Mike Stern – Voices
How
does a guitar hero re-invent himself? After nine albums
of awe-inspiring chops, melodic and lyrical phrasing and
sizzling six-string statements in all manner of
contexts, what is there left to say? Mike Stern answered
that question by digging deep and coming up with the
album that has been inside of him for years. Voices, his
tenth recording for Atlantic Jazz, is easily his most
inspired outing to date. By organically melding his
formidable guitar prowess into the fabric of engaging,
uplifting vocal tunes, Stern stands poised to bring his
own signature six-string voice to a wider audience in
much the same way that Carlos Santana re-introduced
himself to contemporary pop audiences with Supernatural.
Stern's killer guitar work - previously heard on
recordings by Miles Davis, Steps Ahead, and the Brecker
Brothers band - is still very much intact on Voices.
It's just in the service of the celebratory grooves and
remarkably expressive voices that grace this world beat
flavored project.
"I've always wanted to do a
record with voices", says the Grammy-nominated
guitarist. "Some of the tunes that I've written in the
past, with tricky kind of beboppish heads, are just
unsingable. But then there are some tunes of mine that
singers have always mentioned to me that they liked very
much... the more singable, lyrical tunes. And so I
always thought it would be cool to hook up with singers
and explore that further."
One of the primary
inspirations for the project was Cameroonian bassist and
vocalist extraordinaire Richard Bona, whom Mike had met
some years back at a jazz festival in Israel. "I was
there with the Mike Stern/Bob Berg Band and he was there
playing with the Zawinul Syndicate. We ended up jamming
that night back at the hotel room and later when he
moved to New York we talked about getting together on a
project. And we've just kept in touch over the years
until we were finally able to realize this
collaboration."
Through multiple overdubbing,
Bona creates a triumphant vocal choir on the buoyant
opener, One World. Mike responds in kind with a
typically heroic guitar solo, wailing freely within the
densely woven fabric of this well-crafted piece. Bona
also lends his appealing vocals to the relaxed groove of
The River, which is underscored by producer Jim Beard's
churchy piano playing and sparked by Stern's earthy
blues phrasing. Other singers who appear on Voices are
Elizabeth Kontomanou, Arto Tuncboyaciyan and Philip
Hamilton, formerly of Full Circle, a popular world beat
group from the 80's. "The kind of voices that Richard,
Arto and Philip have really appealed to me for this
project", explains Stern. "They all can sing in a kind
of falsetto voice that is so beautiful, like a soprano
sax but, of course, better. There's no comparison to the
human voice but I like that high register for these kind
of melodies. And Elizabeth, interestingly enough, has a
very low voice for a woman. So it's really a rich,
soulful voice, which added another quality to the
record."
That sultry quality is perhaps best
showcased on Elizabeth's intimate reading of the elegant
Brazilian flavored ballad What Might Have Been, which is
underscored by drummer Vinnie Colaiuta's gentle
brushwork and Stern's nuanced delivery on nylon string
acoustic guitar. Kontomanou also appears on the moody
Slow Change, which features some killer distortion-laced
licks from Stern, and sings alongside Hamilton on two
other pieces - the buoyant African flavored groover
Spirit and the bristling Leni's Smile, an upbeat ode to
Mike's singer-songwriter wife Leni Stern. "I wanted Leni
to be on this record too", says Mike. "I was so inspired
by her last record (the symphonic Kindness of Strangers)
that I wanted to work with her on my project. Usually we
prefer to keep our careers separate but this would've
been a perfect opportunity to collaborate. That was kind
of the plan but we just got so swamped with things that
it didn't happen. But we'll have to save that for the
future, because I definitely want to record with vocals
again."
Given the exotic tendencies of the
featured singers on Voices, the tunes ended up lending
themselves toward a world beat vibe, which actually
surprised and pleased Stern. "Naturally, the tunes with
Richard have an African sounding vibe to them", he says.
"And then there's one called Way Out East, which is a
play on Sonny Rollins' famous album title Way Out West.
That one features Arto on vocals and it's got a
distinctly Middle Eastern quality to it, like something
you might associate with Morocco or Turkey."
Again, not something you'd expect to hear on a Mike
Stern album.
Other guests on Voices include tenor
sax giant Michael Brecker, drummer Dennis Chambers,
bassists Chris Doky and Lincoln Goines, guitarist Jon
Herington and the young tenor sax burner in Stern's
current working band, Bob Franseschini.
