Buddy Stewart

Buddy Stewart (né Albert James Byrne, Jr; 1922 in Derry, New Hampshire — 1 February 1950 Deming, New Mexico) was an American jazz singer. His adopted stage surname is standardized in most biographies, including The Jazz Discography, as "Stewart;" but it was sometimes also spelled "Stuart."^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Growing up

Stewart's parents were dancers, so he entered at the age of eight years in vaudeville and sang in a number of groups. As a member of The 1940s vocal group The Snowflakes, he sang with the Claude Thornhill orchestra. A fellow singer with Thornhill was Martha Wayne (born Martha Haworth), and some sources claim he and Wayne married, but The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) and other sources make it clear he and Wayne never married. Buddy Stewart and Martha Wayne appeared in at least three "Soundies" with the Thornhill orchestra in 1942. Martha Wayne went on to became an actress at 20th Century-Fox under the name Martha Stewart, and she told an interviewer (film historian Laura Wagner) that when she and Buddy Stewart were briefly engaged in the early 1940s she took his last name and kept it as her stage name.

Post World War II career

After serving in the U.S. Army (from March 1942 to 1944) he sang with the Gene Krupa orchestra, sometimes as a member of "The G-Noters" vocal group. In 1945, Stewart and Dave Lambert sang together (backed by Krupa's band) on "What's This?," the first vocal recording in the bop style. Stewart remained with Krupa through 1946, often singing alongside Anita O'Day and Carolyn Grey. In the following years, he worked with Lambert, recording for a small label Sittin 'In With, arranged by Gerry Mulligan. In 1947 he sang a recording with the Charlie Ventura Orchestra — Synthesis and East of Suez, Savoy Records. Beginning January 1948, he appeared under his own name, and as co-leader with Kai Winding — and 1949 with Charlie Barnet's bebop orchestra. In 1948, he recorded as a band leader. Stewart and Lambert recorded with Blossom Dearie, a third voice and two horns, Bennie Green and Allen Eager added. In February 1949, they were together with Charlie Parker's quintet on the air. Stewart was killed in 1950 in an automobile accident when he went to visit his wife and their child in New Mexico.^[6]

After Stewart's death, when his wife was standing there penniless, friends organized a benefit concert on March 24 at the Birdland Jazz Club in New York City. The concert included Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Ventura, Stan Getz, Tony Scott, Al Cohn, Lester Young, Lennie Tristano, Harry Belafonte, JJ Johnson, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie,^[7] and Oscar Pettiford.

Family

Stewart's sister, Beverly Rita Byrne, who had been a vocalist with the Gene Krupa band, married Stan Getz on November 7, 1946; they had three children together.

References