Jazz Articles about Curtis Stewart

About Curtis Stewart

Album Review

The Hemphill Stringtet: The Hemphill Stringtet Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill

Read "The Hemphill Stringtet Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
May 13, 2025

One of the most multifaceted saxophonists to come out of the 1970s-80s jazz avant-garde, Julius Hemphill exuded both fervid power and delicate sensitivity, always with an underpinning of swing to help anchor him within the jazz tradition. While his iconic releases like Dogon A.D. (Mbari, 1972) and Flat-Out Jump Suite (Black Saint, 1980) are rightly considered classics, exemplifying Hemphill's rich harmonic sensibility and improvisational prowess, sometimes forgotten are the wonderful duet releases he recorded with one of his go-to colleagues, ...

Album Review

The Hemphill Stringtet: The Hemphill Stringtet Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill

Read "The Hemphill Stringtet Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 29, 2025

Let us borrow a famous tagline from the dairy industry: Got Hemphill? If not, it is time to take a closer listen. Julius Hemphill (1938-1995) was a towering figure in the creative music scenes of both St. Louis, where he co-founded the Black Artists' Group (BAG), and New York's vibrant loft jazz scene of the 1970s and '80s. At a time when Miles Davis was going electric and fusion bands were battling for airtime against the neo- conservative ...

Album Review

The Hemphill String Stringtet: The Hemphill Stringtet Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill

Read "The Hemphill Stringtet Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
April 27, 2025

The Hemphill Stringtet's debut album, Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill is a vibrant tribute to the late jazz composer and saxophonist Julius Hemphill (1938--1995). This string quartet, featuring violinists Curtis Stewart and Sam Bardfeld, violist Stephanie Griffin and cellist Tomeka Reid, reimagines Hemphill's compositions with a fresh chamber music perspective. Formed in 2022, the ensemble aims to amplify Hemphill's legacy as a pivotal Black American composer while infusing his blues-inflected jazz with improvisational flair rooted in African American traditions. ...

Album Review

Eli Yamin: Message From Saturn

Read "Message From Saturn" reviewed by James Nadal

by James Nadal
November 12, 2016

The Jazz Drama Program was founded in 2003, in New York City, by pianist and composer Eli Yamin, and educator Clifford Carlson, to stimulate youth by offering diverse and imaginative jazz, theater, and dance programs with active participation of those enrolled. Message From Saturn takes its title from a famous Sun Ra comment: “I just got a message from Saturn. We're not playing enough blues." With this statement as a launching point, the cosmological theme also draws inspiration from “The ...

Album Review

Curtis Stewart: Of Colors

Read "Of Colors" reviewed by Tyran Grillo

by Tyran Grillo
April 11, 2016

Curtis Stewart's biography may read like a playlist of his biggest influences--not least of all his father, jazz tuba pioneer Bob Stewart, and mother, Greek violinist and composer Elektra Kurtis--but the blazing violinist has made an indelible mark with his debut record as a jazz leader, Of Colors. From among said influences, Curtis pays homage to a selective pedigree, crafting a series of mostly vignette-sized portions into a dual program--split between the title suite and another, called “(UN)- folding"--that overgrows ...