"We went
for more of a live approach than layering it all in the
studio", says Stern. "We could've done this with
sequencers and stuff but then you lose the burn factor
from the live performance. We wanted to just play. And
actually, it all went down smoothly in three days - two
days with Vinnie Colaiuta and one day with Dennis
Chambers. The only things I overdubbed was one tune
where I broke a string in the middle of the solo and
another tune where a microphone fell from one of my amps
during my solo, so I had to play that one over.
Everything else is just live. And that's really what I
wanted for this album - the live vibe with real drums
and piano in the same room and a little bit of leakage
so that it sounds real."
Stern reveals that
Voices actually represents a return to his roots, in a
sense. "In a weird way, this project is really about
coming full circle for me. I actually was in an opera
when I was little and was also singing in the church
choir. So the voice was kind of the first instrument I
had even before guitar."
Born on January 10,
1953, Stern began playing guitar at age 12, emulating
his boyhood idols like B.B. King, Eric Clapton and Jimi
Hendrix. "I liked the feel of the guitar and I got
hooked on it, he recalls. But I didn't really get
serious about it until I went to Berklee in 1971." At
the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mike's focus
shifted from rock and blues to jazz as he enterted into
an intensive woodshedding period of absorbing classic
recordings by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Wes
Montgomery, Jim Hall, McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans while
also studying with guitarists Mick Goodrick and Pat
Metheny. On a recommendation from Metheny, Stern landed
a gig with Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1976 and remained
with the band for two years, appearing on BS&T's More
Than Ever and Brand New Day. That gig is also
significant for introducing Mike to two musicians who
would later figure prominently in his life -
percussionist Don Alias and bassist Jaco Pastorius.
Following his stint with BS&T, Stern returned to
Boston and began studying privately with local jazz guru
Charlie Banacos. In 1979, Mike joined Billy Cobham's
powerhouse fusion band, replacing John Scofield in the
lineup. Two years later, he got the call from Miles
Davis. Mike made his public debut with Miles' band on
June 27, 1981 at the Kix nightclub in Boston (a
performance that was documented and later released by
CBS as We Want Miles). Mike remained with Miles through
1983, also appearing on Man With The Horn and Star
People. From 1983 to 1984, he toured with Jaco
Pastorius' Word of Mouth band and in 1985 returned to
Miles' lineup for a second tour of duty that lasted
close to a year.
In the summer of 1986, Stern
went out on the road with David Sanborn and later joined
a powerhouse line-up of Steps Ahead, which also featured
the vibist Mike Mainieri, saxophonist Michael Brecker,
bassist Darryl Jones and drummer Steve Smith. His 1986
debut on Atlantic Records, Upside Downside , featured
such celebrated colleagues as Sanborn, Pastorius,
saxophonist Bob Berg, bassists Mark Egan and Jeff
Andrews, keyboardist Mitch Forman and drummers Dave
Weckl and Steve Jordan. From 1986 through 1988, Mike was
a member of Michael Brecker's potent quintet and
appeared on Don't Try This At Home.
Stern's
second Atlantic album, 1988's Time In Place, continued
the promise of his debut. He followed that up with
1989's Jigsaw and 1991's Odds Or Evens. During this
period he also formed a touring group with saxophonist
Berg that included drummer Dennis Chambers and bassist
Lincoln Goines. They remained a working unit from 1989
to 1992, at which point Stern joined a reunited Brecker
Brothers Band (he appears on 1992's Return of the
Brecker Brothers). Mike's acclaimed 1993 Atlantic Jazz
release, Standards (And Other Songs), led to him being
named Best Jazz Guitarist of the Year by the readers and
critics of Guitar Player magazine. He followed that up
with two hard-hitting offerings in 1994's Is What It Is
and 1996's Between The Lines, both of which received
Grammy nominations.
In 1997, Stern recorded Give
And Take with bassist John Patitucci, drummer Jack
DeJohnette, percussionist Don Alias and special guests
Michael Brecker and David Sanborn. Their freewheeling
covers of Sonny Rollins' Oleo, John Coltrane's Giant
Steps, Cole Porter's I Love You and Jimi Hendrix's Who
Knows helped Mike earn the Orville W. Gibson Award for
Best Jazz Guitarist that year.
Stern's ninth
release for Atlantic jazz was a six-string summit
meeting with colleagues Bill Frisell and John Scofield
that was appropriately titled Play. And now with Voices,
Mike carves out a new niche for himself while still
showcasing the chops that have marked him as one of the
true guitar greats of his generation.
Released
September 4th, 2001.
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