Mike Stern - 2001 "Voices"

Voices is an album by Mike Stern, released in 2001 through Atlantic Records. The album reached a peak position of number twenty-three on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart.

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."

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."

"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."

Much like Carlos Santana did with Supernatural, Stern is re-inventing himself with Voices. The purpose of this CD is to bring Stern a wider audience. It does! A technical genius, whose phrasing and sizzling guitar riffs have made him a much sought after jazz-rock-fusion guitarslinger, Stern has appeared on albums by an eclectic group of artists. The Brecker Brothers, Steps Ahead and Miles Davis to name but a few, have all benefited from Mike Sterns guitar wizardry. Stern was also a member of Blood, Sweat & Tears.

Voices is much more than just the new Mike Stern CD. It is a celebration of music and the feelings that music (and vocals) can convey. Stern, along with guest musicians Michael Brecker and Bob Franseschini on saxophones, Dennis Chambers on drums , bassist Chris Doky, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, Jon Herington on guitar and Lincoln Goines on additional basses have created a vibe that is both inspirational and uplifting.

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Track listing:

1.    "One World"    6:25
2.    "The River (Tongo)"    6:29
3.    "Slow Change"    7:15
4.    "Wishing Well"    6:12
5.    "Still There"    7:33
6.    "Spirit"    6:38
7.    "What Might Have Been"    5:33
8.    "Leni's Smile"    5:33
9.    "Way Out East"    7:05
Total length:    58:43

Personnel:

    Mike Stern – guitar
    Michael Brecker – saxophone
    Jon Herington – rhythm guitar
    Richard Bona – bass, kalimba, vocals
    Chris Minh Doky – double bass
    Lincoln Goines – bass guitar
    Dennis Chambers – drums
    Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
    Bob Franceschini – saxophone
    Philip Hamilton – vocals
    Elisabeth Kontomanou – vocals
    Arto Tuncboyaciyan – percussion, vocals
    Jim Beard – production, keyboards