Mike Stern - Trip

The Guardian 80

(Heads Up)

Maybe his Spinal Tap haircut and amiably crazed, hell-for-leather grin typecasts Mike Stern as a likely fusion-guitar headbanger, but the 70s/80s Blood, Sweat & Tears and Miles Davis sideman has long been a lyrically thoughtful as well as a rock-powered improviser, and he writes terrific tunes, steeped in casually applied jazz lore. This fine album resembles 2012’s All Over the Place, in its live-sounding studio jamming by famous guests distributed among different small groups. Stern recently broke both arms so seriously in a fall (hence the title) that he now has to glue his pick to his hand to grip it, but the mishap definitely hasn’t cramped his style. He’s off like a greyhound on the title’s duck-and-dive post-bop theme and choppy groove, is gracefully romantic alongside Randy Brecker’s trumpet on the ballad Blueprint, slides Thelonious Monk quotes into Half Crazy’s bebop licks, lilting griot-like vocals into the swaying Emilia and old-school swing into B Train. It’s a good-humoured, musical, spontaneous, and often compellingly tender set.