# Luke Stewart (musician)

Luke Stewart is a composer-improviser, bassist, multi-instrumentalist, and organizer known for his work as a soloist; leader of his Exposure Quintet, with Edward Wilkerson, Jr., Ken Vandermark, Jim Baker, and Avreeayl Ra; and member of groups including Blacks' Myths, Heart of the Ghost, Six Six, Irreversible Entanglements, and Heroes Are Gang Leaders, a literary free jazz ensemble that was awarded the 2018 American Book Award for Oral Literature.
Stewart has co-run DC jazz advocacy nonprofit CapitalBop since 2010, curating the organization's longstanding "Loft Jazz" concert series and writing music criticism for its website.
In 2020, he was included among DownBeat's "25 for the Future" as an artist who "shapes the artistic landscape".
He has performed or recorded with artists including Camae Ayewa, Keir Neuringer, Aquiles Navarro, Tcheser Holmes, Archie Shepp, Warren "Trae" Crudup, III, Miriam Parker, Daniel Carter, Fay Victor, Hamiet Bluiett, Wadada Leo Smith, Jarrett Gilgore, Ian McColm, Anthony Pirog, Jaimie Branch, Thurston Moore, Leila Bordreuil, and Priests.

## Early life and career

Stewart grew up in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where he studied saxophone, violin, and guitar before he began playing electric bass in high school. Stewart began his undergraduate degree as an international studies major at the University of Mississippi. In 2005, as he prepared to begin an internship at the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in Washington, D.C., Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Stewart decided to stay in D.C. and transferred to American University, where his studies expanded to include audio engineering. In addition to his bachelor's from American, Stewart completed a master's in Arts Management and Entrepreneurship at The New School in 2019.
After moving to D.C., Stewart began frequently attending and performing at avant-garde jazz and rock gigs. He also interned at "Jazz and Justice" radio station WPFW, eventually hosting his own weekly jazz radio show and working as a production coordinator.
In 2010, Stewart met Giovanni Russonello, who had recently founded jazz advocacy organization and website CapitalBop. Stewart began writing for and then co-running the organization, which was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in 2019.
Stewart met Camae Ayewa (also known as Moor Mother) while playing with Laughing Man, an art-punk band that shared bills with Ayewa's group the Mighty Paradocs. One year after the 2014 "People Issue" of the Washington City Paper called Stewart a "jazz revolutionary", he joined Ayewa, Keir Neuringer, Aquiles Navarro, and Tcheser Holmes in forming the "liberation-oriented free-jazz collective" Irreversible Entanglements. The group performed in the inaugural season of the Kennedy Center's "Direct Current" contemporary culture showcase, and their releases have been included in best-of lists in Magnet, NPR Music, The Quietus, and Stereogum's "20 Best Jazz Albums Of The 2010s".
Stewart has said he wants his collaborative work to "highlight the non-hierarchical nature of free improvisational music" and to challenge "the concept of the capital-C composer and how it affects our perceptions of music".
In 2021, he was a Resident Composer at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.

