EARL LOUIS STEWART
Composer of Intellectual Jazz
Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1950. His musical studies began with the piano at age six. By his twelfth birthday, he had learned to play the trumpet, winning him numerous honors. During his teenage years and early twenties, his trumpet prowess and musical acumen blended harmoniously, qualifying him to write musical arrangements and assimilate into pick-up bands with touring performers, such as Percy Sledge, Sly Johnson, Garland Green and King Floyd.
He received his BS in Secondary Education from Southern University, Baton Rouge, studying under Walter Craig and the late jazz great Alvin Batiste at the Jazz Institute. He then received his MM and DMA in Composition from The University of Texas at Austin, studying with such luminaries as ethnomusicologist Gerard Behague, composers Karl Korte and Joseph Schwantner, and world-renowned orchestrator and author of Counterpoint (the late) Kent Kennan.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
1950-Present
Born in Baton Rouge in the 1950s, Earl Louis Stewart came of age in a city shaped by contradiction rich in culture, yet constrained by segregation; alive with music, yet marked by inequity.
The Baton Rouge of that era was defined by limits imposed from the outside, but inside homes, churches, and community spaces, something enduring took root. Music was not a luxury, it was language, refuge, and resistance.
Today, Baton Rouge has changed. Progress is visible, opportunities broader, voices louder. And yet, disparities and inequities persist, echoing the past in new forms.
Through every era, music has remained a stable and fertile ground, a place where imagination is free, where lineage is honored, and where spirit abides.
Composer and Conductor
For the past 40 years, he has been committed to the applications of advanced counterpoint in jazz and jazz derived styles. Dr. Stewart proclaims the art of counterpoint is the combinations of melodies into a higher unit, which creates the harmony. "Europeans were masters of the contrapuntal technique, and it was foundational in the beginnings of their musical developments. The music was principally polyphonic; in fact, the rhythmic composites of African-derived music enjoyed throughout the world is fundamentally polyphonic. By combining rhythm and melody in certain ways in the vernacular, one finds that baroque music is compatible." Understanding this principle has resulted in Dr. Stewart's creation of inumerous jazz fugues, inventions, and other contrapuntal creations in the style of African and African-derived music.
Dr. Stewart’s works have been performed at venues in Louisiana, Texas, Massachusetts, New York, Alabama, North Carolina, California and Africa. The Second Annual Louisiana Composers’ Symposium (1975), presented by The New Orleans Public Schools Jazz Artist In Residence Program, showcased Stewart’s "An Appropriate Title," (Identity 6), performed by jazz great Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley and the Southern University Percussion Ensemble.
In addition to conducting, Dr. Stewart’s compositions have been performed by soloists Brenda Wimberly and Carolyn Sebron; and jazz artists Jullian 'Cannonball' Adderly, Alvin Batiste and Kent Jordan. Ensembles who have performed his music include the Southern University Chorus (Baton Rouge, Louisiana); the Southern University Jazz Orchestra; the Boston Orchestra and Choral (Massachusetts); the Scott Joplin Orchestra of Houston (Texas); the University of California Jazz Orchestra; the Mobile Symphony Orchestra (Alabama); and members of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.
The 1984 premier of his oratorio Al-Inkishafi (Identity 14) (The Soul’s Awakening), a choral symphonic setting of an East African (Kiswahili) poem, was performed in Austin, Texas. It featured the Austin Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Sung Kwak; distinguished Mezzo-Soprano Barbara Conrad with the Metropolitan Opera; internationally known choreographer and master of African dance Chuck Davis; the Southern University Chorus of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; English narrator the nationally renowned actor Moses Gunn; and Kiswahili narrator John “Mtembezi” Inniss, along with local dancers.
He served as conductor and artistic director of the Boston Orchestra and Chorale from 1987-1991 and as guest conductor with the Scott Joplin Orchestra of Houston, Texas. In addition, he had conductorial performances with the UCSB Jazz Orchestra.
Selected Artistic Collaborations
A selection of wonderful artists I’ve had the distinct pleasure of working with.
"You may encounter many defeats,
but you must not be defeated".
- Maya Angelou
Perserverance
In December 2003, Dr. Stewart was stricken with the neurological disorder Guillian-Barre Syndrome. The disorder became nearly fatal. He was hospitalized, completely paralyzed, and unable to communicate verbally. Because of Dr. Stewart's severe nerve damage, he remained hospitalized for a year and a half, learning to walk again. Unfortunately, because of residual paralysis, he can no longer conduct. Dr. Stewart had this to share: “During that year and a half, I would hear music in my mind and repeat the music constantly so that I would not forget. Being determined to one day write music again kept me focused on surviving Guillian-Barre Syndrome."