Mike Stern — Trip (September 8, 2017) 
→↔• “I just saw Mike Stern and his band — Tom Kennedy, Dennis Chambers, and Randy Brecker — in Philly. At the beginning of the show Mike announced that they wouldn’t be playing too much from the new album, and they didn’t in the first set. At the beginning of the second set he announced that they would try to play some things from the new album but asked for patience in case they screwed it up (actually his words were something like ‘please don’t throw things’). I didn’t quite get it — with this band how could you go wrong? As I listened to Trip for the first time, I got where he was coming from. To paraphrase another review here, the songs on this album are compositionally much more complex than in the previous three. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Who let the cats out, All over the place, and Big Neighborhood, but the arrangements on Trip are just at another level. Also, to my ear, Mike’s lead playing is noticeably different than on the previous three albums. Still as technically accomplished, but fresher? I don’t know the right word. Anyhow, this is a great album by any account. Highly recommended.” (Vaifan)
Birth name: Mike Sedgwick
Born: January 10, 1953, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Genres: Jazz, jazz fusion, post~bop
Occupations: Songwriter, musician
Instruments: Guitar
Notable instruments: Yamaha PA511MS, Fender Telecaster
Location: New York, NY
Album release: September 8, 2017
Record Label: Heads Up International
Duration: 65:56
Tracks:
01 Trip 7:25
02 Blueprint 7:27
03 Half Crazy 5:37
04 Screws 7:21
05 Gone 4:06
06 Whatchacallit 6:44
07 Emilia 5:33
08 Hope For That 5:52
09 I Believe You 5:04
10 Scotch Tape And Glue 5:37
11 B Train 5:20
Personnel:
•• Mike Stern: guitar, vocals;
•• Randy Brecker: trumpet (1, 2);
•• Jim Beard: piano, Hammond organ, keyboards;
•• Dennis Chambers: drums (1, 2, 6);
•• Tom Kennedy: bass (1, 2, 6);
•• Arto Tuncboyaciyan: percussion (1, 2, 4, 7, 8);
•• Bob Franceschini: tenor saxophone (1, 6);
•• Victor Wooten: bass (1);
•• Bill Evans: tenor sax (3, 10);
•• Lenny White: drums (3, 4, 10, 11);
•• Teymur Phell: bass (3, 7, 8, 11);
•• Wallace Roney: tumpet (4, 11);
•• Will Calhoun: drums (5, 9);
•• Edmond Gilmore: acoustic bass (5);
•• Gio Moretti: vocal (7);
•• Leni Stern: ghoni (7, 9);
•• Dave Weckl: drums (8);
•• Edmond Gilmore: bass (9);
•• Elhadji Alioune Faye: percussion (10).
•• Trip was an album that happened because of Mike Stern’s relentless determination to remain Mike Stern. On July 3, 2016, he was hailing a cab when he tripped over some concealed construction debris, broke both arms, and was taken to the hospital. He fractured both humerus bones and was left with significant nerve damage in his right hand, preventing him from accomplishing even the simplest of tasks — including holding a guitar pick. Following a surgery in which 11 screws were put into his arm, Stern emerged in late October with Chick Corea, playing seated and wearing a black glove outfitted with Velcro attached to a Velcro~fitted pick. A second surgery followed and he gained more control of his nerve~damaged right hand by literally gluing and taping his fingers to a pick. It gradually strengthened his grip, and allowed him to regain his speed and technical precision. The recording of Trip began in January of 2017, six months after the accident. While the title’s meaning has a double entendre, some of its song titles — “Screws,” “Scotch Tape and Glue” — also reference his surgical events.
•• Stern enlisted an all~star cast playing in different configurations, achieving a diversity that even exceeds All Over the Place. The title track with drummer Dennis Chambers, bassist Victor Wooten, keyboardist/album producer Jim Beard, and saxophonist Bob Franceschini is a knotty exercise in rocking jazz~funk fusion with peeling guitar riffs, solos, and fills. There’s a Miles Davis lilt to “Blueprint” with Randy Brecker guesting on muted trumpet, while Beard plays B~3 and synths, and Chambers offers his best take on Al Foster. Stern eventually touches on the blues before it winds out. “Half Crazy” is blazing, hard-grooving post~bop, with Beard on piano, swinging tenorist Bill Evans, drummer Lenny White, and Teymur Phell on bass. “Screws” commences slowly and quixotically with Wallace Roney on trumpet and the rest of the rhythm section above, as well as percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan. While the melody builds in layers and spirals upwards, Roney and Stern each solo hard, adding limber bluesy funk until they deconstruct it to a fade. Leni Stern adds her ngoni to the West African~tinged “Emilia” with Gio Moretti on wordless vocals hovering above the band’s interplay. Stern’s ngoni also adds a lithe dimension to the grooving, midtempo ballad “I Believe You.” “Hope for That” is another intense, even transcendent fusion jam that bumps into rockist Latin terrain with drummer Dave Weckl driving a mean set of crossbeats. While fleet post~bop governs the hard swinging “Scotch Tape and Glue,” with Evans returning on tenor, it is Stern’s overdriven playing that sets the tone and controls its flow. Stern even picks up an acoustic guitar for the lovely quartet ballad “Gone,” offering a side of himself we seldom hear.
•• Stern may have been proving something to himself on Trip. But what he delivers is a tenacious, heartfelt work of imagination, discipline, technical facility, and pure pleasure.
