Stewart accomplishes this through the use of four different ensembles: with Taj Mahal (and French horn players Fred Griffen and Marshall Sealy); with pianist Dave Burrell and drummer Aaron Scott; with a brass ensemble (John Clark on French horn, Stanton Davis on trumpet, Steve Turre on trombone, James Zollar on trumpet, and Buddy Williams on drums); and with a jazz quintet (Jerome Harris on guitar, Graham Haynes on cornet and trumpet, Carlos Ward on alto, and Buddy Williams on drums). With these musical cohorts, Stewart not only showcases the tuba's musical growth but also traces the migration and evolution of the music we know today as jazz from the west coast of Africa, through the Caribbean, into New Orleans, up the Mississippi to Chicago, and east to New York -- and today.

Stewart got the idea of bringing the tuba into the modern repertoire during his first gig after receiving a Bachelors of Music Education from the Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts -- while playing traditional New Orleans music with fellow tubist Howard Johnson at Your Father's Mustache in New York. Since then, Stewart has toured and recorded throughout the United States, Europe, and the Far East with such artists as Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Carla Bley, David Murray, Taj Mahal, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Arthur Blythe, Freddie Hubbard, Don Cherry, and Charlie Haden, as well as with the Sam Rivers Big Band and the Globe Unity Orchestra (a European group). Stewart has also earned a Masters in Education from Lehman College Graduate School, part of the City University of New York.