Jazz Articles about Grant Stewart

About Grant Stewart

Album Review

Adam Shulman: Just The Contrafacts

Read "Just The Contrafacts" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
July 1, 2022

For those who may be scratching their heads about the word contrafact, in the jazz medium it designates a musical composition in which a new melody is overlaid on a familiar harmonic structure. This form really became prominent in the bebop era, where the artists (who were generally short of financial resources) could create new compositions over which they could improvise and record without worrying about paying royalties for copyrighted materials. During the depths of the ...

Live Review

Grant Stewart Trio with Special Guest John Swana at Chris’ Jazz Café

by Victor L. Schermer
August 22, 2017

Grant Stewart Trio with Special Guest John Swana Chris' Jazz Cafe Philadelphia, PA August 18, 2017 In this supremely swinging hard bop set, Toronto-born New York saxophonist Grant Stewart joined long-time Philadelphia musicians: organist Lucas Brown, drummer Dan Monaghan, and special guest John Swana to knock out standards with a rare execution that was as tight as what might be the final takes on a recording date. The event was notable for Swana's first-time ...

Album Review

Grant Stewart Trio: Roll On

by Jack Bowers
July 25, 2017

Add Grant Stewart's name to the growing list of tenor saxophonists who are gaining broad approval by reanimating exemplary yet by and large overlooked songs from the Great American Songbook and elsewhere and lending them a fresh coat of paint that not only accentuates their timeless charm but does so while swinging in the grandest jazz tradition. Others who have championed that cause in recent years include (but are not limited to) Harry Allen, Ken Peplowski, Scott Hamilton and fellow ...

Album Review

John Swana: Bright Moments

Read "Bright Moments" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
April 19, 2017

Simply put, this album is so listenable and stood out so noticeably among the many CDs I've been spinning for myself recently, that I thought All About Jazz readers ought to know about it. I first heard then trumpeter John Swana a decade or more ago when he jammed at pianist Tom Lawton's memorable long-term gig with the late great bassist Al Stauffer at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia. I was awestruck by Swana's clarity, sustained non-vibrato tone, and ...

Catching Up With

Grant Stewart: The Sound of Hard Bop Today

by Marta Ramon
August 8, 2012

Grant Stewart is regarded as one of the most influential tenor sax players of the contemporary jazz scene. After nine formative years of intense learning and playing in his hometown of Toronto, the 19 year--old Stewart took his saxophone and bought a flight to New York. Once there, he did things his own way from day one: he decided his best bet would be to seek tutelage from musicians he liked, such as trumpter Donald Byrd, pianist Barry Harris and ...

265

Album Review

Grant Stewart: Plays the Music of Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn

Read "Plays the Music of Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn" reviewed by George Kanzler

by George Kanzler
August 7, 2009

Here's a refreshing take on Ellingtonia, one that doesn't rely on the overdone ("Take the A Train," “Perdido") or easy ("C-Jam Blues"). Canadian native Grant Stewart brings a post-Swing, combo approach to his Ellingtonia, even going so far as to reference Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk{{ and the {{Duke Ellington/John Coltrane collaboration. The tenor saxophonist, whose own distinctive style has echoes of Clifford Jordan and later Al Cohn in tone and conception, leads a pos tbop/hard bop-leaning ...

234

Album Review

Grant Stewart: Young at Heart

Read "Young at Heart" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
March 17, 2008

Since moving from Toronto to New York at age 19, Grant Stewart has spent 15 years dutifully toiling in the city's jazz underground. Only over the past few years have we begun to hear some worthy examples of the tenor saxophonist's labor--a release under his name for Criss Cross, a pair on the same label by Reeds and Deeds (a band he co-leads with Eric Alexander), and a couple on the Video Arts imprint. Although all of these discs are ...