As a boy he studied piano and violin; most of his career was spent on cornet.[2] Stewart dropped out of high school to become a member of the Ragtime Clowns led by Ollie Blackwell.[1] He was with the Musical Spillers led byWillie Lewis in the early 1920s, then withElmer Snowden,Horace Henderson,Fletcher Henderson,Fess Williams, andMcKinney's Cotton Pickers.[2][1] In 1933 he led a big band at the Empire Ballroom in New York City.[1] Beginning in 1934, he spent eleven years with theDuke Ellington band.[2][1] Stewart co-wrote "Boy Meets Horn" and "Morning Glory" and supervised recording sessions by members of the Ellington band. He left Ellington to lead "little swing bands that were a perfect setting for his solo playing."[3] He toured in Europe and Australia withJazz at the Philharmonic from 1947 to 1951.
Beginning in the early 1950s, he worked in radio and television and wrote jazz criticism for theLos Angeles Times[1] and the magazinesPlayboy andDownBeat. The bookJazz Masters of the Thirties[2][1] is a selection of his criticism. He lived in upstate New York after purchasing a one hundred year old farmhouse. He hosted a jazz radio program in Troy, New York, and owned a small restaurant for a short time near a drag racing track in Vermont. While living in France, he attended theLe Cordon Bleu school of cooking[1] and dedicated his life to becoming a fine cook. Stewart moved to Los Angeles, California, to be near his children. His son Paul Albert Hardy lived in New York City. While in Los Angeles he reunited with musicians from the Ellington band and played jam sessions in clubs. He was a studio musician forThe Steve Allen Show and with George Cole he hosted two radio shows:Dixieland Doings andThings Aint What They Used to Be.
His autobiography,Boy Meets Horn, was published in 1991.[1] He died of a brain hemorrhage in Los Angeles.[1]
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