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Mike Stern Friday Nite at the New Yoshi's in SF
Tonite I had one of those moments when I wasn't sure whether:
1) to give up guitar forever with the realization that I suck and will never achieve even the slightest semblance of a real player or
2) to spend the next 4 days (which we have off) to hit the wood shed and practice my chops for hours on end until my calluses fall off...
I'm sure many of you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about - it's that weird place between being pissed off that you will never be as good as the person you just saw playing and total inspiration and awe. It's kinda weird, but it's a feeling that keeps me in this endless cycle of practice. Anyway, I finally had the chance to check out the new Yoshi's on Fillmore in San Francisco and saw the Mike Stern show. He is one of my favorite guitarists - jazz trained at Berklee, incredible chops, and plays a Tele-style Yamaha solid body - not the norm for your typical jazz player. However, Stern is anything but typical with his fusion based playing and an extremely aggressive rock-forward style.
Before diving into the show, the new Yoshi's is truly great and I was really impressed with the whole set up. It's just a few blocks from the legendary Fillmore. There's underground parking and the whole layout was well thought-out.
In fact, everything was so easy, that I almost felt guilty. There was plenty of parking downstairs for a sold out show and it was totally safe with plenty of folks around. Parking was a little steep at $12 for self-parking, but it was better than taking the chance of doing the normal "park in the Safeway lot" scheme that we've all done when catching a show at the Fillmore down the street.
The place was really nice and they had some cool jazz-inspired art on the walls...
The Mike Stern Band is on tour promoting his latest album "Who Let the Cats Out" released on Heads Up last year. The lineup was:
Richard Bona on bass and vocals
Bob Franceschini on tenor sax
Dennis Chambers on drums
The show was incredible - INCREDIBLE - INCREDIBLE. For those of you not familiar with Mike Stern, he plays a unique rock-influenced style of jazz. Unlike most jazz guitarists who refuse to bend notes, Stern is not afraid to bend and even use distortion - I've heard him describe his sound as Bop 'n Roll - not my choice of words, but he clearly has a powerful playing style. He toured with Billy Cobham in his early 20's before Miles recruited him to play in his comeback band in '81. Man, the opportunity to have played with Miles Davis must have been incredible - he was 22 at the time. UNBELIEVEABLE!
Moving to his gear - tonite, he played through two Fender Twin Reverbs set in stereo and used (brace yourself) ONLY BOSS PEDALS. This was really surprising as Boss is known to have pretty generic-sounding pedals. It's even more interesting to note how he sets them up in line: DS-1 Distortion, chromatic tuner, DD-3 Delay, another DD-3 Delay, another DS-1 Distortion, followed by a PSM-5 Power Supply Master Switch. I talked to him later about his pedal set up and he explained that he always plays with a slight delay with one of the DD-3s and uses the other for longer delays. He also has another rig which he uses for his chorus effect.
As usual, my pictures are awful, but what can you expect from a camera phone... I believe that the band opened with "Tumble Home " from his new album. The technical chops of the band were incredible with some serious rock overtures combined with bebop lines. The last time I saw Mike Stern, he played with Victor Wooten on bass and Dave Weckl on drums which had a funkier groove. The line-up tonite was much more rock oriented. Stern plays with a heavy chorus/reverb-laden sound and has incredible control of dynamics when he plays. His choice of meshing jazz voicings/inversions to create an open atmospheric sound with a driving fusion-based reminder that he was once a serious rock guitarist keeps you on edge. I'm sure the old school jazz cats probably cringe when he does this, but for the rest of us, it's great. Speaking of which, Stern released an album called "Standards" where he goes through and plays several Real Book standards that most of us were forced to play in "jazz camp" in our past lives. A definite "must have" for your jazz collection.
Besides Stern, the real standout of the evening was the bass player, Richard Bona. I haven't heard of him before, but he is an extremely talented player. He plays a 5-string bass through two 4x12 Glockenkang cabinets (sorry, I didn't get around to checking the head...). If you are a bass player, you NEED to check this guy out. I later learned he's played with Pat Metheny, Bobby McFerrin, Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, and even Chaka Khan. He had a few solos which were mind-blowing. He's also a great vocalist and will often accompany his solos singing either in unison or harmony.
Anyway, this post is getting out of control, but I highly recommend checking out the show tomorrow if you can swing it. You won't be disappointed. That's all for now...
