Buddy Stewart

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Buddy Stewart (* 1922 in Derry (New Hampshire) as Albert James Byrne Jr. , † February 1, 1950 in Deming (New Mexico) ) was an American jazz singer .

Live and act

Stewart's parents were dancers, so at the age of eight he already appeared in a vaudeville and sang in a number of formations, including a. in a duo with his future wife Martha Wayne . As a member of The Snowflakes , he performed with the orchestras of Glenn Miller and Claude Thornhill in the early 1940s .

After serving in the US Army (March 1942 to 1944), he recorded What's This in 1945 with Dave Lambert and Gene Krupa's orchestra , the first vocal version of a Bop track . He was also successful in the pop charts with Along the Navajo Trail . He also worked with Lambert in the next few years; they recorded for the small label Sittin 'In With ; Gerry Mulligan was the arranger . In 1947 he sang in the orchestra of Charlie Ventura ("Synthesis", "East of Suez", 1947 on Savoy ). From January 1948 he appeared under his own name, u. a. as co-leader of a formation with Kai Winding and in 1949 with Charlie Barnet's bebop orchestra. In 1948 he also took on some titles as a band leader; Stewart and Lambert added a third vocal line and two horns, Bennie Green and Allen Eager , with Blossom Dearie . In February 1949 they were on the air with Charlie Parker's quintet. Stewart was killed in a car accident in 1950 while visiting his wife and child in New Mexico.

After Stewart's death, when his wife was penniless, a benefit concert was held on March 24th in Birdland, New York ; it occurred u. a. Ella Fitzgerald , Charlie Ventura, Stan Getz , Tony Scott , Al Cohn , Lester Young , Lennie Tristano , Harry Belafonte , JJ Johnson , Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Pettiford . His sister Beverly later married the saxophonist Stan Getz.

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Individual evidence

  1. http://www.artistdirect.com/artist/bio/buddy-stewart/497570
  2. One of the last joint photos of Parker and Gillespie was taken at the concert, on which Gillespie's tenor saxophonist John Coltrane can also be seen. See Friedwald, p. 167.