Buzzy Linhart

Biography

William Linhart (born March 3, 1943), better known as Buzzy Linhart, is an American rock performer, composer, multi-instrumentalist musician and actor. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he began playing percussion for symphony at the age of seven, switching to vibraphone at ten. At fourteen he entered the Cleveland Music School Settlement, a world-renowned conservatory of music. Because of this training he led bands all through school and at the age of 18 entered the U.S. Navy School of Music a...

William Linhart (born March 3, 1943), better known as Buzzy Linhart, is an American rock performer, composer, multi-instrumentalist musician and actor.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he began playing percussion for symphony at the age of seven, switching to vibraphone at ten. At fourteen he entered the Cleveland Music School Settlement, a world-renowned conservatory of music. Because of this training he led bands all through school and at the age of 18 entered the U.S. Navy School of Music as a percussionist.

In 1963, he moved to New York City and became friends and roommates with John Sebastian. He also became a protégé to the senior guitarist and folk singer Fred Neil. One of his first bands, with fellow musicians Steve De Naut, Serge Katzen, and Max Ochs, was Seventh Sons, who released a raga-rock LP for ESP Records. Buzzy eventually released a series of solo albums from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s starting with his Philips debut buzzy (the title with a small "b") in 1969. Although closely associated with the Greenwich Village folk-rock scene for much of his career, he recorded that first complete solo album in London and Wales with the Welsh prog-rock band Eyes of Blue serving as the backing band.

His prowess on the vibraphone found him performing as a session musician on recordings by Buffy Sainte-Marie, Richie Havens, Carly Simon, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, and Jimi Hendrix (on the Cry of Love album and he is credited on Electric Ladyland). In 2005 he recorded "Mr. Cool"on CD "Life Goes On",with Monica Dupont and Gary Novak

Linhart is joint composer of "(You Got To Have) Friends," a collaboration with Mark "Moogy" Klingman, which became singer Bette Midler's de facto theme song. This was the end of his major label career, but although he never achieved commercial success, Linhart has continued to write, record, sing and compose music to this day.

Linhart had significant visibility as an actor in the mid-1970s. He also achieved some notoriety from his appearance in the opening sequence of the cult movie The Groove Tube, as a hippie hitchhiker. He was also a regular on the 1976 television show Cos, starring Bill Cosby. However, there appears to be little or no surviving footage from the series, Cos; unlike the several subsequent Bill Cosby television series.

Discography
Peace in the Country (unplugged) - (BuzzArt Inc., 2015)
Live Cafe Au Go Go (1971) - (BuzzArt Inc., 2013)
Electric Lady Dream - (BuzzArt Inc., 2012)
Studio - (BuzzArt Inc., 2006)
Buzzy Linhart Loves You: Classic Recordings - (Razor & Tie, 2001)
The Buzzy/Moogy Sessions: 1983-1994 - (Moogy Music, 2000)
Four Sides of Buzzy Linhart - 4 song EP (Caromar Records, 1982)
Pussycats Can Go Far - (Atco Records, 1974)
Buzzy (The Black Album) - (Kama Sutra Records, 1972)
The Time to Live is Now - (Kama Sutra Records, 1971)
Music - (Eleuthera Records, 1970)
buzzy - (Philips Records, 1969)
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