Mike Stern

Mike Stern ranks among the premier electric guitarists of his era, fluent across jazz roots, fusion energy, hard rock drive, and blues feeling. His approach merges saxophone-like phrasing, chord innovations first explored by Jim Hall, a rock player’s tonal palette, and a bluesman’s raw emotional delivery. These qualities surfaced clearly on his initial solo outing, the 1983 release Neesh, issued by the Japanese Trio label. Ten years afterward, the well-received Standards (And Other Songs) earned him Guitar Player magazine’s readers’ and critics’ choice as Best Jazz Guitarist of the Year. The following year’s Is What It Is and 1996’s Between the Lines each earned Grammy Award nominations. Give and Take, released in 1997, brought him the Orville H. Gibson Award for Best Jazz Guitarist. Ten of his albums have appeared on the jazz charts, with three additional entries on the contemporary jazz list, among them the Grammy-nominated Big Neighborhood in 2009. That same year Down Beat placed him on its list of the 75 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Although celebrated chiefly as a soloist, bandleader, and sideman, Stern has long been an experienced collaborator. He appeared in that role on the Yellowjackets’ 2008 album Lifecycle; in 2014 he and guitarist Eric Johnson jointly led the contemporary jazz chart-topping Eclectic; five years later he and Jeff Lorber shared top billing on Eleven. After the COVID-19 pandemic Stern resumed session work and songwriting. In 2024 he re-emerged with the all-star Echoes and Other Songs.

Born January 10, 1953, in Boston, Massachusetts, Stern spent his formative years in Washington, D.C., before returning to Boston to attend the Berklee School of Music. At just 22 he joined Blood, Sweat & Tears, remaining three years before moving to Billy Cobham’s jazz-fusion group; that association led to his major breakthrough when Miles Davis recruited him in 1981 for the trumpeter’s return after a five-year recording absence. Stern performed and recorded with Davis through 1983, then toured with Jaco Pastorius before rejoining Davis in 1985. During the interim he finished his debut leader date, the 1983 album Neesh. His second stint with Davis lasted only a year; afterward he worked with David Sanborn and Steps Ahead while preparing his follow-up, Upside Downside, which became his first release on Atlantic Records’ jazz imprint. He maintained a regular schedule of Atlantic albums over the ensuing years while also appearing with Michael Brecker and the reunited Brecker Brothers, securing his initial Grammy nomination with 1994’s Is What It Is and another for the 1996 sequel Between the Lines. A third nomination arrived for 2001’s Voices, Stern’s first project to incorporate vocals—wordless vocalese—and his final recording for Atlantic. Early in 2004 he issued These Times, his debut for ESC; two years later Who Let the Cats Out appeared, supported by an impressive roster that included Richard Bona, Meshell Ndegeocello, Roy Hargrove, and Kim Thompson. A powerful 2008 European performance was documented the following year on the concert DVD New Morning: The Paris Concert. In 2009 Stern earned another Grammy nomination for his fourteenth solo album, Big Neighborhood, which featured guest appearances by guitarist Steve Vai and Medeski, Martin & Wood. He returned in 2012 with All Over the Place, again produced by Jim Beard. Eclectic arrived in 2014, a wide-ranging collaboration with guitarist Eric Johnson that included vocal contributions from Stern’s wife Leni and from singer-songwriter Christopher Cross; most of the album was captured live at Johnson’s studio.

On July 3, 2016, while hailing a cab before a European tour, Stern tripped over concealed construction debris, fracturing both humerus bones and suffering substantial nerve damage to his right hand that made even basic actions, such as gripping a guitar pick, impossible. Following surgery that inserted eleven screws into his arm, he rejoined Chick Corea onstage in late October for the pianist’s two-month Blue Note residency, performing seated and wearing a black glove fitted with Velcro to secure his pick. In November he toured Europe co-leading a band with drummer Dave Weckl. After a second operation he regained greater control of the affected hand by gluing and taping his right-hand fingers directly to the pick, restoring the grip strength that allowed him to recover his characteristic speed and precision. In January he entered Long Island City’s Spin Studio with a seasoned ensemble of longtime associates—keyboardist and producer Jim Beard, trumpeters Randy Brecker and Wallace Roney, saxophonists Bob Franceschini and Bill Evans, bassists Victor Wooten and Tom Kennedy, and drummers Weckl, Dennis Chambers, and Lenny White. The sessions concluded in March under the wry title Trip, whose humor extended to the tracks “Screws” and “Scotch Tape and Glue.” Concord released the album fourteen months after the accident, in September 2017. A year later Yellowjackets co-founder Jimmy Haslip introduced Stern to Jeff Lorber; although they had never collaborated before, mutual admiration led to a joint project that became 2019’s Eleven on Concord Jazz.

Stern resumed session appearances in 2020, contributing to recordings by Christian McBride, Makoto Ozone, Dewa Budjana, Sadao Watanabe, and Keiko Matsui, among others. He ended his own recording hiatus in September 2024 with Echoes and Other Songs, his debut for Mack Avenue. For the album he assembled an elite cast composed almost entirely of bandleaders: bassists McBride and Richard Bona, saxophonist Chris Potter, spouse Leni Stern on ngoni, drummers Antonio Sanchez and Dennis Chambers, percussionist Arto Tunçboyacian, saxophonist Bob Franceschini, and producer-pianist Jim Beard, who passed away shortly after the sessions.