Louis Stewart

Louis Stewart was an Irish jazz guitarist who began his professional career performing in Dublin showbands. He won an award as the most outstanding soloist at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1968 and spent three years with Benny Goodman. He also worked with George Shearing, Joe Williams, J. J. Johnson, and many other jazz musicians. He recorded several albums as a leader and a sideman, and was regarded as one of the all-time greats of jazz guitar. He received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1998 and was elected to Aosdána, an Irish affiliation of people engaged in the creative arts, in 2009. He died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 72.