REX STEWART
Dixieland Jazz, Dixieland All Star
I Want to Be Happy, Rex Stewart
Burlesque
The History Of Jazz
100 Vintage Jazz Favorites
100 Jazz Grand ReserveBiography
Rex Stewart (22 February 1907 – 7 September 1967) was an American jazz cornetist best known for his work with the Duke Ellington orchestra.
After stints with Elmer Snowden, Fletcher Henderson, Horace Henderson, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, and Luis Russell, Stewart joined the Ellington band in 1934, in replacement of Freddie Jenkins. Ellington arranged many of his pieces to showcase Stewart’s half-valve effects, muted sound, and forceful style.
Rex Stewart co-wrote “Boy Meets Horn” and “Morning Glory” while with Ellington, and frequently supervised outside recording sessions by members of the Ellington band.
After eleven years Rex Stewart left to lead his own groups – ” little swing bands, that were a perfect setting for his solo playing.” He also toured Europe and Australia with Jazz at the Philharmonic from 1947 to 1951.
From the early 1950s on he worked in radio and television and published highly regarded jazz criticism. The book Jazz Masters of the Thirties is a selection of his criticism.
