After working in Lake Tahoe, he studied at the College of San Mateo, earning a degree in 1957, and the next year married Janet McCoy.
[2] He also engaged in private studies with Albert Harris (composition, film scoring and orchestration), Jack Lee (conducting), George M. Smith (classical guitar and studio guitar), Paul Miller (fretted instruments), and Bud Young (dance band arrangements, harmony, and composition from 16th–18th centuries).
He recorded his album, The Touch, about which guitarist Jim Ferguson wrote in Guitar Player, "Throughout, Jimmy displays his imagination, depicting a fictional encounter between Szabo and Carlos Santana, as well as paying tribute to influences Jimmy Raney, Jim Hall and Wes Montgomery.
[3] Chris Colombi, Jr. wrote of Stewart in 1986, "His playing and tastes run back to the blues, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, and forward to Al DiMeola, Tony Purrone and Jim Hall."
In Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies, music critic Leonard Feather said that Stewart "attributes his inspiration to a range of influences, from Segovia and Bartók to Charlie Christian and Laurindo Almeida.
[3] Stewart's guitar playing has appeared in such movies as Paint Your Wagon, Topaz, Some Kind of Nut, Nice Dreams, Minus One, and Chain of Command.
An enthusiastic golfer and a student of the game, Stewart wrote Mastering Golf Through Hypnosis in 2009 and produced a recording of the book.