Heads Up set to release Trip on September 8, 2017
On July 3, 2016, the world changed forever for Mike Stern.
The multiple Grammy-nominated guitarist, a former member of Miles Davis’ band
during the early 1980s and subsequent member of Steps Ahead, Jaco Pastorius’
Word of Mouth and The Brecker Brothers, was hailing a cab outside his apartment
in Manhattan when he tripped over some hidden construction debris left in the
street. He broke both his arms in the fall and the cab he was hailing ended up
taking him to the hospital. This horrific accident happened on the day he was
supposed to leave town for a European tour, which was promptly cancelled. Not
only did Stern fracture both humerus bones (the long bones that run from the
shoulder to the elbow), he was left with significant nerve damage in his right
hand that prevented him from doing the simplest tasks, including holding a
pick. Following his initial surgery, Stern was back on scene in late October,
guesting with Chick Corea in a celebration of Miles Davis’ music during Corea’s
two-month residency at the Blue Note in Manhattan. For that gig, he had to play
seated while wearing a black glove outfitted with velcro to help him hold onto
his velcro-fitted pick. In November, Stern hit the road for a European tour,
co-leading a band with longtime friend and collaborator, drummer Dave Weckl.
Following a second surgery, the guitarist gained more
control of his nerve-damaged picking hand and subsequently devised a scheme
where he literally glues his right-hand fingers to the pick, which strengthened
his grip, allowing him to more fully realize his signature speed, precision and
fluidity informed mainly by bebop and the blues. Feeling sufficiently
fortified, Stern and his stellar crew of sidemen — many of whom go back with
him to the ‘80s — went into Spin Studio in Long Island City between January and
March of 2017 to record his 17th album as a leader. The guitarist’s sly,
self-deprecating sense of humor comes across in the title of the album, Trip,
as well as on individual tracks like “Screws” (he initially had 11 screws put
into his arm following his first surgery) and “Scotch Tape and Glue” (his
current method for holding onto the pick).
A powerhouse outing, Trip, set for release on September 8,
2017 via Heads Up, a division of Concord Music Group, features such longstanding
colleagues as trumpeters Randy Brecker and Wallace Roney, saxophonists Bob
Franceschini and Bill Evans, the latter a bandmate in Miles Davis’ ‘comeback
band’ of 1981, bassists Victor Wooten and Tom Kennedy and drummers Dave Weckl,
Dennis Chambers and Lenny White. Produced by pianist-keyboardist Jim Beard,
Stern’s frequent producer going back to 1991’s Odds or Evens, Trip is a
brilliant showcase of what the acclaimed guitarist does best — riffing on
post-Miles funk-fusion (“Trip,” “Screws,” “Watchacallit”), urgent swingers
(“Half Crazy,” “Scotch Tape and Glue,” “B Train”) and lyrical ballads
(“Emilia,” “I Believe You”). His wife Leni Stern guests on two tracks, playing
the n’goni (a three-stringed African instrument) on the buoyant “Emilia,” which
also features Gio Moratti on backup vocals, and the uplifting ballad “I Believe
You.” Other performers on Trip include
percussionists Arto Tuncboyaciyan and Elhadji Alioune Faye, Living Colour
drummer Will Calhoun and bassists Teymur Phell and Edmond Gilmore, both of whom
currently work with Stern on his regular Monday and Wednesday night residency
at the 55 Bar in the heart of Greenwich Village.
Says Stern of the whole arduous journey that led to this
triumphant comeback album: “Sometimes you have some bad stuff that’ll happen to
you, but you kind of get through it and you realize that everybody has this
stuff — good trips and bad trips. But you just gotta keep trying, you gotta get
up and keep going as soon as you can, which I was able to do. I had to figure
out a way to play. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t play music. If you
really want something bad enough, sometimes you have to fight for it; you find
a way to make it happen. And now I have friends who I trust who tell me that
they wouldn’t have noticed any difference in my playing if I hadn’t told them
what happened to me.”
Indeed. From his scorched-earth distortion laced licks on
“Trip” and “Screws” to his fleet-fingered burn on the three swingers paced by
Lenny White — the Rhythm Changes number “Half Crazy,” “Scotch Tape and Glue”
(based on the changes to “On Green Dolphin Street”) and “B Train” (his quirky
contrafact on “Take the A Train”), Stern’s celebrated chops are intact on Trip.
Elsewhere on this all-star outing, he shows rare sensitivity on his tender
nylon string acoustic ballad “Gone” and on “Emilia,” which marks his second
appearance on record as a vocalist (his first was on the lyrical tune “Wishing
Well” from Electric, his 2014 collaboration with fellow guitar hero Eric
Johnson). “Singing is kind of second nature for me,” says Stern. “I sometimes
sing the melody when I’m writing a tune. I’ll be playing chords on the guitar
and I’ll start singing a melody and then write it down. I got the nerve to do
it from that record I did with Eric Johnson and I’m doing it more on the gig
too. And it’s cool because I’ve always tried to get that more vocal sound on
the electric guitar. So the two go hand-in-hand.”
Whether he’s throwing down some burning, high velocity lines
on “Trip,” “Screws” or “Scotch Tape and Glue,” or conjuring up a more buoyant
vibe, as on “Hope for That” or the uplifting “I Believe You,” Stern is
definitely back on top of his game after months of struggle and uncertainty.
And in typically humble fashion, he defers to his bandmates on this all-star
session. “Everybody played their asses off on this record,” he says of Trip. “I
was really happy with how it came out, because everybody just put so much love
and energy into it. When I get to play with the caliber of musicians on this
recording, I'm just glad to be part of the band.”
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