1) to give up guitar forever with the realization that I suck and will never achieve even the slightest semblance of a real player or
2) to spend the next 4 days (which we have off) to hit the wood shed and practice my chops for hours on end until my calluses fall off...
I'm sure many of you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about - it's that weird place between being pissed off that you will never be as good as the person you just saw playing and total inspiration and awe. It's kinda weird, but it's a feeling that keeps me in this endless cycle of practice. Anyway, I finally had the chance to check out the new Yoshi's on Fillmore in San Francisco and saw the Mike Stern show. He is one of my favorite guitarists - jazz trained at Berklee, incredible chops, and plays a Tele-style Yamaha solid body - not the norm for your typical jazz player. However, Stern is anything but typical with his fusion based playing and an extremely aggressive rock-forward style.
Before diving into the show, the new Yoshi's is truly great and I was really impressed with the whole set up. It's just a few blocks from the legendary Fillmore. There's underground parking and the whole layout was well thought-out.
In fact, everything was so easy, that I almost felt guilty. There was plenty of parking downstairs for a sold out show and it was totally safe with plenty of folks around. Parking was a little steep at $12 for self-parking, but it was better than taking the chance of doing the normal "park in the Safeway lot" scheme that we've all done when catching a show at the Fillmore down the street.
The place was really nice and they had some cool jazz-inspired art on the walls...
The Mike Stern Band is on tour promoting his latest album "Who Let the Cats Out" released on Heads Up last year. The lineup was:
Richard Bona on bass and vocals
Bob Franceschini on tenor sax
Dennis Chambers on drums
The show was incredible - INCREDIBLE - INCREDIBLE. For those of you not familiar with Mike Stern, he plays a unique rock-influenced style of jazz. Unlike most jazz guitarists who refuse to bend notes, Stern is not afraid to bend and even use distortion - I've heard him describe his sound as Bop 'n Roll - not my choice of words, but he clearly has a powerful playing style. He toured with Billy Cobham in his early 20's before Miles recruited him to play in his comeback band in '81. Man, the opportunity to have played with Miles Davis must have been incredible - he was 22 at the time. UNBELIEVEABLE!
Moving to his gear - tonite, he played through two Fender Twin Reverbs set in stereo and used (brace yourself) ONLY BOSS PEDALS. This was really surprising as Boss is known to have pretty generic-sounding pedals. It's even more interesting to note how he sets them up in line: DS-1 Distortion, chromatic tuner, DD-3 Delay, another DD-3 Delay, another DS-1 Distortion, followed by a PSM-5 Power Supply Master Switch. I talked to him later about his pedal set up and he explained that he always plays with a slight delay with one of the DD-3s and uses the other for longer delays. He also has another rig which he uses for his chorus effect.
As usual, my pictures are awful, but what can you expect from a camera phone... I believe that the band opened with "Tumble Home " from his new album. The technical chops of the band were incredible with some serious rock overtures combined with bebop lines. The last time I saw Mike Stern, he played with Victor Wooten on bass and Dave Weckl on drums which had a funkier groove. The line-up tonite was much more rock oriented. Stern plays with a heavy chorus/reverb-laden sound and has incredible control of dynamics when he plays. His choice of meshing jazz voicings/inversions to create an open atmospheric sound with a driving fusion-based reminder that he was once a serious rock guitarist keeps you on edge. I'm sure the old school jazz cats probably cringe when he does this, but for the rest of us, it's great. Speaking of which, Stern released an album called "Standards" where he goes through and plays several Real Book standards that most of us were forced to play in "jazz camp" in our past lives. A definite "must have" for your jazz collection.
Besides Stern, the real standout of the evening was the bass player, Richard Bona. I haven't heard of him before, but he is an extremely talented player. He plays a 5-string bass through two 4x12 Glockenkang cabinets (sorry, I didn't get around to checking the head...). If you are a bass player, you NEED to check this guy out. I later learned he's played with Pat Metheny, Bobby McFerrin, Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, and even Chaka Khan. He had a few solos which were mind-blowing. He's also a great vocalist and will often accompany his solos singing either in unison or harmony.
Anyway, this post is getting out of control, but I highly recommend checking out the show tomorrow if you can swing it. You won't be disappointed. That's all for now...
Comments
TCC - it was great to hang and watch some music last nite - good times.
J