Стюарт Зендер: от Jamiroquai до White Buffalo Recordings

British bass guitarist

Stuart Patrick Jude Zender (born 18 March 1974) is an English bassist. He is best known as a former member of the band Jamiroquai.

Zender was born in Sheffield, England. He comes from a family with a musical background: Zender's father was a musician, his uncle was a flamenco guitarist, and his older sister participated in punk bands. His family relocated to Norristown, Pennsylvania, when Zender was seven years old. As Zender said, he never had good business acumen, so instead of investing that money in some way, he visited a music store and bought a Warwick Streamer bass guitar which cost nearly the whole amount given to him by his mother. Before picking up a Warwick, Zender played a Music Man Stingray bass guitar. Of his early bands, the most famous was the prank rock group Fabulous, a 1991 outfit chiefly made up of NME writers and photographers. He also said that in another interview, he played a drum with a circus group without animals at that time.

When Zender got out of school, he auditioned for Jamiroquai in 1993 as the band's bassist, A spokesperson for the band said that Zender also expressed his desire to spend more time with his new wife Melanie Blatt and their new baby.

After Jamiroquai, Zender had his own project with the British soul artist Don E called AZUR, which signed a record deal with d'Angelo's label. However, the project was shelved and was then available on the Internet for a short time. He has also played bass guitar with other artists, including All Saints, Omar, Lauryn Hill, D'Angelo, Gorillaz, Samuel Purdey, Ms. Dynamite and Stevie Wonder. In summer 2006, Zender became the musical director and bass guitar player for Mark Ronson. The release of the album Version in 2007 proved to be a larger success than first expected. He has played bass guitar for Ronson at events such as BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend, Wireless Festival, Global Gathering, and Glastonbury, and festivals all over Europe, including Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. They were also special guests on Jay Z's UK tour. Having left the Mark Ronson band in 2011, Zender started his own record label, White Buffalo Recordings, and formerly ran the music publishing company Made Youth Inc. Some of Zender's most recent work was with the band Leroi. Zender explained they were signed to Geffen Records in Los Angeles but that the deal fell through after the heads of the company, Polly Anthony and Jordan Shurr, who signed them, were made redundant. In March 2023, Zender released the song "Happy Feelings", featuring Omar & Ana Tijoux, on all major streaming platforms.

Zender and All Saints singer Melanie Blatt were together romantically for seven years; the couple split in early 2006. They have one daughter, named Lilyella, born 20 November 1998.