Rex William Stewart Jr. (February 22, 1907 – September 7, 1967) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

cornetist who was a member of the

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

orchestra.

Career

As a boy he studied piano and violin; most of his career was spent on cornet. Stewart dropped out of high school to become a member of the Ragtime Clowns led by Ollie Blackwell. He was with the Musical Spillers led by Willie Lewis in the early 1920s, then with Elmer Snowden, Horace Henderson, Fletcher Henderson, Fess Williams, and

McKinney's Cotton Pickers McKinney's Cotton Pickers were an American jazz band, founded in Detroit, Michigan, United States in 1926, and led by Bill McKinney (drummer), Bill McKinney, who expanded his Synco Septet to ten players. Cuba Austin took over for McKinney on drum ...

. In 1933 he led a big band at the Empire Ballroom in New York City. Beginning in 1934, he spent eleven years with the

band. Stewart co-wrote "Boy Meets Horn" and "Morning Glory" and supervised recording sessions by members of the Ellington band. He left Ellington to lead "little swing bands that were a perfect setting for his solo playing." He toured in Europe and Australia with Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1947 to 1951. Beginning in the early 1950s, he worked in radio and television and wrote jazz criticism for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' and the magazines ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

'' and ''

DownBeat ''DownBeat'' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm that it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1 ...

''. The book ''Jazz Masters of the Thirties'' is a selection of his criticism. He lived in upstate New York after purchasing a one hundred year old farmhouse. He hosted a jazz radio program in Troy, New York, and owned a small restaurant for a short time near a drag racing track in Vermont. While living in France, he attended the Le Cordon Bleu school of cooking and dedicated his life to becoming a fine cook. Stewart moved to Los Angeles, California, to be near his children. His son Paul Albert Hardy lived in New York City. While in Los Angeles he reunited with musicians from the Ellington band and played jam sessions in clubs. He was a studio musician for '' The Steve Allen Show'' and with George Cole he hosted two radio shows: ''Dixieland Doings'' and ''Things Aint What They Used to Be''. His autobiography, ''Boy Meets Horn'', was published in 1991. He died of a brain hemorrhage in Los Angeles.

Film and TV

He made a cameo appearance in the film '' Rendezvous in July'' (1949) directed by

Jacques Becker Jacques Becker (; 15 September 1906 – 21 February 1960) was a French film director and screenwriter. His films, made during the 1940s and 1950s, encompassed a wide variety of genres, and they were admired by some of the filmmakers who led th ...

. He also appeared in '' Hellzapoppin''' (1941) and '' The Sound of Jazz'' (1957) telecast.

Discography

* ''Big Jazz'' with Jack Teagarden (

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

, 1953) * ''Rex Stewart Plays Duke Ellington'' with Illinois Jacquet ( Grand Award, 1955) * '' The Big Challenge'' with Cootie Williams (Jazztone, 1957) * '' Porgy & Bess Revisited'' with Cootie Williams ( Warner Bros., 1959) * '' Chatter Jazz'' with Dickie Wells ( RCA Victor, 1959) * '' Henderson Homecoming'' ( United Artists, 1959) * '' Rendezvous with Rex'' ( Felsted, 1959) * '' The Happy Jazz of Rex Stewart'' ( Swingville, 1960) * ''Rex Stewart and the Ellingtonians'' ( Riverside, 1960) * ''Redhead'' ( Design Records, 1960) * ''The Rex Stewart Memorial Album'' ( Prestige, 1969) * ''The Irrepressible Rex Stewart'' with John Dengler ( Jazzology, 1980) * ''Rex Stewart with the Alex Welsh Band'' (Jazzology, 2004)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stuart, Rex 1907 births 1967 deaths American jazz cornetists Dixieland cornetists Dixieland trumpeters Duke Ellington Orchestra members Jazz musicians from Philadelphia RCA Victor artists Swing cornetists Swing trumpeters 20th-century American musicians McKinney's Cotton Pickers members Riverside Records artists