Venue: Kino Šiška, Ljubljana
Concert date: October 27, 2009
Attendance: 800
Ticket price: €23.00 in advance, €28.00 on the day of the show
Ever since its renovation and its switch from the original purpose of the building, Kino Šiška has been enjoying a real renaissance, slowly earning its stripes as a genuine cultural hotspot, including when it comes to visits from world-famous jazz giants who spent past decades leaving an indelible mark on the development of experimental and popular music alike. This time, the legendary American guitar hero Mike Stern dropped by our capital. Jazz-loving big spenders who know his early days with jazz-rock heavyweights Blood, Sweat & Tears, his stint in the band of the great Miles Davis, and his majestic solo catalog don’t need much of an introduction to him. Mike rolled into Ljubljana with a backing band that was more than impressive.
Two names stood out in particular: the legendary trumpeter Randy Brecker, who made his name alongside his brother, the no less celebrated saxophonist Michael Brecker, in the cult jazz fusion outfit The Brecker Brothers, and drummer Dave Weckl, a whole drumming battalion in one man. Bassist Chris Minh Doky, as the youngest member of the lineup, drew the least attention, but he didn’t lag behind his fellow musicians one bit when it came to sheer talent, a feel for smart improvisation, and technical chops on both acoustic and electric bass.
Stern’s crew could easily be declared an all-star band, and on this night it had no trouble filling the former cinema hall. Plenty of Slovenian high society was spotted among the crowd, while the audience’s demographics were impossible to pin down with the naked eye. Contrary to expectations, lots of people showed up who you wouldn’t peg at first glance as typical jazz fans. Such interest in Stern’s show is eloquent proof that our live jazz scene is slowly but steadily getting better and once again luring in world-famous giants of the genre, as all the lucky ones who gathered the night before at Cankarjev dom for the all-star trio Power of Three, made up of Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White, could see for themselves.
Stern and his many-talented pals had the crowd in raptures right after a short introduction from Brane Rončel. The eternal good-vibes guy Stern, whose contagious smile is evidently a mandatory companion to his stage appearances (and from whom his distant guitar comrade Ritchie Blackmore could learn a thing or two on that front), began slowly conjuring up some incredible stage magic in a wonderfully bold yet subtle way, which included a healthy dose of free improvisation. The relatively mellow, ambient-leaning opening, in which all the musicians knitted individual improvisations together in perfect sync, was followed, just when most people least expected it, by a sudden solo explosion from Stern. He morphed from apparent restraint into an outright machine gun of guitar phrases, and those fast fingers suddenly became the main attraction of the night.
Of course, during and after those breathtaking solo cataclysms, Mike didn’t neglect his bandmates for a second, and every one of them got a few moments for more than impressive solo expansions. Trumpet elder statesman Randy Brecker, who hid behind his sunglasses for most of the evening, proved he’s still a master of exceptionally witty horn lines that spice up the already lively rhythms driving a band with a rhythm section like Minh Doky and Weckl. Weckl was, next to Stern, without a doubt the one who got the biggest applause during his solo spot and left the most jaws hanging open, because what he demonstrated on his drum kit this evening went well beyond the limits of a regular drum solo. Minh Doky followed Weckl’s dynamic and, when needed, rumbling transitions in lockstep, plucking the strings of his electric and acoustic bass with unusual speed and precision. As expected, the guitar wizard focused his setlist on his latest solo album, “Big Neighborhood”, which was also reflected by the large backdrop screen showing a picture of a typical American neighborhood in the middle of the night.
Mike, who comes from traditional jazz, also packs plenty of rocker moves into his guitar technique, which yield loads of punchy phrases within individual improvisations, the kind that plenty of hard rock bands would approve of. With incredible tightness and flexibility, he switches styles from near-hard-rock aggression and jazz fusion fluidity to more traditional jazz patterns. This colorful mix of different styles and techniques, not only courtesy of Stern but of the whole band, made sure there was something interesting for everyone in the diverse crowd. Even for those who aren’t your usual jazz listeners.
Moments of supersonic, almost hellish fusion, when the whole band charged into a wild march of improvisations, were almost invariably followed by a gradual shift into lighter, more melodic motifs, where the audience could keep time and give themselves over completely to the fusion magic, full of positive vibes. That’s where the real heart and perfect instrumental harmony flowing between Mike and his famous guests came through. The thunderous applause, which just wouldn’t die down, was naturally followed by an immediate return to the stage, and it was no quick formality either: the whole band took its time to treat the crowd to a few more gems from Stern’s solo repertoire. In the end, Mike joked that that was all for the night. They’d gladly play more, but they had simply run out of concert material.
Together with his guest lineup of nothing but instrumental greats, Mr. Stern put on everything that earned him the status of one of the most respected guitar heroes of his generation, and he treated the audience to a heaping gallon of royal jazz fusion, the kind our parts have been chronically short on in recent years. The band’s tightness and harmony stayed astonishingly high throughout the show, though that’s exactly what you’d realistically expect from musicians of their caliber. Between songs, Mike always took the time to introduce the tunes and plug the new album, so the communication between stage and audience was more than exemplary too. The sound was reasonably decent this evening as well, even if the bass was perhaps a touch too loud relative to the guitar in the first part, but that’s hardly worth mentioning, since in every respect this was the fulfillment of jazz gourmets’ concert wishes. As they filed out of the hall, many of them probably recalled Mike’s famous line that life is a lot like jazz: it’s best when you improvise.
photos: Mojca Perdih
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