Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
On July 3, 2016, the world changed forever for Mike Stern. The guitarist was hailing a cab outside his apartment in Manhattan when he tripped over some hidden construction debris, breaking both of his arms in the fall. Not only did Stern fracture both humerus bones, he was left with significant nerve damage in his right hand that prevented him from doing the simplest tasks, including holding a pick. Following his initial surgery, he had to play seated while wearing a black glove outfitted with Velcro to help him hold onto his Velcro-fitted pick. After a second surgery, the guitarist gained more control over his nerve-damaged picking hand and subsequently devised a scheme where he literally glues his right-hand fingers to the pick, which strengthens his grip, allowing him to more fully realize his signature speed, precision and fluidity. Feeling sufficiently fortified, Stern and his stellar crew of sidemen recorded his 17th album as a leader. The guitarist’s sly, self-deprecating sense of humor comes across in the title of the album, “Trip.”
When Chicago’s TimeLine Theater performed the final production of its 20th Anniversary 2016-2017 season this summer—the Midwest premiere of “Paradise Blue” by Dominique Morisseau—it featured original music by one of the city’s most admired jazz artists, trumpeter Orbert Davis. The music, performed by Davis and members of his Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, underscored the jazz-infused drama about a gifted but troubled trumpeter in Detroit’s Black Bottom neighborhood. The music, which the Chicago Sun-Time called “…a splendid original score” is now on a CD entitled “Paradise Blue” on Orbert’s own 3Sixteen record label.
Also this week, Moscow-born pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff once again demonstrates uncommon lyricism and a gift for melody on “In the Shadow of a Cloud,” her 11th recording since transitioning from the classical world to jazz in 2010.
Nigerian-born, Paris-based percussionist and Afrobeat legend Tony Allen explores his early jazz influences on “The Source
D.C.-based trumpeter Harold Little fuses jazz, funk and R&B on his second disc as a leader, “Akoben.”