Today's Featured Biography

 
Zan Stewart

Hi folks from back in the day,

Hope everyone is doing well. Sorry I won’t be with you but I’d say hello in print.

First, think it’s really great that Chris and the rest of you put this gathering together. Congrats. I have a sense you will have a lot of fun.

So many of you had/have rewarding careers. That is terrific. And I am impressed by your lists of children and grandchildren (Diana D. 8 kids, wow!!!) and the warmth you clearly derive from them. I don’t know if I’m the only one of us with no kids, but that’s how it turned out. Have had my share of animals, though. Married once, so far (LOL), late in life and ending in divorce.

Now some about the life I have lived. Back in school, as I see it now, I was a fat, unhappy guy who struggled socially; no wonder I never formed strong connections with any of you. These days, I’m a fit, happy guy who can be a good friend. I see that as a nice shift; a Woody Allen-length stint in analysis sure helped.

I have managed to spend my vocational days working in my passion: jazz, with a stress on the modern era (1945-1965). I discovered it around 1959, and eventually wrote about it for The Los Angeles Times (1980-2000), and the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger (2002-2010). I also wrote for the L.A. Weekly, and such magazines as Down Beat, Musician, Musica Jazz, and Swing Journal. As luck would have it, I interviewed such notables as Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Tony Bennett, and Clint Eastwood. I have authored around 200 sets of liner notes for individual CDs and box sets, one of which landed me a national writing award.


I have also been a saxophonist since 1960 and have had the great fortune to have played with many aces, including the two tunes with Jimmy Cobb, the drummer on Miles’ Kind of Blue”. These days the horn is my focus, and I plan to make a CD very soon, which will include some original compositions, some with lyrics. To be having this life at this age -- 67 -- is indeed wild.

If any of you would like to hear what I've been up to musically, there's a live show from Smalls, NYC from Aug. 2009 on smallsjazzclub.com, click artist archive, click tenor sax, scroll down to my name.

My web site is still in process, but you can get more ZS info, should such a need strike you, by Googling my name.


I do wonder if any of you know about J. Krishnamurti (kfa.org), the Indian, what?, thinker/conceptualist/teacher who had his US home on McAndrew until his death in 1986. I have found great wisdom and inspiration in his words.



So like that. Have a fun party, keep living those full lives,

Zan

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