Drummer Cafe Community Forum

kev d. hipped me to the fact that she's playing with mike stern tonight and tomorrow. i am not a huge stern fan, but terri lyne always inspires me.

i'm gonna check out the 8:30 show at iridium tonight. i usually like going to the later sets, but it's a school night ::)

what's killin' me is that she just played with the patrice rushen trio a few nights ago at lincoln center, and i missed it. patrice is a super-monster. i've been wanting to check her out for the longest.

why don't these things ever get announced? i'm on both their mailing lists, but got nothing. feh.


well, whatever. i'm certain to get a drummin' treat either way. will post a review demain.

There is something very definitely wrong with you.  :P

First time I saw Mike Stern was on the Brecker Brothers Return movie. His solo on the last song was cuh-ray-zee.

TLC kills. Will go watch her at any opportunity, which hasn't been often!

I didn't think I was a huge Stern fan, and then I went to see him at Blues Alley a few months ago (Anthony Jackson - bass and Weckl - drums). Now I am !!

re: stern... well, different strokes and all. i don't hate him, just not into his tone, and sometimes i find him a bit, er... inarticulate. muddy. but he has some nice compositions. and he always gets great drummers to back him.

i'll keep an open mind tonight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gCF-084mFs

Check out the Stern's solo starting at about 2:42. (It might take a few minutes to download).

that's a great tune. thanks for that, gaddy.

i'll give mike extra points for his butt-wiggling antics, but he just isn't my cup of tea. i liked some parts, but the overall affect doesn't work for me. 

not that i could do any better, of course.

Fine. Be that way. hehe I got taken to task on another board for not being a Jeff Beck fan, so I suppose some thing really are subjective. Not many, though, especially when it comes to the things I like. LOL

now go figure. i LOVE jeff beck!

lol indeed.


it is strange how we come to develop our preferences, though, eh?

FWIW, mark me down as being more into Beck than Stern.
In reality, fusion guitar leaves me cold in the 21st century.
As Smogg say's, different strokes.
I wanna hear a TLC report however.  :)

Me too!  :o  Lucky.

robyn

okay, here's my general take, in a cut 'n paste kinda way...

the show was good. not too long; maybe 90 minutes, but there were some great moments. one highlight was the bassist, i believe his name is robert bona. i loved his feel and his axe. wonder what kind of wood it was made of. they did two numbers where he sang. sort of a bobby mcferrin-ish vibe, served up with with delay, echo, etc., to recreate multiple vocal parts. it was cool.

tlc was phenomenal, as always. i'm continually taken with her ability to stay in the moment, and lift and respond to the soloist. the show was in support of stern's latest release, 'who let the cats out?', which has a funkier slant, and some bluesy-rock elements. i hadn't really seen her in this context, mostly more big band or modern jazz, and it was very cool to see her slammin' some funky grooves. she does some wild stuff btw'n the snare drum and hi-hats; a lot of intricate broken triplety patterns. also did some bonham-on-steroids type stuff for the more rock moments. i loved that. what really impresses me is her ability to compartmentalize everything. she is always very particular about her onstage sound, and she was gesturing wildly to the sound guy to fix stuff. he came to the stage and she carried on an entire conversation with him for a good minute, all the while holding everything down with some very lively brushwork. crazy. she also has a right foot from hell, which she uses very subtly and to great effect. i was watching the vibration on the head and marveled at how she was able to rattle off doubles and triples at such a low volume, but with great speed.

i just can't say enough good things about her playing. she is hugely evolved, and everything she does is baked into her muscles. she's frequently stated that her goal with drums is to 'play life,' not just music, and this she achieves with resounding success.

the tunes themselves had highlights and lowlights. some of the material felt mildly incoherent; rambling. no musical theme i could latch onto. but there were definitely bright spots. i'd have to pick up the cd to really decide.

gaddy, don't shoot me, but i think my big problem with stern is his sound and tendency to not leave much air while soloing. i like to hear a mix of clean and dirty sounds on guitar in any genre, and i am often reverb-averse, which he's heavy on. i have a bit of the same issue with john scofield. but i do love mike's hair.  :D

all in all, a good time, good learning experience. i was maybe 3 feet from the stage, which was great. i went up to tlc briefly, just to say thanks, but the reality is she intimidates me to no end. she has a standoffishness about her, and always has that deadpan stare [even when playing] that makes you feel a little off-kilter. soon as she left the stage she went to sit in a corner and talk on her cell. it didn't feel right to dive into more convo.

for those interested in gear crap, she had 5 crashes of varying textures, 2 of which doubled as rides; her main ride had that 'rivet strand' thingie; one splash, 2 snares [one fat one that was cranked high; cool sound], secondary snare looked to be copper...brass. i dunno. i believe the drums were yamaha, which is what she usually plays. i am quite blind, especially at night, and can't make out stuff like logos and what have you. i just listen.

i recommend you go check out the show if you get a chance.

