Criss Cross Jazz 1424 CD

Bill Stewart

Live At The Village Vanguard



“I sat very near to or next to the greats at the Village Vanguard on many occasions,” says the eminent drummer-composer-bandleader Bill Stewart, by way of contextualizing his - and the Criss Cross label’s – first-ever live-at-the-Vanguard recording. During his early years in New York, before he ever played the hallowed basement, Stewart, now 58, frequently arrived early to claim the behind-the-drumkit position on the red banquette that runs along the Vanguard’s west wall all the way to bandstand stage right to get a bird’s eye view of Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, Billy Higgins, and a host of other masters whose recordings he’d played along with as an adolescent and teenage aspirant in Des Moines, Iowa.

“When you sit close, you get the body language, the whole vibe of the drummer who you want to check out,” Stewart says. “That’s the place.”

It’s a sure bet that more than a few drum aspirants took pains to assess Stewart’s vibe from that privileged perch between September 18 and September 23 in 2023, when he convened bassist Larry Grenadier and tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III for their third week-long trio engagement at the Vanguard, following residencies in April 2017 and in October 2018.