© →↔• Mike Stern, Blue Note Milano 2016
Review
by Jackson Maxwell. Posted 07/28/2017
•• Mike Stern is set to release his 17th album as a bandleader, Trip, September 8 via Heads Up. Today, Guitarworld.com presents the premiere of “Whatchacallit,” the album’s latest single.
•• Trip is Stern’s first album since breaking both his arms after tripping over construction debris outside his Manhattan home last summer. You wouldn’t know Stern had ever been injured from this track however, which shows him in dazzling form. You can check it out below.
•• “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,” said Stern of his arduous recovery process. “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.” •• http://www.guitarworld.com/
Also:
By JAMES NADAL, August 1, 2017 / Score: ****
•• https://www.allaboutjazz.com/trip-mike-stern-heads-up-international-review-by-james-nadal.php
Website: http://www.mikestern.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikesternguitar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikestern0
© →↔• Mike Stern, Photo credit: William Ellis
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Born: January 10, 1953, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Genres: Jazz, jazz fusion, post~bop
Occupations: Songwriter, musician
Instruments: Guitar
Notable instruments: Yamaha PA511MS, Fender Telecaster
Location: New York, NY
Album release: September 8, 2017
Record Label: Heads Up International
Duration: 65:56
Tracks:
01 Trip 7:25
02 Blueprint 7:27
03 Half Crazy 5:37
04 Screws 7:21
05 Gone 4:06
06 Whatchacallit 6:44
07 Emilia 5:33
08 Hope For That 5:52
09 I Believe You 5:04
10 Scotch Tape And Glue 5:37
11 B Train 5:20
Personnel:
•• Mike Stern: guitar, vocals;
•• Randy Brecker: trumpet (1, 2);
•• Jim Beard: piano, Hammond organ, keyboards;
•• Dennis Chambers: drums (1, 2, 6);
•• Tom Kennedy: bass (1, 2, 6);
•• Arto Tuncboyaciyan: percussion (1, 2, 4, 7, 8);
•• Bob Franceschini: tenor saxophone (1, 6);
•• Victor Wooten: bass (1);
•• Bill Evans: tenor sax (3, 10);
•• Lenny White: drums (3, 4, 10, 11);
•• Teymur Phell: bass (3, 7, 8, 11);
•• Wallace Roney: tumpet (4, 11);
•• Will Calhoun: drums (5, 9);
•• Edmond Gilmore: acoustic bass (5);
•• Gio Moretti: vocal (7);
•• Leni Stern: ghoni (7, 9);
•• Dave Weckl: drums (8);
•• Edmond Gilmore: bass (9);
•• Elhadji Alioune Faye: percussion (10).
•• Stern enlisted an all~star cast playing in different configurations, achieving a diversity that even exceeds All Over the Place. The title track with drummer Dennis Chambers, bassist Victor Wooten, keyboardist/album producer Jim Beard, and saxophonist Bob Franceschini is a knotty exercise in rocking jazz~funk fusion with peeling guitar riffs, solos, and fills. There’s a Miles Davis lilt to “Blueprint” with Randy Brecker guesting on muted trumpet, while Beard plays B~3 and synths, and Chambers offers his best take on Al Foster. Stern eventually touches on the blues before it winds out. “Half Crazy” is blazing, hard-grooving post~bop, with Beard on piano, swinging tenorist Bill Evans, drummer Lenny White, and Teymur Phell on bass. “Screws” commences slowly and quixotically with Wallace Roney on trumpet and the rest of the rhythm section above, as well as percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan. While the melody builds in layers and spirals upwards, Roney and Stern each solo hard, adding limber bluesy funk until they deconstruct it to a fade. Leni Stern adds her ngoni to the West African~tinged “Emilia” with Gio Moretti on wordless vocals hovering above the band’s interplay. Stern’s ngoni also adds a lithe dimension to the grooving, midtempo ballad “I Believe You.” “Hope for That” is another intense, even transcendent fusion jam that bumps into rockist Latin terrain with drummer Dave Weckl driving a mean set of crossbeats. While fleet post~bop governs the hard swinging “Scotch Tape and Glue,” with Evans returning on tenor, it is Stern’s overdriven playing that sets the tone and controls its flow. Stern even picks up an acoustic guitar for the lovely quartet ballad “Gone,” offering a side of himself we seldom hear.
•• Stern may have been proving something to himself on Trip. But what he delivers is a tenacious, heartfelt work of imagination, discipline, technical facility, and pure pleasure.
© →↔• Mike Stern, Blue Note Milano 2016
© →↔• Mike Stern, Photo credit: William Ellis
Review
by Jackson Maxwell. Posted 07/28/2017
•• Mike Stern is set to release his 17th album as a bandleader, Trip, September 8 via Heads Up. Today, Guitarworld.com presents the premiere of “Whatchacallit,” the album’s latest single.
•• Trip is Stern’s first album since breaking both his arms after tripping over construction debris outside his Manhattan home last summer. You wouldn’t know Stern had ever been injured from this track however, which shows him in dazzling form. You can check it out below.
•• “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,” said Stern of his arduous recovery process. “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.” •• http://www.guitarworld.com/
Also:
By JAMES NADAL, August 1, 2017 / Score: ****
•• https://www.allaboutjazz.com/trip-mike-stern-heads-up-international-review-by-james-nadal.php
Website: http://www.mikestern.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikesternguitar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikestern0
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••