Sep 24, 2024 12:02 PM
In Memoriam: Benny Golson, 1929–2024
Benny Golson, one of the greatest composers and saxophonists of the bebop era, passed away Saturday, Sept. 21, at his…
Bassist Luke Stewart is among the 25 artists DownBeat thinks will help shape jazz in the decades to come.
(Photo: TSE)The very act of identifying Luke Stewart’s latest project is exhausting. Rarely is there just one.
The prolific bassist began building an international reputation in 2014, when he became a member of tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis’ working trio. By that time, however, he was well established as both an artist and a presenter in Washington, D.C., where he arrived at age 19. Gifted and determined, Stewart began to shape the city’s artistic landscape. A cofounder of the jazz advocacy organization CapitalBop, he helped to create a thriving independent scene for jazz and experimental music in a metropolis that didn’t have the institutional infrastructure of New York, Chicago or New Orleans.
Though all his recording projects—including the recent leader date Exposure Quintet (Astral Spirits)—involve free improvisation, they are remarkably diverse. But Stewart doesn’t recalibrate his approach each time out. For him, the new setting provides the direction.
“I want to be totally present for each band,” he said. “Each band is different, and my role in each is different. So, of course I’m going to think about them all differently. If there’s an overriding theme, it might be just following the music.”
That’s not to say that Stewart has no set aesthetic principles. In fact, Exposure Quintet embodies a primary one. All five of its tracks are his compositions, in the sense that he organized them—but he did so by picking out themes, motifs and other frameworks from recordings of the band’s improvisations. The goal is to dissolve the barriers between composer and improviser, especially those that assign greater value to one than the other.
If there’s a hint of the revolutionary in Stewart’s talk of abolishing hierarchies, that’s no coincidence, considering his views on sociopolitical issues in 2020: “During this time, everything’s up for review—even the fundamental basis of how we perceive music, and some of the oppressive influences that have been imposed on those perceptions.” DB
This story originally was published in the November 2020 issue of DownBeat. Subscribe here.
Benny Golson soaks in the music during a late-career performance at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase.
Sep 24, 2024 12:02 PM
Benny Golson, one of the greatest composers and saxophonists of the bebop era, passed away Saturday, Sept. 21, at his…
Claire Daly, right, performs with tenor saxophonist George Garzone at Dizzy’s in 2023.
Oct 23, 2024 10:10 AM
Claire Daly often signed her correspondences with “Love and Low Notes.”
The baritone saxophonist, who died Oct.…
Harpist Brandee Younger is among the performers on the program for this year’s Hyde Park Jazz Fest in Chicago.
Sep 17, 2024 11:40 AM
The 18th Annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival will be held on 13 unique stages across Chicago’s Hyde Park, Kenwood and…
McNeil’s virtuosity as a player was unimpeachable and his imagination as an improviser was vast.
Oct 2, 2024 11:35 AM
John McNeil, a trumpeter, composer and educator who built an accomplished and progressive career in jazz despite a…
“I don’t focus on the harshness of the music business,” Lloyd says. “I focus on the profundity of what we’re doing because that’s the real stuff. You can change the world with that.”
Sep 4, 2024 1:29 PM
“To get this honor at this late stage, I suppose I’m blessed. I just know that this is a sacred song, and I’m in…
