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BUTCH<br />
STEWART<br />
JAMAICA <strong>JAZZ</strong> & <strong>BLUES</strong><br />
AN ENDURING<br />
Legacy<br />
12<br />
1996 saw the birth of the Air Jamaica<br />
Jazz and Blues Festival. Twenty-six<br />
years later, now known as the Jamaica<br />
Jazz and Blues Festival it is recognised as<br />
one of the most eagerly anticipated events<br />
of the Caribbean’s entertainment calendar. This is the<br />
legacy of the Honourable Gordon “Butch” Stewart under<br />
whose leadership as the chairman of the national airline<br />
– Air Jamaica, this iconic event was established.<br />
His interest in ensuring the growth of<br />
the tourism industry and developing<br />
Jamaica as a major hub in the<br />
Caribbean guided the major goals<br />
that the festival set out to achieve<br />
– establish a music festival with a<br />
broad-based appeal for locals while<br />
also attracting visitors to the island; boosting the economy<br />
of Montego Bay which hosted the event; fill the seats<br />
of the national airline and further enhance Jamaica’s<br />
reputation as the premier entertainment destination in<br />
the Caribbean.<br />
Mr Butch Stewart was incomparable in his audacious,<br />
creative, and inspirational leadership. Once he decided<br />
that something was to be done, he did not tolerate doubt<br />
...the first festival<br />
was staged within<br />
only 10-weeks of<br />
its conception.<br />
in his team’s ability to activate, nor did he acknowledge<br />
the word “can’t” as part of his vocabulary, and thus once<br />
the decision for the festival was made, he made it clear to<br />
his team that this should be accomplished with urgency<br />
but without compromising any standards of a quality,<br />
world-class production. It is therefore no surprise that<br />
the first festival was staged within only 10-weeks of its<br />
conception.<br />
Over the years the festival gained a<br />
reputation of excellence not only<br />
for the quality of artistes brought to<br />
the Jamaican stage, but the beauty,<br />
sophistication and comfort of the<br />
ambience created. It was a space in<br />
which friends and family celebrated<br />
special moments and reconnected<br />
and strangers formed new bonds of friendship. It became<br />
a space in which artistes bonded with the Jamaican people<br />
with many returning, eagerly, to the Jazz and Blues stage<br />
time and time again. It has created a heritage fitting of the<br />
visionary who made it possible and we honour Mr Stewart<br />
for this legacy which we endeavour to enrich and grow.<br />
Deepest condolences to his family and God’s strength<br />
and comfort in this time of loss and grief.<br />
The <strong>2021</strong> Jamaica Jazz<br />
& Blues Team