Trip

On July 3, 2016, the world changed forever for Mike Stern. The multiple Grammy-nominated guitarist, a former member of Miles Davis' band during the early 1980s and subsequent member of Steps Ahead, Jaco Pastorius' Word of Mouth and The Brecker Brothers, was hailing a cab outside his apartment in Manhattan when he tripped over some hidden construction debris left in the street. He broke both his arms in the fall and the cab he was hailing ended up taking him to the hospital.

After two surgeries the guitarist gained more control of his nerve-damaged picking hand and subsequently devised a scheme where he literally glues his right-hand fingers to the pick, which strengthened his grip, allowing him to more fully realize his signature speed, precision and fluidity informed mainly by bebop and the blues. Feeling sufficiently fortified, Stern and his stellar crew of sidemen - many of whom go back with him to the '80s - went into Spin Studio in Long Island City between January and March of 2017 to record his 17th album as a leader. The guitarist's sly, self-deprecating sense of humor comes across in the title of the album, Trip, as well as on individual tracks like "Screws" (he initially had 11 screws put into his arm following his first surgery) and "Scotch Tape and Glue" (his current method for holding onto the pick).

A powerhouse outing, Trip features such longstanding colleagues as trumpeters Randy Brecker and Wallace Roney, saxophonists Bob Franceschini and Bill Evans, the latter a bandmate in Miles Davis' 'comeback band' of 1981, bassists Victor Wooten and Tom Kennedy and drummers Dave Weckl, Dennis Chambers and Lenny White. Produced by pianist-keyboardist Jim Beard, Stern's frequent producer going back to 1991's Odds or Evens, Trip is a brilliant showcase of what the acclaimed guitarist does best - riffing on post-Miles funk-fusion ("Trip," "Screws," "Watchacallit"), urgent swingers ("Half Crazy," "Scotch Tape and Glue," "B Train") and lyrical ballads ("Emilia," "I Believe You"). His wife Leni Stern guests on two tracks, playing the n'goni (a three-stringed African instrument) on the buoyant "Emilia," which also features Gio Moratti on backup vocals, and the uplifting ballad "I Believe You." Other performers on Trip include percussionists Arto Tuncboyaciyan and Elhadji Alioune Faye, Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun and bassists Teymur Phell and Edmond Gilmore