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Bob "Saloon" Stewart

BOB STEWART’S baritone embodies the warmth and understanding to turn the great standards of American music into poetic statements. But when his career was beginning to flower, the bloom was fading from his line of work. “I had been making the Down Beat polls of the leading 10 best male singers,” Stewart said the other day, ”Then Elvis came along and changed everything.” Not quite everything. Stewart has retained his vocal ability, which is apparent in his recordings and personal appearances. Until now, he didn’t fight what had become the steamrolling affect of rock-and-roll. Some others did, especially those who had achieved high profiles, such as Vic Damone, Tony Bennett and Jack Jones. But they struggled in a diminishing spotlight.

Stewart went fishing instead. “I always loved fishing and did it every chance I got,” he said, “I had been on boats since I was a little kid. So when rock- and - roll came in and singing jobs were harder and harder to find I decided to study for my Captain’s license. I eventually owned and operated a 90 foot charter boat and sailed daily from Sheepshead Bay, NY. The boat was called the“BIG CAPT BOB”.

A chance meeting with pianist Harold Danko one night in a downtown NYC night spot started Bob to thinking about resuming his singing career again.

“Harold asked me to sit in. I hadn’t appeared in person in years but I did it that night and everything seemed to come right back,” he said. “I had early training as a classical singer and when I graduated High School, I landed a job at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City with a 15 piece dance band. I went on with other bands and appeared in theaters and clubs throughout the USA and Europe. “I eventually went out on my own and went with MGM Records and recorded 12 sides for them. While on tour promoting one of my recordings I received an offer from WLW -TV in Cincinnati where I did some 12 live shows a week on radio and TV.”

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164
Album Review

Bob Stewart: I Concentrate On You

Read "I Concentrate On You" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


In 1956, Bob Stewart and the members of the Mat Mathews Quintet recorded twelve tracks at the New Jersey studio of Rudy Van Gelder. Let's Talk About Love, originally released on the Dawn label, was digitally remastered in 2005 and licensed to Fresh Sound Records, now called simply Bob Stewart. Listening to this music from fifty years ago, one hears a first-rate jazz crooner. Stewart's voice has deepened since this recording, as his 1990s albums, largely on his own VWC ...

154
Album Review

The 4 Most/Bob Stewart: The 4 Most/Bob Stewart

Read "The 4 Most/Bob Stewart" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


The first half of this CD consists of a previously released Dawn album from 1956 called The 4 Most Sing The Arrangements of Joe Derise. The 4 Most was a vocal group quartet that consisted of Al Evans, Chuck Sedacca, Joe Derise and Marv Falcon, supported here by an octet that included Dick Sherman, Gene Quill, Al Cohn, Hank Jones, and others. The 4 Most's style was very reminiscent of the Four Freshmen/Hi-Lo school of jazz vocal harmony, and especially ...

173
Album Review

Bob Stewart: Love Songs

Read "Love Songs" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Bob Stewart is a talented singer, a throwback to such crooners of the '40s and '50s as Dick Haymes, Buddy Clark, the Eberle (Eberly) brothers and their musical cousins. The voice is clear and pleasant, midway between tenor and baritone, the lyric interpretation forthright and unvarnished. The liner notes say Stewart has been compared to Sinatra and Tormé, but that may be stretching things a bit. He's closer to Vic Damone, but even here the gulf between them is wide. ...

181
Album Review

Bob Stewart/Hank Jones: Take Two

Read "Take Two" reviewed by Dave Nathan


P>Bob Stewart's third album for the VWC label is a compilation of two sessions recorded at the Rudy Van Gelder studios in 1986 and 1990. Stewart is a bit of an anomaly on today's singing scene in that he is a saloon singer, which can be best described as the male counterpart of the female cabaret singer. He has those mannerisms go with this style of singing, like the small, extra surprise vocal annotations appended to the end of a ...

185
Album Review

Bob Stewart: Then & Now

Read "Then & Now" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


Bob Stewart is one of a select few who have catapulted the tuba into more of a prominent role within jazz and modern music circles. With that, Stewart enlists a mighty impressive cast of jazz musicians along with the legendary folk-blues singer/songwriter, Taj Mahal on Then & Now.

Stewart handles the bottom end without the utilization or perhaps, requirements of a bassist as he drives the band forward on “Hambone” which is a New Orleans style R&B/Funk number featuring brassy ...

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“…Bob Stewart’s sound is like the softest velvet. He created a lush seductive moment. His treatment of lyrics has the touch of a master!” …MARTIN SCHAEFFER, VARIETY

“…he is one of the great straight - ahead jazz singers of our time!” …JERRY L. ATKINS - KTXK, FM, TEXARKANA, TX

“…they have just about all gone. All the great singers, Crosby, Sinatra, Haymes, Eckstine and so many more that were literate and meaningful. Almost all gone but we nostalgics still have Bob Stewart!” …KEN MEADES, jazz [email protected]

“…Rod Stewart, Cindy Lauper and others are turning to the “Great American Song Book” because it contains some of the best popular songs ever written. But Bob Stewart got there first, knows them inside out and has the type voice that they were written for!”…RON BIERMAN, RAMBLES

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Did I Remember

VWC Records
2007

buy

The 4 Most/Bob Stewart

Fresh Sound Records
2005

buy

Love Songs

VWC Records
2002

buy

Take Two

VWC Records
2000

buy

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