If you hadn’t heard, guitar legend Mike Stern broke both of his arms after falling outside of his apartment back in July of 2016. A couple of surgeries later, as well as working to strengthen his nerve damaged picking hand, and he sounds quite rehabilitated on this strong album with old time friends and bandmates. A crew including “Randy Brecker/tp, Wallace Roney/tp, Bob Franceschini/ts, Bill Evans/ss, Tom Kennedy/b, Victor Wooten/b, Dennis Chambers/dr, Dave Weckl/dr and Lenny White/dr mix and match on this collection of originals that reflect various parts of Stern’s wide ranging career.
Moments that hearken back to his days with Miles Davis are felt with some Harmon muted trumpet during the hip “B Train” and bluesy “Screws,” the latter referring to the 11 pieces of metal put into his arm during the first surgery. Rocking work with Franceschini gets fusion on”Trip” and the frantic “Scotch Tape and Glue” and Stern gets assertive on the funky gets boogie-ing on “Whatchacallit.”
Stern shows other colors of the prism as well; some classical guitar makes for a delicate Latin “Gone,” and some American folk moods take you to a rural church on “C Ballad.” The obligatory dreamy piece is a beaut, with pastoral voice teamed with African lilt on the lovely “Amelia” with wife Leni accompanying on the 3 stringed n’goni for extra effect. Stern stretches out his boundaries with a Middle Eastern collection of harmonies while he shows no sign of a loss of digital dexterity on the bouncy “Hope For That.” He’ll be touring in the fall; this album shows that his fall was not from grace.