Leni Stern | "Dance"

Leni Stern was named one of the “50 Most Sensational Female Guitarists of All Time” in Guitar Player magazine’s 50th anniversary issue in 2017, with the publication aptly dubbing her “a genre-defying adventurer.” Leni’s example shines beyond just prowess on her instrument. The pursuit of her career across more than four decades has been in effect a political act – a practice in strength and defiance to be a woman and a bandleader, a female electric guitarist and a composer, an artist who produces her own albums and manages her own career. Moreover, in our current political climate, it is now more essential than ever to celebrate the immigrant experience that brought Leni to the U.S. from Germany and her African bandmates from Senegal and Argentina. Leni’s inspiration has long been the interconnectedness of music, history and our humanity. She says: “Music is one of the truest, most beautiful expressions of the human spirit, crossing borders, dissolving tribalism, binding us together – if we let it.

Leni has been on an evolutionary road over the past decade and a half, as she fused her long-honed contemporary jazz sound with a deeply felt exploration of West African styles. She has traveled and studied extensively in Mali and Senegal, performing with iconic singer-songwriter Salif Keita among other African notables. The Munich-bred New Yorker’s trans-Atlantic journeys have yielded a fresh, personal idiom, one where progressive virtuosity blends seamlessly with age-old folk traditions. Leni’s working trio – featuring bassist Mamadou Ba and percussionist Alioune Faye, both natives of Senegal – released the albums 3 in 2018 and Jelell in 2013, along with figuring into the expansive cast of her Dakar Suite of 2016. Now the trio has become a quartet with the addition of Argentina-bred keyboardist Leo Genovese, a highly regarded talent on the New York scene as both a leader and as a collaborator with the likes of Esperanza Spalding and Jack DeJohnette. Leni’s latest album – aptly titled 4, for showcasing this new quartet – draws on the crystalline guitar, irresistible grooves and multilingual songs that listeners know from her recent releases, with Genovese’s improvisational fire and hints of South American lyricism now added to the mix. In its four-star review, DownBeat marveled over the “joy” in Leni’s playing, adding: “If you love the wail of Youssou N’Dour and the jangle of Franco Luambo, but also have a soft spot for música popular brasileira, this crisply produced, infectiously melodic and rhythmically percolating album is for you.

Leni and her husband, fusion guitar star Mike Stern, helped stir up the vibrant scene at Greenwich Village club 55 Bar in the early ’80s. Her debut album as a leader, Clairvoyant (Passport, 1986), featured her alongside two jazz icons, guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Paul Motian. After the 1987 follow-up for Passport, The Next Day, Leni made a string of albums for Enja and Lipstick: Secrets (1989), Closer to the Light (1990), Ten Songs (1992), Like One (1993) and Words (1995). She also recorded a guitar duo album co-billed with guitarist Wayne Krantz, Separate Cages (Alchemy, 1996). With 1997’s Black Guitar, a record that saw her exploring the role of singer-songwriter, Leni began producing her own albums. Over the next decade, she explored jazz-meets-pop territory, releasing albums via her own Leni Stern Recordings label, as she has done ever since. This period yielded Kindness of Strangers (2000), Finally, the Rain Has Come (2002), When Evening Falls (2004) and Love Comes Quietly (2006).

Leni performed at Mali’s Festival in the Desert in 2006, getting to know many of the native musicians on site in the Sahara Desert three hours outside Timbuktu. She began spending several months a year living and working in Mali and Senegal. These experiences led to a bold new era in her music, starting with the EP Alu Maye (Have You Heard) and album Africa, both released in 2007. Leni recorded the biggest parts of six albums at the studio owned by Salif Keita in Bamako, Mali. She also played in Keita’s band, as well as with star Senegalese singer-guitarist Baaba Maal, who brought her to perform at his Blues du Fleuve Festival. Kora master Toumani Diabaté offered tutelage in Mali, too, particularly about the traditional rhythms of Malian music and the rich orchestration that can be achieved with its of string instruments and percussion. Malian n’goni player Bassekou Kouyate and his wife, vocalist Ami Sacko, also became key mentors and collaborators.

