Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZSTUART, Rory(b 9 January 1956, Brooklyn, NY) Guitarist, composer, leader. He began on drums, switched to guitar and began buying jazz records at about 13, thanks to a school outing to the Village Vanguard (a matinee with Roland Kirk) and Jaki Byard teaching at the school. He studied classical guitar for two and a half years, then heard Wes Montgomery and George Benson; spent seven years living in Colorado except for a tour with Jack McDuff and a season in Paris, and returned to NYC in 1981, mostly self-taught, and formed a quartet. His first album Nightwork '83 on Cadence was made live at Seventh Avenue South with pianist Armen Donelian, Calvin Hill on bass, Keith Copeland on drums; the four Stuart tunes made an intimate music full of energy and intelligence. Second album Hurricane '86 on Sunnyside (Anthony Cox replacing Hill) had six originals plus one tune each by Thelonious Monk and Donelian, two more tracks on CD. He also played with baritone saxist Glenn Wilson (b 1954, Youngstown OH) on Wilson's small-group sets Lee's Keys, Please on Timeless (actually a co-op date by 'The Cadence All-Stars') and Blue Porpoise Avenue, plus a co-led duo Bittersweet (combining '90 and '92 sessions on CD), the last two on Sunnyside. Stuart began publishing a series of six rhythm books in 2018 (from Hal Leonard), the first being The Rhythm Book: Beginning Notation and Sight-Reading. It comes with a code for accessing recordings of all the exercises and worksheet examples, and subsequent volumes in the series take the student to more advanced levels, covering all kinds of music. See them at https://roryrhythmbooks.com. |