Guitarist Mike Stern is Still
a Fusion Favorite By Nicky Baxter
It's
not been easy for fusion guitarist Mike Stern to shake
the protean shadow of his former mentor and employer,
Miles Davis. Chances are had Miles not looked him up,
the amply talented Stern might have gone unnoticed.
Having gotten his start with jazz-rock aggregate Blood,
Sweat and Tears in the early 1970s, Stern eventually
developed into a solid exponent of rock-oriented
electro-jazz--bop & roll, as one writer aptly described
it.
A sort of musically miscegenated stepson to
Jimi Hendrix and John Scofield (with whom the Bostonian
briefly worked), Stern combines the former's mercurial
guitar-star bursts with the latter's unrelenting
linearity. By the conclusion of his two-year tenure with
Davis in the '80s, Stern had metamorphosed from a merely
pedestrian bop/postbop impressionist into an exciting
stylist in his own right. We Want Miles and Star People
both feature Stern's increasingly confident, aggressive
playing. Stern would go on to work with, at various
points, Michael and Randy Brecker, and Harvie Swartz; he
also recorded with saxophonist Bob Berg. His partnership
with the late bassist Jaco Pastorius was, however, his
most noteworthy post-Milesian association.
Between the Lines (Atlantic Jazz), the 42-year-old
musician's current recording, features gregarious
sprints past Charlie Parker land all the way to
electro-bop ("Bait Tone Blues"), knotty fusion ("Lose
the Suit," "With a Twist"), Crusaders-like pop-jazz
("Sunnyside") and surprisingly lyrical ballad playing
("Wing and a Prayer"). Less successful are Stern's
efforts to get funky. "The Vine," in particular, is
about as dated as a blaxploitation flick.
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