JAZZ
Join Pete Callard as he uncovers some of the greatest licks from some of the true titans of jazz guitar. This month, Mike Stern!
Pete Callard examines Mike Stern’s approach in the first of a superb two-part appreciation.
Born in Boston Massachusetts on 10th January 1953, Michael sedgwick (stern was his stepfather’s name) grew up in Washington DC. He began playing guitar at the age of 12, inspired by BB King, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, but only got serious about the instrument at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he returned to study in 1971. Berklee opened stern up to jazz and he began scrutinising Miles Davis, John Coltrane, McCoy tyner and Bill Evans and taking lessons with Pat Metheny and Mick Goodrick.
His first break came when, on Metheny’s recommendation, he joined Blood, sweat and tears, with whom he stayed for two years, touring and playing on the albums More than Ever (1976) and Brand new Day (1977). on leaving, stern began taking lessons from pianist Charlie Banacos, and continued to study with him by correspondence for much of his career. A spell with Billy Cobham’s Glass Menagerie followed, but it was joining Miles Davis’ comeback band in 1981 that thrust him into the spotlight. stern’s debut with Miles, at the KiX club in Boston on June 27th, 1981, was released on the album We Want Miles in 1982, and in his three-year tenure stern also featured on Man With the Horn (1981) and star People (1983).
A stint with Jaco Pastorius’ Word of Mouth band followed, then stern rejoined Davis in 1985 for a year. stern’s debut as leader also came in 1985 with the album neesh, but it was 1986’s Upside Downside - his first US release - that saw him emerge as a jazz-fusion artist in his own right, and brought his writing skills to the fore on tunes like Little shoes and the funky title track. stern subsequently joined tenor player Michael Brecker’s quintet, featuring on the album Don’t try this At Home and, following a spell with David sanborn, joined Brecker alongside Mike Manieri, steve smith and Darryl Jones in steps Ahead, the stellar line-up featured on Live in tokyo 1986.
stern’s second solo album, time in Place, was released in 1988 and featured one of his most famous compositions, Chromazone (Gt101). time in Place set something of a compositional framework for subsequent releases - modal sequences with increasingly complex, angular, chromatic melodies alongside harmonically rich ballads, with guitar solos expanding from chorused clean preambles to huge distorted string-bend and pinched-harmonic filled climaxes.
Much has been said about stern’s ‘jazz meets Hendrix’ fusion style, but for me his finest playing is often found on more straight-ahead fare. His solos teem with ideas, encompassing great time and swing coupled
Whatever you’re playing, wherever the music takes you, the guiding force to me is ‘play your heart out’. Mike Stern
with phenomenal vocabulary and harmonic adventure, but none of the predictability of which his fusion playing has on occasions been accused. so i thought it would be illuminating to highlight this aspect of his playing style - the ‘jazz’ side of Mike stern if you will - so this month and next we’re going examine the key aspects and discuss some of his concepts and approaches on popular jazz sequences. We’ve six examples this month taking in ii-V-i ideas, turnarounds and down and uptempo blues sequences, and we’ll be focusing on stern’s bebop vocabulary, substitutions, outside ideas and intervallic patterns. Join me next time for more inspiring ideas from the incredible Mike stern.
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