Mike Stern - Between The Lines

Mike Stern - guitar
Dave Weckl - drums
Jeff Andrews - bass
Bob Malach - saxophone
Jim Beard - keyboards
Lincoln Goines (*) - bass
Dennis Chambers (*) - drums

Sunnyside 7:27
The Vine 6:27
Wing And A Prayer 6:37
Lose The Suit 8:43
You Never Know 7:13
Tell Me (*) 6:01
With A Twist (*) 6:37
True Enough 6:43
Pages 6:43
Bait Tone Blues 7:37

All songs written by Mike Stern
Recorded at Power Station and Platinum Island Studios, New York, NY
Produced by Jim Beard
(c) 1996 Atlantic Jazz 82835-2

press release

This is probably Mike's best album so far.
Every next album Mike is proving more and more that besides being a great guitar player technically, he's also a great musician. By the way, none of the 10 songs are shorter than 6 minutes!
This album features excellent playing by Bob Malach, Mike's new partner to play the tenorsaxophone and a superb Jeff Andrews, not forgetting of course Dave Weckl, one of the best drummers around. Added to this are occasional keyboards by Jim Beard, who was also the producer of the album, keyboards mainly for atmosphere (listen carefully to You Never Know, With a Twist). Also there is some interesting overdubbing, e.g. on You Never Know
On Mike's playing itself, it's more electric than on previous albums, but after all, he's got his roots in rock music.
People that know Mike predominanatly from his live concerts, will like this album, because it's his stuff as he described it himself, this album in fact reflects well Mike's current live playing, easily recognized in The Vine and especially Bait Tone Blues which features an amazing solo by Jeff Andrews. I'm waiting now for a live album (which is bound to be in the style of Bait Tone Blues). In fact, Mike's been playing Wing and a Prayer and You Never Know for quite some time before the release of this album. Unfortunately some songs are fading out, just when they're getting interesting. It's not all sunshine though, on some songs the saxophone gets a bit boring (Wing and a Prayer and Tell Me which is just too slow) because it's not adding much to the song, but that can be a matter of personal taste.
Other songs, like Sunnyside, The Vine, With A Twist, Bait Tone Blues are just plain steaming!