Mike Stern – New Morning: The Paris Concert (2009, Inakustic)
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He’s played with Miles and the Brecker Brothers, netted multiple Grammy nominations, and generally helped redefine jazz guitar for over 30 years, but Mike Stern has never reached the “name brand” level of fame enjoyed by other upper-echelon guitarists (see: Frisell, Bill), or sales consistent enough to keep him from making a pair of label changes in the last decade — but he is talented enough to inspire a worldwide following, and long overdue for a hi-def concert movie besides. The recently released New Morning: The Paris Concert, filmed last year at the Paris club whose name graces the title, takes advantage of both of these things, and if you’re an HD-equipped jazz fan — or a music lover with a stomach for fusion that doesn’t suck — you’re in for a 105-minute treat.

If jazz makes you gag, let me try and put Stern’s sound into perspective: In the fall of 1991, a year I spent mostly listening to Van Halen’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, Atlantic sent me a promo copy of Stern’s Odds or Evens, and it kicked off a fascination with his music that has stayed with me to this day. This is not to say Mike Stern sounds like Eddie Van Halen — far from it — but as that album (and much of what has followed) proved, Stern is the rare jazz guitarist who is consistently able to walk the line between pure entertainment and sheer technique. He’s got a signature tone that’s stunningly pretty, and he isn’t afraid to use it in the service of uncommonly melodic songs — but he’s equally at home tracing skittery lines in the sand between skronk and lite FM. As an example, here’s the opening cut from Odds or Evens: (more…)