Bob Stewart (musician)

Bob Stewart ( born February 3, 1945 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota) is an American tuba with the Creative Jazz. Due to its perfect bass lines Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy, for example, could do without a bassist - Bowie always praised him as "the man who never stops ". However, a soloist shines Stewart on his instrument, whose design won the tuba in contemporary jazz together with Howard Johnson.

Life and work

Stewart had originally learned trumpet, but 1962-66 he studied tuba at the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts. Then he worked in Philadelphia as a primary school teacher and played in old-time groups. In 1968 he moved to New York, where he founded the tuba ensemble Gravity with the tuba player Howard Johnson, which among other things Taj Mahal accompanied ( The Real Thing, 1971). In the next few years he played in the formations of Carla Bley, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Sam Rivers and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra. Then he worked with Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Muhal Richard Abrams and the Globe Unity Orchestra; 1984 brought him Lester Bowie in his Brass Fantasy; From 1986 he also worked for Henry Threadgill. After his first time with Lester Bowie, he founded his own mini Brass Band First Line with musicians from Bowie's Brass Fantasy. In 1991 he was involved in the album David Murray Big Band Conducted by Lawrence " Butch" Morris. In the 1990s he also worked in a quartet with Christof Lauer, Wolfgang puschnig and Thomas Alkier ( Bluebells, 1992). Stewart, who had always continued to work as a teacher presented, few, but well-designed albums under his own name, including the debut of First Line (1987 ), followed by Goin 'Home (1988 ) with his band First Line and Then And Now. He participated also on albums by Machito, Arthur Blythe ( Back to the Roots ), Bill Frisell, Gunter Hampel, Herb Robertson, Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, Bob Belden, Gebhard Ullmann and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Film "Jazz on a Winters Day"

Launch, in 2006 when Bob Stewart SNOW JAZZ Festival at the sawmill in Bad Hofgastein a 4- day workshop with 25 Blechblasmusikern from traditional brass bands (primarily from Salzburg and Vienna). The result of the workshop ended with a concert in the traditional congress center in Bad Gastein around 600 visitors. The filmmakers Sven Jansel and Gerald Lehner accompanied Bob Stewart in the days of the workshop and documented this musical "Afro - alpine experiment" in her 45 -minute documentary " Jazz On A Winters Day", on 16 March 2007 at the Casino Bad Gastein celebrated its world premiere.

Disco Graphical Notes

• First Line ( Winter & Winter, 1987) with Stanton Davis, Steve Turre, Idris Muhammad, Arto Tuncboyaciyan
• Goin 'Home ( Winter & Winter, 1988) with James Zollar, John Clark, Ed Blackwell
• Then & Now ( Postcards Records, 1996) with Taj Majal, Carlos Ward, Steve Turre and Graham Haynes
• Heavy Metal Duo: Work Songs and Other Spirituals (2008) with Ray Anderson

Lexical entries

• Ian Carr, Brian Priestley, Digby Fairweather (eds.): Rough Guide to Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584- X
• Martin Kunzler: Jazz Encyclopedia. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2002 (2nd edition ), ISBN 3-499-16512-0 Vol 1; ISBN 3-499-16317-9 Vol 2