Leni’s globe-trotting musical odyssey continued with the 2009 EP Spirit in the Water, which included songs formed by her travels in Mali, Senegal, Madagascar and India. The next year’s album – Sa Belle Belle Ba (“Very, Very Big Snake,” a title referencing ancient African religious ceremonies) – presented richly textured arrangements with electric guitar, bass and drums complemented by n’goni, kora, an assortment of West African percussion instruments and backing vocalists. Kouyate, Sacko and Diabaté all contributed performances. After employing the huge cast of Sa Belle Belle Ba, Leni stripped back the instrumentation to essentials for her next album, 2011’s Sabani, which was all written and recorded in Mali. Sabani featured her on guitar, n’goni and tiple (a 12-string acoustic Colombian instrument), plus Haruna Samake on n’goni and Mamadou Kone on calabash and talking drum. All About Jazz said: “Many musicians have ventured into Mali to tune into the legendary musical vibrations, but few if any have assimilated so far into the social fabric as Leni Stern. She has totally reinvented herself and her method of playing guitar to the point that it is a fresh creation.”

Leni recorded her next album – Smoke, No Fire (2012) – in Mali during a trying time for country: in the midst of a military coup d’etat. The support of her extended family of Malian friends and fellow musicians made it possible, against the odds. The review of Smoke, No Fire in All About Jazz noted that “there is definitely a harder edge in the delivery and significance of the vocals, with an aggressive leaning toward rap to underscore the message from the streets.” Malian rapper Woroferela Moden guested on the record, while Leni sang in a mix of English and the Bambara language. Young jazz star Esperanza Spalding added a bass track from New York. Then, with her 2014 album Jelell, Leni established her current trio with bassist Mamadou Ba and percussionist Alioune Faye, recording in Dakar, Senegal. The album title is an expression in the Wolof language that means “Seize the moment” or “Go for it,” which they did by digging deep into Senegalese rhythms. Among the other contributors to the recording sessions were the Seng Seng Faye Percussion Ensemble, made up of Faye’s five brothers on sabar drums.

With her ambitious album Dakar Suite of 2016, Leni created an hour’s worth of music recorded both in Dakar and New York, with orchestrated textures and one of the biggest lineups she had assembled to date – including the Mamadou Ba and Alioune Faye rhythm section, as well as the Seng Seng Faye group of percussionists and various top New York jazz players, plus various other instrumentalists and backing vocalists from Africa and the U.S. After the textural feats of Dakar Suite, Leni once again stripped things back with her 2018 album 3 – so titled for its focus on the sound of her trio with Mamadou Ba and Alioune Faye, plus a few New York guests. All About Jazz described the album as “bewitching” before concluding: “Over the years, Stern has paid homage to our musical ancestors while integrating the complexities of African music with the sensibilities of jazz. 3 is a powerful embodiment and exploration of African roots that takes it to another level and creates a sound, style and statement that is uniquely her own.”

As Leni’s muse has led her around the world, her curiosity and empathy enabled her to develop collaborative relationships with kindred spirits across cultures. She appeared in a 2013 documentary film, Last Song Before the War, about Mali’s Festival in the Desert, where she first made the connections with the West African musicians who have had such a profound effect on her life and music. Having teamed with Salif Keita and his band on multiple occasions in Africa, the singer pulled her onstage Stateside to play a solo during his Celebrate Brooklyn! concert in 2008. Two years later, she performed at Carnegie Hall with her original African mentors: Bassekou Kouyate and Ami Sacko. As the Washington Post has said, “Stern doesn’t collaborate with the West Africans so much as commune with them.” Leni also played the U.S. Cultural Ambassador tour of Nicaragua in 2014, and she was artist-in-residence at Nepal’s Jazzmandu: The Kathmandu Jazz Festival in 2015. And, of course, Leni has played top jazz clubs across the U.S., as well as diverse festivals in Europe. Her live performances and ever-prolific recording career have earned Leni Gibson’s Female Jazz Guitarist of the Year award five times.