

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