I'm guessing that's Richard Bona - and yes, he's a phenomenal musician.  He's on Stern's new DVD (which also has Dennis Chambers - highly recommended, not only for the fact that it's the best I've ever heard Chambers play), and judging from that vid, it looks like the body of his bass is made out of oak, but don't quote me on that.  I got to see Richard on tour with Pat Metheny a few years ago, and at one point he, Pat, and Antonio Sanchez performed "Bright Size Life," and just tore it up.


As was noted earlier in this thread, everyone's taste is different.  I'd probably ignite the "mother of all threads" if I were to list some of the historic, significant, and influential bands and musicians that I don't care for - or at least, that I don't like as much as others do.  Mike's music doesn't seem to leave a lot of folks undecided - they either love what he does, or aren't particularly interested.  Obviously, I didn't hear this show, and I've only heard a few snippets of the new CD, but I'm a huge Mike Stern fan, dating back to when he was with Miles in the 1980s.  He's a significant musical influence on me, especially as a composer (his ballads are gorgeous, IMO) - and he's one of the reasons why I have pickups on my vibes.  (Power chords really don't work well on an acoustic vibraphone.)

And mark me down as one who likes his sound.  :)

Anyway...thanks for sharing the review, Smogg'!

THIS i will give him, in a big way. they performed one ballad i thought was lovely. probably the main reason why i'd get the cd.

as i've stated numerous times, i listened to a lot of nektar growing up, and always enjoyed the sound of a fat jazz axe in a rock/jazz idiom, with glimmers of reverb here and there. i think it's just one of those brain default things -- familiarity breeds content.

i respect everyone's right to their opinion!

This can probably be traced back to the Joe Pass/Wes Montgomery divide. I'm definitely in the Joe Pass camp, although Wes Montgomery plays beautifully, too, IMO. I sort of have to sit in the Joe Pass camp/lineage because I studied jazz guitar under one of his best students, the late Joey Cadrecha, for about two years.

I don't know if Sco/Stern sit directly in the Pass camp, but they are definitely carrying on the Django tradition of filling up the page!

gaddabout, i say you are spot on with that. i definitely was in the wes camp. i'm all about the 'warm fleshies.'  this would probably explain my george benson love, too.

i read somewhere that women hear higher-pitched, trebly sounds differently than men. maybe that has something to do with it. all i know is i gravitate to warmer tones in general [not just with music].

cheers!

I'm in touch with my feminine side then.  ;D

Don't get me wrong. All musicians at this level are talented, gifted, hard working and consumate pro's.
Whether I like what they do is down to personal taste though.

All I know is, after all these years of drumming, I'm simply thankful that I can hear "higher-pitched, trebly sounds" at all.  Anything more specific than that is a bonus.  ;)

I'll throw my hat into the ring here.

I saw Mike Stern Friday night at Iridium. I don't have too much too add that hasn't already been said.

Here are a few bits:

Richard Bona was playing bass, I liked his MIDI pickeup and the sampling thing he did, very tasty.

I saw Mike Stern about a year ago with Kim Thompson on drums, she is really good but I think TLC does a nicer job in anchoring things for that type of music. Not to take anything away from Ms. Thompson but watching her I got the feeling she is an "up & comer," very good, but overplayed too much and lacked a certain maturity in her playing. When watching TLC, I get the sense I'm watching/hearing a pro. The music had a different vibe with her. My guitar player, who is a great musican was with me at both gigs, and he actually pointed this out to me.

TLC has a great traditional thing going on too. they played a lot straight ahead Jazz stuff, I really like the way she works the hi hat/snare interplay, very tasty and effective.

She played mostly matched grip, except on the trad stuff.

She had a Yamaha kit but a Pearl snare in matching silver glitter, great sounding kit.

I've always like Mike Stern, the only thing that grates on me sometimes is his use of so much chorus. He didn't do too much of that Friday. What I do like about him is that his playing covers the ethereal, chordal-soundscape type things but when he needs to he can shred, either clean or with an edge of distortion.

He looked like he was having a lot of fun, the whole band looked like they were having a great time (other than TLC who doesn't really show too much emotion either way) in fact, it looked like just another day at the office for her. That is the only criticism I would have about the gig.

Afterwards the band went off to a corner to sign CDs and chat with the audience, TLC was the only one who elected not to do that, she kind of went off on her own.

Mike Stern is always very affable and was really into chatting into everyone who was there, in fact they had to tell him that he needed to get ready for his next (10:30) set so he had to cut his hanging out short.