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Ernest Stuart, of Broad and Mifflin streets, really wanted to play the saxophone.
“I wanted to play sax. I didn’t want to play trombone, but coming from a single mother, she didn’t really have the money to buy that instrument for me. I went to my band director and told her what I had. I never really actually cleared my decision to sign up for the course with my mother,” Stuart said of his start at age 12. “She offered me a couple options and one was to play the trombone.”
Since then, Stuart has continued to excel as a trombonist and just released his debut album “Solitary Walker,” which features Orrin Evans, Tim Warfield, Justin Faulkner, Leon Jordan Jr., Mike Boone and Masami Kuroki.
“They’re friends of mine. Even with Orrin, when I approached him a year before I actually recorded, he was like, ‘Don’t worry about anything. Whenever you need me, I’ll be there.’ Justin and everybody, we’re all in this together. That’s the thing about the Philadelphia jazz scene. And you make friends and you all realize you are in this together. They’re willing to do anything for you. It’s a tight-knit community,” the 27-year-old said.
Since the record dropped on March 15, Stuart has yet to perform the new cuts live. The first performance of the album, including four original compositions from Stuart, will take place June 10 at Chris’ Jazz Cafe in Center City and feature all the musicians who played on the album.
“I don’t know how that happened, lighting struck twice,” Stuart said of getting everyone back to play together. “They are amazing musicians touring the world on their own name or with other acts.”
Before the late-spring regrouping, people can listen to the recorded tracks by nabbing Stuart’s self-produced CD from his website (music.erneststuart.com) on iTunes or from Amazon. The music was crafted in such a way as to capture the natural elements of live performance.
“I didn’t put everybody in their own isolated booth. I had it open so we would bleed into each other’s microphones. I wanted a more organic sounding project,” Stuart said. “I wanted that pressure over everybody. It’s pressure at first and then it’s freedom. Mistakes are accepted and beautiful because it gives the album character.”
Local reaction has been overwhelmingly positive for the debut. Stuart intended to make a thoughtful piece about his life as a musician, the various music styles he grew up with and his personal evolution.
“My album is reflective of a lot of the things I grew up with: The soul sound, the funkier sounds. I grew up listening to a lot of Motown and a lot of funk,” Stuart said. “When I started working, I was playing a lot of Neo-soul alongside of jazz. Doing a lot of salsa gigs and I was even doing rock gigs.
“I wanted the album to reflect something a little more personal than just saying: I’m going to go record a jazz album.”
Stuart moved to his Newbold home after returning from a stint in New York.
“I decided to start working on [my album] maybe a few months before I moved to New York … I decided to put it on hold and go to New York,” Stuart, who graduated with a bachelor’s in jazz performance from Temple University, said. “I got to New York and I really began to ask honest questions about music and jazz and thought about what the future for jazz was.
“That kind of helped me steer my way through the process.”
Though he enjoyed his time north and still plays many gigs in the Big Apple, Stuart decided that returning to the area was best for him and his music. He moved back and settled in with some friends a little more than a year ago.
Upon his return, the scene was a little different from the one he had been playing during his college years.
“I would go out to jam sessions all the time,” he said. “Back then, there was Ortlieb’s and Zanzibar Blue. There were bands coming out of the Clef Club. At the time, it was a really good time. There was the Five Spot.”
Luckily, Stuart had done significant legwork while at Temple, spreading his name and eagerness while learning from the local musicians.
“Eventually, I started getting calls for things while I was still in school,” Stuart said. “If they needed to hire a trombonist, they only thought of my name. I would go to people’s gigs and talk to them all the time.”
The network he had established during his schooling answered his call when it came time to lay down tracks on “Solitary Walker,” for which he was “trying something different and new. And it was shaky and we made some mistakes along the way.”
As the musician prepares for the live debut at one of the city’s most respected jazz clubs, he is enjoying the positive feedback he receives from critics and audiences alike. And he’s already looking forward to round two.
“Next time, it will be better. I will avoid some of the mistakes I made,” he said of recording his next album. “I understand the process better.” SPR
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