Stewart, Slam

By: Barry Kernfeld

Source:

 American National Biography Online

Stewart, Slam

Sex:  Male

Born:  Englewood, New Jersey, United States
21 September 1914

Died:  Binghamton, New York, United States
10 December 1987

Activity/Profession:  Jazz Musician, Music Educator, Bandleader, Bassist

Slam Stewart, 1946.

© William P. Gottlieb; used by permission. William P. Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress (LC-GLB23-0818 DLC).

jazz string bassist, bandleader, and educator, was born in Englewood, New Jersey. Nothing is known of his parents or his real name. He was raised as Leroy Elliott Stewart, but he said, without offering details, that a different name is on his birth certificate. His adopted father was a caretaker and gardener. Stewart started on violin at age six or seven and switched to string bass while in high school in Englewood.

His father worked for Dwight Morrow, an affluent man whose daughter Anne married Charles Lindbergh. After Stewart graduated, Morrow helped send him to the Boston Conservatory of Music, where he studied string bass for one year while playing in local bands. At this time he began to imitate Ray Perry, who hummed in unison with violin bowing; Stewart’s humming, situated an octave above his bowed bass, became his overused musical signature.

In 1936 he joined trumpeter Peanuts Holland’s band in Buffalo, New York. He returned to New Jersey and then started playing in New York City clubs. Around 1937 he met guitarist and singer Slim Gaillard at a jam session at an after-hours club in Harlem. The next day they played together on Gaillard’s radio show on WMEW in New York. Martin Block, host of “The Make Believe Ballroom” on that same station, volunteered to manage the new duo, Slim and Slam, in which Stewart acquired his lasting nickname. They toured theaters nationally and had a huge hit with the nonsense song “The Flat Foot Floogie (with the Floy, Floy)”; at the next World’s Fair a copy of this disc was buried in a time capsule, together with a recording of John Philip Sousa’s “Washington Post March.”

Stewart also worked with the Spirits of Rhythm (spring 1939), Van Alexander’s dance orchestra (1940), and his own trio at Kelly’s Stable in New York (late 1940). Slim and Slam performed in the comedy film Hellzapoppin’ (1941), but the duo broke up the next year, when Gaillard was inducted into the armed forces. Stewart played in Fats Waller’s group in the film Stormy Weather (1943), and while in California, guitarist Tiny Grimes took Gaillard’s place. A successful jam session with pianist Art Tatum led to their joining Tatum in a trio from 1943 to 1944. Stewart had perfect pitch and was able to keep up with Tatum’s impetuous habit of reharmonizing popular songs, playing them in different keys, or changing keys in the course of a tune. “He never did get me,” Stewart told interviewer Doug Long. “I was able to follow him right straight through.”

Tatum’s trio played at the Three Deuces in New York. Apart from Tatum, Stewart recorded “Afternoon of a Basieite” and “Sometimes I’m Happy” at a session with saxophonist Lester Young in December 1943, and during 1944 he also worked at the Three Deuces with pianist Johnny Guarnieri’s trio, and he played in Grimes’s quartet.

Late in 1944 Tatum went to Los Angeles, California, and Stewart took over the trio, with Erroll Garner serving as its pianist. The Three Deuces remained his home base, but he also toured extensively. Concurrently from late January to November 1945 Stewart was a member of clarinetist Benny Goodman’s quintet and sextet. During this same year he recorded “Groovin’ High” and “All the Things You Are” with Dizzy Gillespie’s amalgamated swing and bop group (February), two magnificently energetic duos with tenor saxophonist Don Byas, “Indiana” and “I Got Rhythm,” in a concert at Town Hall (9 June); “Slam Slam Blues” with vibraphonist Red Norvo (also June); and “Three O’Clock in the Morning” with Byas’s quartet, including Garner (August).

In January 1946, after Garner had a hit record, “Laura,” and went out on the road as a leader, Billy Taylor took Garner’s place in Stewart’s trio; they also worked as a quartet with drummer Doc West. Stewart worked with Tatum again that spring. His trio continued with John Collins replacing Grimes in 1946 and Mary Lou Williams taking over the piano chair by the time of the movie Boy! What a Girl (1947).

After performing with Garner in France in May 1948, Stewart moved to Los Angeles and played on and off with Tatum during the late 1940s and early 1950s, with Everett Barksdale serving as their guitarist. Stewart worked in trumpeter Roy Eldridge’s quartet (1953), continued leading a trio with Beryl Booker as his pianist from 1953 to 1955, and then toured as accompanist to singer and pianist Rose Murphy from around 1956 into the 1960s. He was reunited with Gaillard for a performance at the Great South Bay Jazz Festival in summer 1958.

In the mid-1960s Stewart settled permanently in Binghamton, New York. After retiring temporarily due to illness, he led his own trio in New York City late in 1968 and for work in Binghamton television studios. He rejoined Gaillard one last time for a quartet performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival with organist Milt Buckner and drummer Jo Jones in 1970. He then toured Europe with Buckner and Jones in April 1971. While performing in San Francisco, California, with Tatum in 1951, Stewart had met a singer and pianist, Claire (maiden name unknown). They married around 1970 and had two children.

From the early 1970s onward, Stewart taught at the State University of New York in Binghamton, gave programs on jazz history at Binghamton area schools, and produced jazz concerts at the Roberson Center in Binghamton. He rejoined Goodman in June 1973 for the Newport Jazz Festival in New York and then toured steadily with the clarinetist until March 1976, including a trip to Europe in 1974. In February 1977 Stewart suffered a heart attack, followed by a stroke. He recovered to play at the Grand Parade du Jazz in Nice, France, in July 1977, and that same year he played at Hopper’s in New York in a duo with guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. The duo performed regularly on the Today show on NBC during 1978.

Stewart rejoined Goodman occasionally in 1979 and for a last time as a guest soloist in June 1985. He toured internationally with saxophonist Illinois Jacquet (c. 1980–1981). In May 1984 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from SUNY Binghamton. He died in Binghamton. The date is given incorrectly as 9 December in the New York Times obituary; the funeral home confirmed the correct date, 10 December.

Having discovered a coarse, humorous sound, Stewart relentlessly hummed and bowed his solos through half a century of jazz. Unfortunately, a little of this gimmick goes a very long way. It seems a shame that Stewart never tried to make his solos beautiful, deep toned, and heady, along the lines of an Oscar Pettiford. Otherwise, in his principal role as an accompanist, plucking the instrument in a conventional jazz manner to keep rhythm and harmony in place, he ranks with any of the finest jazz bassists.

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