Jesse Stewart

Jesse Stewart is a percussionist, improviser, composer, visual artist, instrument builder, and writer. As a musician, he works primarily in the areas of jazz, new music, and free improvisation. He has performed with many internationally acclaimed musicians including George Lewis, Roswell Rudd, Evan Parker, Bill Dixon, William Parker, Joe McPhee, Pauline Oliveros, Carlo Actis Dato, Dominic Duval, Frank Gratkowski, Gerry Hemingway, Achim Kauffman, Gordon Monahan, Maggie Nicols, Eddie Prévost, LaDonna Smith, Assif Tsahar, Evan Ziporyn (of the Bang on a Can All Stars), Martin Tetreault, Anne Bourne, Kevin Breit, Matt Brubeck, and many others. He is currently a member of the David Mott quintet in Toronto in addition to leading his own groups and performing regularly as a soloist. He has performed at many festivals including the Guelph Jazz Festival and the Guelph Spring Festival, the Hillside Festival, the Open Ears Festival, the 416 and Beaches International Jazz Festivals in Toronto, the Atlantic International Jazz Festival, the Ottawa International Jazz Festival, and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.In 1993, Stewart was named “Outstanding Young Canadian Jazz Musician” by the International Association of Jazz Educators and “Young Musician of the Year” by Jazz Report magazine. His playing has been described as “truly exciting” (_Musicworks_ 76), “exceptional” (_Cadence_ Oct. 2002), “phenomenal” (_Cadence_ Nov. 1999), and “ingenious” (_Exclaim!_ June 2006). In a 2002 review, Texas-based music critic Frank Rubolino described him as "...one of the finest young drummers and percussionists on the scene today" (_One Final Note_ Summer/Fall 2002).He has made several compact disc recordings including a duo recording with pianist Ajay Heble and a quartet recording featuring violinist Jacques Israelievitch, the concert master of the Toronto Symphony. He can also be heard on the David Mott Quintet’s Eleven, a record that Wholenote magazine described as “one of the most enticing and intense recordings to emerge from Toronto’s buoyant extended-jazz scene.” In March of 2006, the C3R label released a solo record entitled “Music for Found Objects” on which Stewart plays various found objects ranging from stones to canoe paddles, from steel bowls to saw blades. Vish Khanna of _Exclaim!_ describes Music For Found Objects as “an endlessly fascinating exploration of sound.” Several additional solo and group recordings are forthcoming.After majoring in both visual art and in music as an undergraduate student at the University of Guelph, he went on to complete two Master of Arts degrees concurrently at York University in Toronto: one in ethnomusicology and another in music composition. His composition teachers included James Tenney and David Mott. Much of his creative work crosses disciplinary boundaries, exploring the links between the visual and the sonic arts. In the year 2000, for example, he was commissioned by the Guelph Jazz Festival to create a ‘multi-media improvised jazz opera’ entitled Passages with celebrated poet Paul Haines.As a visual artist, Stewart has exhibited work in numerous solo, group, and juried art exhibitions. In 2006, he showed a body of audio-visual installation-based work titled “Waterworks” at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa and at the Glenhyrst Gallery of Brant. In the summer of 2005, he contributed a sculptural work and a performance to a group show titled Demons Stole My Soul: the Rock and Roll Drum Set in Contemporary Art at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto. In 2003, he had a solo exhibition of audio-visual installation-based work entitled Wheels of Time at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph.His writings on music and art have appeared in various publications including Musicworks and Canadian Theatre Review, as well as in several catalogues related to visual art exhibitions. He also contributed an essay titled “Freedom Music: Jazz and Human Rights” to the book Rebel Musics: Human Rights, Resistant Sounds, and the Politics of Music Making co-edited by Daniel Fischlin and Ajay Heble.In 2002, Jesse began doctoral level studies at the University of Guelph where he was the first recipient of the Brock Doctoral Scholarship, the University's most prestigious graduate scholarship. He also teaches percussion in the University’s applied music program and is currently teaching a course on the history of popular music. In June of 2006, he was appointed as the Artistic Director of NUMUS, one of Canada’s preeminent presenters of new music.