Stew Cutler

New York serves as home base for Stew Cutler, a guitarist in constant demand who also leads bands, composes, and produces. His distinctive approach merges R&B, jazz, blues, pop, and noise into a singular voice. Born and raised in New York City, he first encountered the guitar through records and, at nineteen, joined bluesman Z.Z. Hill on tour. Soon after, he broadened his range by collaborating with Bobby Previte and Elliott Sharp.

Between 1990 and 2006 he appeared both onstage and in recording sessions alongside numerous downtown New York figures and their associates, among them Robin Holcomb, Phillip Johnson, and Previte, plus Wayne Horvitz’s group the President. He later relocated to Woodstock, New York, where he teamed with bassist Harvey Brooks.

Onstage he has supported an array of artists ranging from Percy Sledge, Eddie Floyd, and Wilson Pickett to Fontella Bass, Earl King, and Jimmy Castor. Queen Esther Marrow & the Harlem Gospel Singers invited him to join their final European tour. Jazz musicians he has worked with, both live and in the studio, include David Sanborn, Bill Frisell, Lester Bowie, and Charlie Hunter, while his pop engagements encompass Meatloaf, Jeb Loy Nichols, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

Fountainbleu released his first solo album, Trio Music, in 2000; the following year Naim issued Insignia. These projects marked the emergence of his personal yet accessible style. So Many Streams, also on Fountainbleu, arrived in 2004 and explored blues, roots rock, and swamp pop in greater depth. Trio Live appeared in 2007. Road commitments left little room for his own sessions, so After Hours did not surface until 2011; the recording revisited his longstanding affinity for late-night jazz, sultry blues, and soul.

The subsequent five years again found him occupied with outside studio and live work. Every Sunday Night, released in 2017, captured his working ensemble—Bobby Harden and J.T. Bowen on vocals, Nick Semrad and Jullian Pollack on organ, Bill McClellan on drums, and Chulo Gatewood on bass—performing original material live in the studio to preserve the unfiltered intensity of a show. The pieces set inventive improvisation against established rock, blues, and jazz frameworks. The album title nodded to the band’s long-running Sunday-night residency at Arthur’s Tavern in Greenwich Village.