Obituary: Rex Stewart, 60, Jazz Cornetist - Sideman with Ellington and Fletcher Henderson Dies.
Rex Stewart, the jazz cornetist who was a star of Duke Ellington's orchestra for 10 years, died of a heart attack Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 60 years old. Mr. Stewart joined the Ellington band in 1934 afer having played with Fletcher Henderson's band, McKenney's Cotton Pickers and several Harlem groups since the early nineteen-twenties. With the Ellington orchestra, he developed a style of playing with the valves of his cornet half down that produced a choked effect. His best known composition, "Boy Meets Horn", was built on this "half-valve" effect. He could also produce freak notes in the bass register, which he used on "Menelick, the Lion on Judah." When Mr. Stewart used his horn normally, his playing at fast tempos was firmly on the beat, creating a strong sense of swing. At slower tempos, he developed melodic variations of great charm, often phrasing in the manner of Bix Beiderbecke. Mr. Stewart's first job with a major band resulted from a recommendation by Louis armstrong. When Mr. Armstrong left Fletcher Henderson's band in 1925, he suggested Mr. Stewart, whom he had heard playing with Elmer Snowden's band in Harlem, as his replacement. Mr. Stewart was so awed at the prospect of taking over Mr. Armstong's chair that it took him six months to raise the courage to accept Mr. Henderson's offer. After leaving the Ellington band in 1944, Mr. Stewart led his own group and toured Europe and Australia from 1947 until 1951. During the early 1950's he settled near Troy, NY working as a disc jockey and program director on radio stations WTRY and WROW. In 1956, he returned to New York City and five years later moved to Los Angeles. He appeared twice at the Monterey Jazz Festival in California, and in 1963, he resumed his disk jockey career in Los Angeles with a daily program on KNOB. In 1964, he started contributing reminiscences of his jazz experiences to Down Beat magazine. This series won wide priase. At his death he was working on an autobiography. Mr. Stewart was cremated yesterday in Los Angeles. A jam wake, organized by Barney Bigard, clarinetist in the Ellington band while Mr. Stewart was with it, followed the cremation. He leaves his wife, Margie and two children. |