## Discography
### As leader / co-leader

| Release year | Artist | Title | Label | Personnel |
| 2013 | Trio OOO | Live for Trayvon | | Aaron Martin, Sam Lohman, Stewart |
| 2015 | Trio OOO | Days To Be Told | New Atlantis | Martin, Lohman, Stewart |
| 2017 | Irreversible Entanglements | Irreversible Entanglements | International Anthem / Don Giovanni | Camae Ayewa, Keir Neuringer, Aquiles Navarro, Stewart, Tcheser Holmes |
| 2018 | Blacks' Myths | Blacks' Myths | Atlantic Rhythms | Stewart, Warren "Trae" Crudup, III |
| 2018 | Heart Of The Ghost | Heart Of The Ghost | Pidgeon | Jarrett Gilgore, Stewart, Ian McColm |
| 2018 | Luke Stewart | Works for Upright Bass and Amplifier | Astral Spirits | Stewart |
| 2019 | Blacks' Myths | Blacks' Myths II | Atlantic Rhythms | Stewart, Crudup, Dr. Thomas "Bushmeat" Stanley, Cedar and Lu |
| 2019 | Heart of the Ghost | Heart of the Ghost II | Dagoretti | Gilgore, Stewart, McColm |
| 2019 | Heart of the Ghost | Live In Chicago | Catalytic Sound | Gilgore, Stewart, McColm |
| 2020 | Irreversible Entanglements | Who Sent You? | International Anthem / Don Giovanni | Ayewa, Neuringer, Navarro, Stewart, Holmes |
| 2020 | Luke Stewart, Brian Settles, Warren "Trae" Crudup, III | No Treaspassing | | Stewart, Settles, Crudup |
| 2020 | Six Six | Six Six | Atlantic Rhythms | Anthony Pirog, Stewart |
| 2020 | Irreversible Entanglements | Live in Italy | | Ayewa, Neuringer, Navarro, Stewart, Holmes |
| 2020 | Heart of the Ghost | Live in Detroit | Dagoretti | Gilgore, Stewart, McColm |
| 2020 | Irreversible Entanglements | Live in Berlin | | Ayewa, Neuringer, Navarro, Stewart, Holmes |
| 2020 | Heart of the Ghost with Dave Ballou | Live at Rhizome | Dagoretti / Bulb | Gilgore, Stewart, McColm, Ballou |
| 2020 | Luke Stewart & Tashi Dorji | Phases | | Stewart, Tashi Dorji |
| 2020 | Luke Stewart | Gaps | | Stewart |
| 2020 | Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet | Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet | Astral Spirits | Stewart, Edward Wilkerson, Jr., Ken Vandermark, Jim Baker, Avreeayl Ra |
| 2021 | Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi | Luke Stewart / Patrick Shiroishi | Profane Illuminations | Stewart, Shiroishi |
| 2021 | !MOFAYA! | Like One Long Dream | Trost Records | jaimie branch, John Dikeman, Stewart, Aleksandar Škorić |
| 2021 | Irreversible Entanglements | Open the Gates | International Anthem / Don Giovanni | Ayewa, Neuringer, Navarro, Stewart, Holmes |
| 2022 | Luke Stewart's Silt Trio | The Bottom | Cuneiform Records | L Stewart, B Settles, C Taylor |
| 2024 | Luke Stewart Silt Trio | Unknown Rivers | Pi Recordings | Luke Stewart, Brian Settles, Trae Crudup, Chad Taylor |

### As sideperson

| Release year | Artist | Title | Label |
| 2010 | Laughing Man | The Lovings | Sockets Records |
| 2014 | Laughing Man | Be Black Baby | Bad Friend / BLIGHT |
| 2015 | Ross Hammond | Mean Crow | Prescott Records |
| 2016 | James Brandon Lewis Trio | No Filter | BNS Sessions |
| 2017 | Priests | Nothing Feels Natural | Sister Polygon Records |
| 2017 | Heroes Are Gang Leaders | The Avant-Age Garde I Ams Of The Gal Luxury | Fast Speaking Music |
| 2018 | William Hooker | Pillars... At the Portal | Mulatta Records |
| 2019 | James Brandon Lewis | An UnRuly Manifesto | Relative Pitch |
| 2019 | Brahja | Brahja | RR Gems |
| 2019 | J. R. Bohannon | Dusk | Figureight |
| 2020 | Elliott Levin Trio with Chad Taylor and Luke Stewart | Tin - Tabu - Latin' - Rhyth - Hymn | |
| 2020 | Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic, & Damu the Fudgemunk | Ocean Bridges | Redefinition Records |
| 2020 | Heroes Are Gang Leaders | Artificial Happiness Button | Ropeadope Records |
| 2020 | Moor Mother | Circuit City | Don Giovanni Records |
| 2020 | Anthony Pirog | Terry Riley's In C | Sonic Mass |
| 2021 | Bob Bellerue | Radioactive Desire | Elevator Bath |