Editing Rex Stewart

{{Short description|American jazz cornetist (1907–1967)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{about|the American jazz cornetist|the DC Comics character|Warhawk (DC Comics)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name            = Rex Stewart
| image           = Rex Stewart (1943).jpg
| caption         = Rex Stewart with Duke Ellington's orchestra (1943)
| background      = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name      = Rex William Stewart Jr.
| birth_date      = {{birth date|1907|2|22}}
| birth_place     = [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, U.S.
| death_date      = {{death date and age|1967|9|7|1907|2|22}}
| death_place     = [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], U.S.
| genre           = [[Jazz]]
| occupation      = Musician
| instrument      = Cornet
| years_active    = 1920s–1966
| label           = 
| associated_acts = [[Duke Ellington]]
}}

'''Rex William Stewart Jr.''' (February 22, 1907 – September 7, 1967)<ref name="Feather"/> was an American [[jazz]] cornetist who was a member of the [[Duke Ellington]] orchestra.

==Career==
As a boy he studied piano and violin; most of his career was spent on cornet.<ref name="Swing">{{cite book |last1=Yanow |first1=Scott |title=Swing |date=2000 |publisher=Miller Freeman Books |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-0-87930-600-7 |pages=149–151}}</ref> Stewart dropped out of high school to become a member of the Ragtime Clowns led by Ollie Blackwell.<ref name="Feather">{{cite book |last1=Feather |first1=Leonard |last2=Gitler |first2=Ira |title=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz |url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalency00feat |url-access=registration |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-507418-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/biographicalency00feat/page/623 623]–624}}</ref> He was with the Musical Spillers led by [[Willie Lewis]] in the early 1920s, then with [[Elmer Snowden]], [[Horace Henderson]], [[Fletcher Henderson]], [[Fess Williams]], and [[McKinney's Cotton Pickers]].<ref name="Swing" /><ref name="Feather" /> In 1933 he led a big band at the Empire Ballroom in New York City.<ref name="Feather" /> Beginning in 1934, he spent eleven years with the [[Duke Ellington]] band.<ref name="Swing" /><ref name="Feather" /> Stewart co-wrote "Boy Meets Horn" and "Morning Glory" and supervised recording sessions by members of the Ellington band. He left Ellington to lead "little swing bands that were a perfect setting for his solo playing."<ref name="Shipton">{{cite web |last1=Shipton |first1=Alyn |title=BBC - (none) - Jazz Library - Rex Stewart |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzlibrary/pip/d5lon/ |website=Bbc.co.uk |access-date=14 March 2020 |date=29 February 2008}}</ref> He toured in Europe and Australia with [[Jazz at the Philharmonic]] from 1947 to 1951. 

Beginning in the early 1950s, he worked in radio and television and wrote jazz criticism for the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''<ref name="Feather" /> and the magazines ''[[Playboy]]'' and ''[[DownBeat]]''. The book ''Jazz Masters of the Thirties''<ref name="Swing" /><ref name="Feather" />  is a selection of his criticism. He lived in upstate New York after purchasing a one hundred year old farmhouse. He hosted a jazz radio program in Troy, New York, and owned a small restaurant for a short time near a drag racing track in Vermont. While living in France, he attended the [[Le Cordon Bleu]] school of cooking<ref name="Feather" /> and dedicated his life to becoming a fine cook. Stewart moved to Los Angeles, California, to be near his children. His son Paul Albert Hardy lived in New York City. While in Los Angeles he reunited with musicians from the Ellington band and played jam sessions in clubs. He was a studio musician for ''[[The Steve Allen Show]]'' and with George Cole he hosted two radio shows: ''Dixieland Doings'' and ''Things Aint What They Used to Be''.

His autobiography, ''Boy Meets Horn'', was published in 1991.<ref name="Feather" /> He died of a brain hemorrhage in Los Angeles.<ref name="Feather" />

==Film and TV==
He made a cameo appearance in the film ''[[Rendezvous in July]]'' (1949) directed by [[Jacques Becker]].<ref name="Kenny">{{cite web |last1=Kenny |first1=Glenn |title=Review: In 'Rendezvous in July,' Young Parisians Are on the Move |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/movies/rendezvous-in-july-review.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=14 March 2020 |date=31 July 2018}}</ref> He also appeared in ''[[Hellzapoppin' (film)|Hellzapoppin']]'' (1941) and ''[[The Sound of Jazz]]'' (1957) telecast.<ref name="Swing" />

==Discography==
* ''Big Jazz'' with Jack Teagarden ([[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]], 1953)
* ''Rex Stewart Plays Duke Ellington'' with Illinois Jacquet ([[Grand Award Records|Grand Award]], 1955)
* ''[[The Big Challenge]]'' with [[Cootie Williams]] (Jazztone, 1957)
* ''[[Porgy & Bess Revisited]]'' with Cootie Williams  ([[Warner Bros. Records|Warner Bros.]], 1959)
* ''[[Chatter Jazz]]'' with Dickie Wells ([[RCA Victor]], 1959)
* ''[[Henderson Homecoming]]'' ([[United Artists Records|United Artists]], 1959)
* ''[[Rendezvous with Rex]]'' ([[Felsted Records|Felsted]], 1959)
* ''[[The Happy Jazz of Rex Stewart]]'' ([[Swingville Records|Swingville]], 1960)
* ''Rex Stewart and the Ellingtonians'' ([[Riverside Records|Riverside]], 1960)
* ''Redhead'' ([[Design Records]], 1960)
* ''The Rex Stewart Memorial Album'' ([[Prestige Records|Prestige]], 1969)
* ''The Irrepressible Rex Stewart'' with John Dengler ([[Jazzology Records|Jazzology]], 1980)
* ''Rex Stewart with the Alex Welsh Band'' (Jazzology, 2004)

==References==
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{{Reflist}}

{{Rex Stewart}}
{{Duke Ellington}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stuart, Rex}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:American jazz cornetists]]
[[Category:Dixieland cornetists]]
[[Category:Dixieland trumpeters]]
[[Category:Duke Ellington Orchestra members]]
[[Category:Jazz musicians from Philadelphia]]
[[Category:RCA Victor artists]]
[[Category:Swing cornetists]]
[[Category:Swing trumpeters]]
[[Category:20th-century American musicians]]
[[Category:McKinney's Cotton Pickers members]]
[[Category:Riverside Records artists]]