Gary Schreiner recently played the accordion for a new song called “Night is Just the Shadow of the Sun” composed by Leejay Rudeniak. Additional musicians included Jordan Jancz on acoustic bass guitar and vocalist Elizabeth Ward Land. The song is very lyrical and emotional with a beautiful melody.

Gary Schreiner is a multi instrumentalist and Emmy Award-winning composer for TV & Film. He has scored hundreds of TV commercials and contributed music to many TV shows and movies. Gary has performed with diverse artists such as Elton John, Rosanne Cash, Joan Osborne, Patti Labelle, Pedrito Martinez, Yoko Ono, Pheobe Snow, Marvin Hamlisch, Run-DMC, Carly Simon, John Pizzarelli, Julio Fernandez (Spiro Gyra), Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock and Kermit the Frog. He recently produced the band Aztec Two Step’s latest album, “ Naked”, as well as Rick Moranis’ last album “My Mother’s Brisket & Other Love Songs”. 

Gary has written music for hundreds of television commercials including: Award winning Cotton Council Commercial, Ralph Lauren (My Romance), McDonalds, Pepsi, Applebees, Advil, Honey Bunches of Oats, Duracell, and a number of Super Bowl spots (including one for Pepsi). His arrangement and production of Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry About a Thing”, was the long-running centerpiece of UPS’s national campaign.

His musical compositions have also been featured on many TV shows such as Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart, X Files, and Chappelle’s Show (including the infamous Muppet-like-puppets-singing-about-all-sorts-of-venereal-diseases-episode!). Gary has composed in collaboration with his writing partner, Curt Sobel, music featured in films such as “Ray”, “Donnie Brasco”, “Parker”, “Thank You for Smoking”,  “Love Happens”, and “Get On Up”. In the theater world Gary has co-written the music (with fellow Emmy-award winning composer, William Electric Black) for the shows “American Star!!!” and “My Boyfriend is a Zombie” both featured at the Theater for the New City.

Cellist Jordan Jancz said, “Leejay Rudenjak is a wonderful songwriter with whom I’ve had the recent pleasure of working with. Unfortunately, the current shelter-in-place regulations have put a hold on his current studio project so I chose one of his beautiful songs and enlisted the help of Elizabeth Ward Land and Gary Schreiner along with the magic of digital file sharing and green screen to share it with you here on social media. Please enjoy “Night is Just the Shadow of the Sun.”

I asked Leejay to share his thoughts about the accordion. He said, “I don’t play accordion, but I wish I did. I love the instrument as well as bandoneon, concertina, and other variations. I grew up playing the organ. I was lucky enough to have a Hammond B3 as a boy, and my fakebooks covered most every hit song since 1900. I also studied classical music and some serious jazz, including Brubeck and Jimmy Smith, and I was a church organist during high school at a nice little Presbyterian church near the famous Lakehurst (NJ) Naval Air Station.

Somehow they let me into Yale, where I majored in art. I’ve been writing songs since then, mostly bad, but sometimes you get lucky–like a monkey at a typewriter. I finally recorded three CDs in my 50s, mostly guitar-based, and with the help of the fantastic CT producer Richard Neal. Through him I met several great musicians, including bassist/cellist/guitarist Jordan Jancz and accordionist/keyboardist/harmonica player Gary Schreiner. Both have played on my records. Following a serious stroke late in 2017, my writing took a new turn thanks to being forced to use my left hand and thus more of my right brain, and my writing returned to the keyboard from the guitar: which for me meant better melodies and chords. I was at work on a new collection–again with Richard Neal–when the Virus hit.

Among the songs I had recorded (with the help of gifted singer/songwriter/pianist Mark Mirando as well as Jordan Jancz) was “Night is Just the Shadow of the Sun.” Knowing of my stroke-related nerve pain, my stalled project, and the nature of this song, Jordan surprised and lifted me with a lovely recording and video of the song made during the sequester with beautiful accordion accompaniment by Gary Schreiner and a rather beguiling vocal performance by Elizabeth Ward Land. It is a wonderful rendering. I had the title and central idea for a few years, a seeking to provide comfort to a child (and to myself) about nighttime; but I only wrote the song in its current form after my stroke, in 2019. The song simply says, in so many words, night just means the sun is shining somewhere else right now. I take comfort in that idea. Thank you Jordan, Gary, and Elizabeth! A song is nothing until it is performed.”

For further information on Leejay Rudenjak: leejay.rudenjak@gmail.com
For further information on Gary Schreiner: