Rory Stuart is an American jazz guitarist and composer. Although he has performed as a sideman with many renowned jazz musicians, he is best known for his work as leader of critically acclaimed groups and for his role as an educator who has taught many of the rising young stars of the jazz world.

Early History

Stuart was exposed during his childhood to jazz through records played by his parents and really became enthusiastic about the music in seventh and eighth grade. When he wrote a paper on Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...

, a seventh-grade teacher, who had played many jazz recordings for the class, arranged for Rahsaan to perform for the class (and then discuss the music) one afternoon at the Village Vanguard

Village Vanguard

The Village Vanguard is a jazz club located at in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. At first, it also featured other forms of music such as folk music and beat poetry, but it switched to an all-jazz format in 1957.-History:Over 100 jazz...

. In the eighth grade, pianist Jaki Byard

Jaki Byard

Jaki Byard was an American jazz pianist and composer who also played trumpet and saxophone, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz...

 made weekly visits to teach the school’s music class. In high school, Stuart studied classical guitar with Leonid Bolotine. At Stanford University, he began to play jazz guitar and met fellow student and great guitarist Tuck Andress, who was an inspiration and became a lifelong friend. Stuart moved to Colorado where he performed in groups led by Joe Keel (the Action Orchestra), Billy Tolles, Jerry Granelli, Carol Kaye

Carol Kaye

Carol Kaye is an American musician, best known as one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists in history, playing on an estimated 10,000 recording sessions in a 55 year career....

, and he co-led Parameters. In 1981, he moved to New York.

Sideman

Stuart has performed as a sideman or co-leader with numerous noted artists, including Charlie Rouse

Charlie Rouse

Charlie Rouse was an American hard bop tenor saxophonist and flautist. His career is marked by the collaboration for more than ten years with Thelonious Monk.- Biography :...

, Charles Earland

Charles Earland

Charles Earland was an American jazz composer, organist, and saxophonist in the soul jazz idiom.-Biography:...

, Brother Jack McDuff

Jack McDuff

"Brother" Jack McDuff was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio.-Career:...

, Dr. Lonnie Smith

Lonnie Smith (jazz musician)

Dr. Lonnie Smith is a jazz Hammond B3 organist and pianist.-Biography:He was born in Lackawanna, New York, into a family with a vocal group and radio program. Smith says that his mother was a major influence on him musically, as she introduced him to gospel, classical, and jazz music...

, Ernie Krivda

Ernie Krivda

Ernie Krivda is a jazz saxophone player.Ernie Krivda began his professional career in 1963 with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. During the 1960s he played in bands of two Cleveland legends, organist Eddie Baccus and guitarist Bill DeArango...

, Larry Coryell

Larry Coryell

Larry Coryell is an American jazz fusion guitarist.-Biography:Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from Richland High School, in Richland, Washington, where he played in local bands The Jailers, The Rumblers, The Royals, and The Flames. He also played with The Checkers from nearby...

, Jeanie Bryson

Jeanie Bryson

Jeanie Bryson is an American singer with a combination of jazz, pop and Latin music. The singer's repertoire is based on durable jazz and pop standards, firmly rooted in The Great American Songbook and the legacies of Peggy Lee and Dinah Washington.-Personal life:Bryson is the daughter of...

, Bill Doggett

Bill Doggett

Bill Doggett was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist. He is best known for his tracks, "Honky Tonk" and "Hippy Dippy", and variously working with The Ink Spots, Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Jordan.-Biography:William Ballard Doggett was born in...

, Glenn Wilson, Makanda Ken McIntyre

Makanda Ken McIntyre

Makanda Ken McIntyre was an American jazz musician and composer.-Biography:McIntyre was born in Boston, Massachusetts...

, the Keith Copeland Coalition with John Stubblefield

John Stubblefield

John Stubblefield was an American jazz saxophonist, flautist, and oboist.Stubblefield was an adaptable musician; he was stationed with the World Saxophone Quartet , Reggie Workman , McCoy Tyner , Freddie Hubbard , and George Russell .-As leader:* Prelude with Onaje Allan Gumbs, Cecil McBee, Joe...

 and Joe Locke

Joe Locke

Joseph Paul Locke is a US American jazz vibraphonist, composer, recording artist and educator.-Biography:Locke was born in Palo Alto, California, but raised in Rochester, New York...

, Steve Coleman's

Steve Coleman

Steve Coleman, born , is an African American saxophone player, spontaneous composer, composer and band leader. His music and concepts have been a heavy influence on contemporary jazz.-Chicago:...

 band with Geri Allen

Geri Allen

Geri Allen is an American composer/pianist educator jazz pianist, raised in Detroit, Michigan, and educated in the Detroit Public Schools. Allen has worked with many of the greats of modern music, including Ornette Coleman, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Tony Williams, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette,...

, Graham Haynes

Graham Haynes

Graham Haynes is an American cornetist, trumpeter and composer, the son of jazz drummer Roy Haynes....

, and Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country, blues and folk music into her...

 (Stuart was an early member and contributor to MBASE) and Errol Parker's Tentet
In recent years, he has performed in groups with Billy Harper

Billy Harper

Billy Harper is a Jazz saxophonist, "one of a generation of Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists" with a distinctively stern, hard-as-nails sound on his instrument.-Biography:...

, Sheila Jordan

Sheila Jordan

Sheila Jordan is an American jazz singer and songwriter. Jordan has recorded as a session musician with an array of critically acclaimed artists in addition to a notable solo career....

, Reggie Workman

Reggie Workman

Reginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....

, George Garzone

George Garzone

George Garzone is a saxophonist and jazz educator residing in New York city.Saxophonist George Garzone is a member of The Fringe, a jazz trio founded in 1972 that includes bassist John Lockwood and drummer Bob Gullotti, that performs regularly in the Boston area and has toured world wide. The...

, Cecil Bridgewater

Cecil Bridgewater

-Biography:Bridgewater was born in Urbana, Illinois and studied at the University of Illinois. He and brother Ron formed the Bridgewater Brothers Band in 1969, and in the 1970s he was married to Dee Dee Bridgewater. In 1970 he played with Horace Silver, and following this with Thad Jones and Mel...

, Jack Walrath

Jack Walrath

Jack Walrath is an American post-bop jazz trumpeter and musical arranger known for his work with Ray Charles, Gary Peacock, Charles Mingus and Glenn Ferris, among others....

, Jay Clayton

Jay Clayton

Jay Clayton is an internationally acclaimed avant-garde vocalist and jazz educator.- Early years :...

, Kevin Hays

Kevin Hays

Kevin Hays is a jazz pianist. He was raised in Greenwich, ConnecticutHe is known for the Kevin Hays Trio and being in the Bill Stewart Trio....

, Jason Lindner, and John Ellis. He performed and contributed original compositions to Glenn Wilson's recording "Blue Porpoise Avenue" with Marc Copland

Marc Copland

Marc Copland is an American jazz pianist and composer.Copland became part of the jazz scene in Philadelphia in the early 1960s as a saxophonist, and later moved to New York where he experimented with electric alto saxophone...

, Jay Anderson, and Jeff Hirshfield

Jeff Hirshfield

Jeffrey Lee Hirshfield is an American jazz drummer.Hirshfield studied under Ed Soph. He worked for the Joffrey Ballet in 1976-77 and then played with Mose Allison . During the 1980s he worked with Red Rodney and Ira Sullivan , Toshiko Akiyoshi , and Bennie Wallace...

. His compositions have also been performed on recordings by other artists, including Tuck & Patti .

Educator

Since 1992, Stuart has led and developed the curriculum in rhythm for New School's Department of Jazz & Contemporary Music in New York . His former students lead their own groups and have played with bands led by a wide range of jazz legends, such as Roy Haynes

Roy Haynes

Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Haynes is among the most recorded drummers in jazz, and in a career lasting more than 60 years has played in a wide range of styles ranging from swing and bebop to jazz fusion and avant-garde jazz...

, Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett

Kenny Garrett is a Grammy Award-winning American post bop jazz saxophonist and flautist who gained fame in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and of Miles Davis's band. He has since pursued a critically acclaimed solo career...

, Elvin Jones

Elvin Jones

Elvin Ray Jones was a jazz drummer of the post-bop era. He showed interest in drums at a young age, watching the circus bands march by his family's home in Pontiac, Michigan....

, Pat Metheny

Pat Metheny

Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...

, Cecil Taylor

Cecil Taylor

Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...

, Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...

, Richard Bona

Richard Bona

Richard Bona is a jazz bassist and musician. His real African name, as he said live in Montreal in a show with Bobby McFerrin, is Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo...

, Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman

Joshua Redman is an American jazz saxophonist and composer who records for Nonesuch Records. He won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 1991.-Biography:...

, Kurt Rosenwinkel

Kurt Rosenwinkel

Kurt Rosenwinkel is an American jazz guitarist and keyboardist who came to prominence in the 1990s.-Biography:He attended the Berklee School of Music for two and a half years before leaving in his junior year to tour with Gary Burton, the dean of the school at the time...

, Charlie Haden

Charlie Haden

Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...

, Terence Blanchard

Terence Blanchard

Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...

, Charlie Hunter

Charlie Hunter

for the New Zealand racehorse trainer and driver see: Charlie HunterCharlie Hunter is an American guitarist, composer and bandleader....

, Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...

, Jimmy Smith, Eliane Elias

Eliane Elias

Eliane Elias is a Brazilian jazz pianist, arranger, vocalist and songwriter.-Biography:...

, and Lonnie Plaxico

Lonnie Plaxico

Lonnie Plaxico is an African American jazz bassist.Plaxico was born in Chicago, Illinois into a musical family, and started playing the bass at the age of twelve, turning professional at fourteen...

. (For a list of some of his former students, see below.)

Guests Stuart has brought to his rhythm classes include Miguel Zenon , Billy Harper

Billy Harper

Billy Harper is a Jazz saxophonist, "one of a generation of Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists" with a distinctively stern, hard-as-nails sound on his instrument.-Biography:...

, Tim Berne

Tim Berne

Tim Berne is an American jazz saxophone player and composer.Described by critic Thom Jurek as commanding "considerable power as a composer and ... frighteningly deft ability as a soloist," Berne has composed and performed prolifically since the 1980s...

, Vijay Iyer

Vijay Iyer

Vijay Iyer is a jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, producer, electronic musician, and writer based in New York City.-Biography:Born in 1971 and raised in Rochester, New York, Vijay Iyer is the son of Indian Tamil immigrants to the US. He received 15 years of Western classical training on violin...

, David Gilmore

David Gilmore

David Gilmore is an American jazz guitarist.Gilmore studied at New York University with Joe Lovano and Jim McNeely. In 1987 he began working professionally with the M-Base Collective and Ronald Shannon Jackson...

, Jason Lindner, Ronan Guilfoyle

Ronan Guilfoyle

Ronan Guilfoyle is one of Ireland's premier jazz musicians. He is the director of jazz at Newpark Music Centre in Dublin, Ireland and has performed extensively around the world...

, and Royal Hartigan.

In addition to his New School teaching, Stuart gives private lessons and has done numerous international clinics and workshops in India (2009 Express India, Radio And Music , Kazakhstan (U.S. Embassy News, Kazakhstan , (2008 , Israel (2009–2010), Italy (Veneto Jazz in Bassano 2005-2008; also Udine and Vercelli with John Riley's Trio (2006), Austria (2003), Denmark (2008), Switzerland (2003 , Brazil (2009, via Skype), Spain (2008), and across the USA (including IAJE in 2001 and 2007). He led and taught at a jazz workshop in Incheon, South Korea (2007–2008). In 2006, he was awarded the New School University Teaching Excellence Award (highest academic honor of the university) .

Leader

In 1982, Stuart formed his own quartet, with Keith Copeland, Calvin Hill, and Armen Donelian

Armen Donelian

Armen Donelian is a jazz pianist who was a member of the Jazz fusion group Cosmology. He has performed since 1975 as a member of a group or as a solo act...

. Their first recording, “Nightwork,” was critically acclaimed and received four stars in Downbeat. A subsequent recording, "Hurricane" with Copeland, Donelian, and Anthony Cox was released by Sunnyside Records, praised by the critics and received another four-star Downbeat review. Coda Magazine said about this group: "Rory Stuart is one of the freshest new guitarists in jazz. He has a full sound with a long lean style of playing. His quartet has the energetic flow of the Coltrane quartet. Rory Stuart knows the tradition even while pushing most broadly out from that tradition." With the help of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

, Stuart performed and recorded with an expanded version of the original quartet, adding Glenn Wilson, Dannie Moore, and John Stubblefield

John Stubblefield

John Stubblefield was an American jazz saxophonist, flautist, and oboist.Stubblefield was an adaptable musician; he was stationed with the World Saxophone Quartet , Reggie Workman , McCoy Tyner , Freddie Hubbard , and George Russell .-As leader:* Prelude with Onaje Allan Gumbs, Cecil McBee, Joe...

. (National Endowment For The Arts 1992 Annual Report p. 151.)

Since 2000, Stuart has led a group that plays to sold-out crowds at such venues as New York's Cornelia Street Cafe. This Quartet with Mark Shim

Mark Shim

Mark Shim is a jazz tenor saxophonist.Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Shim's family moved to Canada when he was eight and then settled in Richmond, Virginia five years later. He started on sax in seventh grade, graduating from high school in 1991 and attending Virginia Commonwealth University and...

, Matt Penman, and Ari Hoenig

Ari Hoenig

Ari Hoenig , is a jazz drummer, composer and educator known for his unusual and intense approach to drumming emphasizing complex rhythms. He currently leads a group that makes regular appearances in New York jazz clubs including the 55 Bar and the Blue Note, in addition to performing worldwide...

 released a recording on Smart Cat Music, "So Rise Up." (Jazz Times ).

Described in Jazz Times as "perhaps THE most innovative straight-ahead jazz guitarist to emerge in years," Stuart has also led groups and performed with local musicians in the Czech Republic (with Jaromir Honzak ), Switzerland (with Colin Vallon's Trio ), India (with the "godfather" of Indian jazz, Louiz Banks), and in Iceland, as well as special projects, such as a program of new music written for a New York concert featuring his former students Robert Glasper

Robert Glasper

Robert Glasper in Houston, Texas is an American jazz pianist and record producer.-Career:Glasper’s earliest musical influence was his mother, Kim Yvette Glasper, who sang jazz and blues professionally. She would bring him with her to club dates rather than leave her son with babysitters...

, Matt Penman, John Ellis, Jean Rohe and Becca Stevens joined by Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto. He continues to perform in New York and around the world to critical praise. (New York Times.)

Another recording, featuring Dan Weiss on tablas and John Ellis on saxophone, is being prepared for release. Other artists who have played in Stuart's groups include Jaleel Shaw, George Garzone

George Garzone

George Garzone is a saxophonist and jazz educator residing in New York city.Saxophonist George Garzone is a member of The Fringe, a jazz trio founded in 1972 that includes bassist John Lockwood and drummer Bob Gullotti, that performs regularly in the Boston area and has toured world wide. The...

, Will Vinson, Marc Copland

Marc Copland

Marc Copland is an American jazz pianist and composer.Copland became part of the jazz scene in Philadelphia in the early 1960s as a saxophonist, and later moved to New York where he experimented with electric alto saxophone...

