Leni Stern

Leni Stern - Black Guitar - 1997 - Leni Stern

Leni Stern introduces us to her singing on Black Guitar. Vocally she's unimpressive, but this has more to do with the trite lyrics than her delivery, which is sufficiently expressive. For most of the CD an enjoyable looped Strat instrumental follows each cut with vocals. In these instrumental melodies her real voice comes through. Her light jazz leads are separately nicely from the deep and busy bass from Tim Lefebvre. The result is a song full of breadth and structure while still putting forth a face of her stylized delicacy. I recommend any fan of relaxed guitar jazz to get into the heart of this disc as the weakest material is concentrated in the first few tracks. Production, lap steel and vocal support are from Larry John McNally (Bonnie Raitt). © Tom Schulte © 2011 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/album/black-guitar-r311333

Leni Stern collaborates with Larry John McNally for a critically praised work offering a new spin on songwriting. This album showcases both accomplished writers for their passionate music and clever lyrics. This is Leni Stern's first record that really show's off her lyric writing."Leni Stern has over the years distinguished herself as one of the preeminent composers on the modern scene, with an ear for memorable, complex melodic hooks and keen insight to the human condition matched only by her sublime guitar skills" - Jazz Times

For 12 years and eight albums, guitarist-composer Leni Stern pursued a jazzy muse. From elegant impressionism (1985's excellent Clairvoyant with Paul Motian, Harvie Swartz and Bill Frisell) to slamming fusion (1993's Like One with Dennis Chambers, Alain Caron and Bob Malach), she demonstrated a penchant for melodic sensitivity and evocative harmonies while making some strong six-string statements of her own. A couple of years ago Leni found her voice...literally. She started incorporating a couple of vocal tunes on her regular Sunday night gig at the 55 Bar in New York and eventually began pursuing a very different muse. Following a period of vocal training and some intensive shedding with songwriting partner Larry John McNally, she has emerged as a breathy chanteuse on Black Guitar, her first fully realized showcase as a singer-songwriter. Though tunes like "Chinatown Revisited," "Mercy In The Night," "Mary Magdalene," "One Day" and the title track clearly fall in the pop camp, Leni imbues them with dusky timbres and a haunting beauty. Her guitar playing is strictly in service of the song on this vocal project, though she does resurrect one of her finest instrumental compositions, "Sandbox," a tune also once recorded by her chops-monster husband Mike Stern. She offers a pungent solo on the moody "So Good For You" and stretches on the instrumental closer, "Silverline," a dynamic showcase for Dennis Chambers' awesome drum prowess. Leni hinted at this direction on 1996's Separate Cages, her intimate duet project with fellow guitarist Wayne Krantz. She goes for it with more authority on Black Guitar. By & © Bill Milkowski, May 1998 © 1999–2011 JazzTimes, Inc. All rights reserved http://jazztimes.com/articles/8611-black-guitar-leni-stern

Good album mixing jazz, pop, and rock from Leni Stern, the great Munich born jazz and jazz fusion guitarist. Leni has recorded many albums and collaborated with many great musicians including Wayne Krantz, Paul Motian, Alain Caron and Bob Malach. Despite being an excellent composer, lyricist, and guitarist, her name remains unfamiliar to many people. Leni seldom sings, but she uses her vocals to good effect on this album. "Black Guitar" was specifically released to demonstrate Leni's improved vocal training as well as her lyrics. In fact, it is more a vocal than a guitar dominated album, so don't expect many complex jazz fusion guitar passages. Listen to her "Signal" album which features the incredible guitarist, Wayne Krantz. Spare a thought for the late, great Emily Remler who was another exceptional jazz guitarist, and listen to Emily's great "Firefly" album sometime

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 Can Joe Cocker - McNally 4:41
2 Chinatown Revisited - McNally 6:45
3 Mary Magdalene - McNally, Stern 5:57
4 City Sing for Me - McNally, Stern 4:12
5 Sandbox - Stern 8:05
6 Mercy in the Night - McNally, Stern 6:12
7 Jesse - McNally 1:43
8 So Good to You - Lefebvre, McNally, Stern 7:27
9 Black Guitar - McNally 5:34
10 Lynda - Lefebvre 1:04
11 One Day - McNally, Stern 5:52
12 Ghost Money - Stern 1:51
13 Why's Your Skin So White - McNally 4:31
14 Silver Line - Lefebvre, Stern 8:18

MUSICIANS

Leni Stern - Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Loop, Tiple, Vocals
Larry John McNally - Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Tremolo, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Tim Lefebvre - Bass, Vocals (Background)
B-3 - George Whitty
Dennis Chambers - Drums
Lionel Cordew - Drums, Vocals (Background)
Malcolm Pollack, Don Alias, Dennis McDermott - Percussion
David Mann - Saxophone
Lisa Michel - Vocals (Background)

BIO (WIKI)

Leni Stern (born Magdalena Thora in Munich, Germany) is an electric guitarist, and singer. She was interested in music from an early age, beginning piano studies at the age of six and taking on the guitar age of eleven. Forming her own acting company at the age of seventeen, Stern attracted media attention and performed her radical productions in front of sold-out European crowds. In 1977, Stern chose music over acting, and left Germany for the United States to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston, studying film scoring. She gave up film scoring in favor of the guitar and moved to New York City in 1981, playing in various rock and jazz bands. In 1983, she formed a band of her own with Paul Motian on drums and Bill Frisell on guitar. She has released twelve solo instrumental recordings, of which 1985's Clairvoyant was the first. Her most recent releases – Alu Maye, Africa, Spirit in the Water and Sa Belle Belle Ba – juxtapose Stern's trademark inventive guitar and vocal explorations with the indigenous sounds of accomplished African instrumentalists and singers. Her cover of Laura Nyro's song "Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp" appeared on Time and Love: The Music of Laura Nyro, the Laura Nyro tribute album. Leni Stern Recordings (LSR) was established in 1997. The record label seeks to put out music from the most creative artists in jazz and songwriting. LSR's first release was Stern's first full-length vocal release, Black Guitar. Ted Drozdowski of the Boston Phoenix described Stern's voice sounding "something like Marlene Dietrich borrowing Billie Holiday's phrasing." She is married to guitarist Mike Stern

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Leni Stern, who has received more recognition for her composing than her guitar playing, has managed to carve out her own musical personality despite being married to fellow guitarist Mike Stern (a potentially dominant influence). She began classical piano lessons when she was six, but was much more inspired a few years later when she discovered a guitar in the attic and taught herself to play jazz. Stern's early years were actually spent as an actress in her native Germany, featured on a national television show. However, she took a summer off in 1977 to enroll at Berklee, and she never returned to acting. Stern lived in Boston until 1980, moved to New York, and has worked steadily in clubs ever since, recording for Passport (now defunct), Enja, and Lipstick. Primarily an instrumentalist in the past, with 1997's Black Guitar she revealed her prowess as a vocalist, and began releasing a series of albums that mixed jazz, pop, and rock on her own LSR imprint, including Kindness of Strangers (2000), Finally the Rain Has Come (2002), When Evening Falls (2004), and Love Comes Quietly (2006). © Scott Yanow © 2011 Rovi Corporation. All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/artist/leni-stern-p7609/biography