| Thomas “Tommy” Stewart | |
|---|---|
Tommy Stewart |
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| Background information | |
| Born | November 19, 1939 |
| Origin | Gadsden, Alabama |
| Genres | Jazz, Swing, Funk, R&B |
| Occupations | Musician, Arranger, Producer |
| Instruments | Trumpet, Piano |
| Years active | 1956 to Present |
| Website | TommyStewartMusic.com |
Tommy Stewart is an American trumpeter, arranger, producer, composer and pianist residing in Birmingham, Alabama. He is a member of several active performing groups, including the Magic City Jazz Orchestra, Cleveland Eaton and the Alabama All-Stars, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame All-Stars, and Ray Reach and Friends. He was a 1988 inductee into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
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John T. "Fess" Whatley trained Stewart, Erskine Hawkins, Dud Bascomb, Paul Bascomb, and Sun Ra (previously known as Herman Blount). Whatley taught music at Industrial High in Birmingham, which at the time was one of the largest populated high schools in America, with more than 3,500 students walking its hallways. Alvin "Stumpy" Robinson, the band director at Washington Jr High School, was also influential in Stewart's development.
Tommy Stewart enrolled at Alabama State College without knowing how he was going to pay tuition. The problem solved itself when he joined the Bama State Collegians, a dance band formed in 1929 who at various times featured Erskine Hawkins, Avery Parrish, Joe Newman, Sam Taylor, Julian Dash, Benny Powell, and Vernall Fournier. Other musicians who attended Alabama State are Clarence Carter, Fred Wesley (James Brown), and Walter Orange (Commodores). The popular band made enough money to fund Stewart's way through four years of college.
He attended Alabama State University, where he directed the Bama State Collegians (formerly directed by trumpeter Erskine Hawkins). Later, he studied jazz arranging at the Eastman School of Music. Stewart also studied arranging under John Duncan, a classical composer and teacher at Alabama State University. Tommy pledged Omega Psi Phi at the Gamma Sigma Chapter located on the Alabama State University Campus.
He taught high school from 1961 to 1963 at Fayette High School in St. Clair County Alabama. In 1969 he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and taught in Fayetteville, Ga; he also worked for Morris Brown College doing band arrangements. He taught jazz and did band arrangements at Morehouse College from 1974 to 1985. He also taught band classes at West End High School in Birmingham, Alabama from 1991-2001. He also taught “A Survey of Popular Music” at Georgia State University in 1979.
From 2005 to 2007, Tommy served as a faculty member of the educational program at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, under Director of Student Jazz Programs, Ray Reach. In this position, he was also a member of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame All-Stars.
In 1956 he played with Roy Hamilton. In 1963 Stewart also performed with Willie Hightower L.C. Cook and Junior Parker during summer vacations. He arranged music for Eula Cooper, The Mighty Hannibal, Sandy Gaye, and Langston-French Duo (Langston is an ex-Pip and Gladys Knight’s cousin). Most of these arranging assignments took place on Jessie Jones Tragar Records Label, located at 99-1/2 Hunter St. in Atlanta.
During the '70s, he worked at the Gold Lounge accompanying the likes of Gladys Knight & the Pips and The Tams. In 1971 he went on the road with Johnnie Taylor's show, which also featured Jackie Moore King Floyd Z.Z. Hill and The Stylistics, who were hot with "You're a Big Girl Now." He was the chief arranger for a television show in 1972 called Nightlife South, which ran for 25 weeks. The following year he did the charts for The Burning of Atlanta LP by The Spirit of Atlanta on Buddah Records. That same year (1973) he connected with GRC/Aware Records and arranged tracks recorded by John Edwards (who later joined The Spinners) and Loletta Holloway, one of soul's most dynamic voices.
Stewart toured as musical director with Johnnie Taylor on his Disco Lady Tour in 1976, and also served as Ted Taylor's musical director. In 1973 Tommie also directed Johnny Taylor’s band while they performed on The Midnight Special Show featuring Wolfman Jack. Chuck Berry was the official MC for that show.
In the late 70's Stewart teamed with Marlon McNichols, a producer from Detroit, MI, to record some classic Disco music with groups such as Final Approach, Cream De CoCo, Tamiko Jones, Moses Davis, and of course to collaborate on the Tommy Stewart album with the classic hit "Bump & Hustle Music". Tommy and Marlin McNichols would fly into Detroit and use the same horn and string players that played on all those great sounding Motown Records on their Atlanta Recordings, bringing together southern funk blended with soft and lush strings and horns.
Stewart also arranged for Luther Ingram in 1977 and Johnny Baylor (Ingram s manager and the owner of KoKo Records).
Stewart's name pops up several times in the production and songwriting credits on Martha High's solo album on Salsoul Records. He produced the album and co-wrote every song featured, except for a remake of the Emotions' "Don't Ask My Neighbor," with his two colleagues, Harold Daniels and Julian Chatman.
The Martha High album was done on spec. High toured with James Brown as a backing vocalist and originally sang with the Four Jewels (who later became the Jewels), but stayed with Brown after the other members left. Brown was going to do the album, but decided to let Stewart do it. Joe Cayre of Salsoul Records wanted a James Brown sound—Stewart obliged by knocking the LP out in one day. He met High the day of the session. The record doesn't have the typical stringy Salsoul sound because it was recorded in Atlanta, not Philadelphia. Cayre released the album, undoctored, from the tape Stewart submitted. It was around this time that he produced Ripple a self-contained band who made a little noise with "The Beat Goes On," and Southside Coalition, made up of some of Stewart's former students from Archer High in Atlanta.
He worked with Major Lance on two albums, toured with the Tams in 1983, and did arrangements for Serena Johnson's The Lack of Communication album. In 1990, he co-founded the African American philharmonic symphony orchestra in Atlanta under co-founder/conductor John Peek. He moved from Atlanta to Birmingham in 1992, where he lived with his wife, Francina (a substitute teacher), and daughter Franita.
LP’s:
12":
45:
This entire article was written during a personal interview with Tommy Stewart on January 5 and 6, 2008.