, Pete Zimmer, Francois Moutin, Chris Tordini, Brandon Owens, Dave Robaire, Chris Smith, Francesca Tanksley, John Lockwood, John Riley

John B. Riley

John Bernard Riley is an American jazz drummer, a music educator – at the collegiate and conservatory levels – and a music clinician...

, Ronnie Burrage

Ronnie Burrage

Ronnie Burrage is an American jazz drummer. His style draws elements from hard bop, bebop, funk, and soul....

, Newman Taylor Baker

Newman Taylor Baker

Newman Taylor Baker is a jazz drummer best known for his 26 year association with Billy Harper, and his work with Henry Threadgill, Billy Bang, Henry Grimes, and Leroy Jenkins, and Diedre Murray....

, Obed Calvaire, and Marcus Gilmore.

Former Students

Among the students from around the world who have come through his Advanced Rhythm classes are rising jazz stars such as Robert Glasper, Mike Moreno, Marcus Strickland

Marcus Strickland

Marcus Strickland is a jazz soprano, alto and tenor saxophonist who grew up in Miami, Florida who currently lives in New York...

, John Ellis, Gregoire Maret

Gregoire Maret

Grégoire Maret was born in 1975 in Geneva, Switzerland. He began playing the harmonica at the age of 17. He graduated from high school in 1994....

, Mike Rodriguez, Becca Stevens, Matt Penman, Nils Wogram

Nils Wogram

Nils Wogram is a jazz trombonist. He began classical study at twelve and joined the German Federal Jazz Orchestra in 1989. In 1992 he moved to New York City where he lived for a few years...

, Jean Rohe, Taylor Ho Bynum, E.J. Strickland, Ali Jackson

Ali Jackson (musician)

Ali Jackson is a jazz drummer.His mother, a classical pianist, taught him piano at and how to read music at age 4. Jackson's father, a professional bass player, taught him music theory and gave him drums lesson from rudiment books. He attended Detroit's prestigious Cass Technical High School. He...

, Aaron Goldberg

Aaron Goldberg

Aaron Goldberg is a jazz pianist based in New York City. He began studying piano at seven and studied under Bob Sinicrope of Milton Academy and saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi...

, Tigran Hamasyan, Kenyatta Beasley, Gilad Hekselman, John Beaty, Otis Brown III, Chris Tordini, Kenny Grohowski, Carlos Henriquez, Pedro and Joao Moreira, Yotam Silberstein, Yeahwon Shin, Renee Cruz, Dave Robaire, Mary Halvorson

Mary Halvorson

Mary Halvorson is a guitarist from Boston, Massachusetts, currently living in Brooklyn, NY. She is a 2002 graduate of Wesleyan University. She has performed with many artists, including Anthony Braxton, Jessica Pavone, Taylor Ho Bynum and Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant. As of 2008, she leads a trio...

, Wayne Batchelor . . . and too many others to name.

Additional References

Jazz.com Rory Stuart

The Jazz Guitar by Maurice Summerfield

Donald Clarke's Encyclopedia of Popular Music http://www.donaldclarkemusicbox.com/encyclopedia/detail.php?s=3256 and http://www.donaldclarkemusicbox.com/encyclopedia/detail.php?s=1863)

All About Jazz http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=4689

Cadence Magazine “Rory Stuart: Interview” (January 1984)

Guitar Player Magazine ("Rory Stuart Improvisor," March, 1988)

Guitar Player Magazine ("Master Series: Beyond Scales & Arpeggios," January 1989)

Sunnyside Records Artists http://www.sunnysiderecords.com/artist.php?id=203

CIMP Albums featuring Rory Stuart http://www.cimprecords.com/artists/?artist=Rory+Stuart

Jazz Times http://jazztimes.com/articles/18274-so-rise-up-rory-stuart-quartet

Jazz Inside Magazine http://jazzinsidemagazine.com/Members/rorystuart/stuart-rory

In The Moment by Francis Davis (DaCapo Press)