9/25/2018 Mike Stern - Wikipedia

Mike Stern
Mike Stern (born January 10, 1953) is a six-time Grammy-nominated
Mike Stern
American jazz guitarist. After playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he
worked with drummer Billy Cobham, then with trumpeter Miles Davis
from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1985. Following that, he began a solo
career, releasing more than a dozen albums.

Stern was named Best Jazz Guitarist of 1993 by Guitar Player magazine. At
the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal in June 2007, he was given
the Miles Davis Award, which was created to recognize internationally
acclaimed jazz artists whose work has contributed significantly to the
renewal of the genre. In 2009 he was listed on Down Beat's list of 75 best Mike Stern in 2007
jazz guitarist of all time. He was presented with Guitar Player magazine's Background information
Certified Legend Award on January 21, 2012.
Birth name Michael
Sedgwick
Born January 10, 1953
Contents Boston,
Personal life Massachusetts,
U.S.
Career
Equipment Genres Jazz, jazz fusion,
Awards and honors
post-bop

Discography Occupation(s) Musician,

References songwriter

External links Instruments Guitar

Years active 1976–present
Labels Atlantic, Heads
Personal life Up,
Mike Stern was born Michael Sedgwick in Boston, Massachusetts, the son Associated acts Blood, Sweat &
of Helen (Burroughs) and Henry Dwight Sedgwick V.[1] His sister Holly is Tears, Miles
the mother of actor Philip Nozuka and singers George Nozuka, Justin Davis, Brecker
Nozuka, and Henry Nozuka. Stern is married to guitarist and vocalist Leni Brothers
Stern.
Website www.mikestern
.org (http://www.
Career mikestern.org)

Stern grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston.[2] When he was twenty-two,
he became a member of Blood, Sweat & Tears and spent three years with the band,[3] appearing on the albums More
Than Ever and Brand New Day.

In 1979, he joined Billy Cobham's fusion band. Two years later he joined Miles Davis, making his public debut in 1981,
a performance recorded on the album We Want Miles. He remained with Davis through 1983 until he was replaced by
guitarist John Scofield. At the time, Stern was a heavy drinker and heroin user. In a 2009 interview, he said, "If Miles

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wants to put you in a rehab, you know you've got something wrong".[4] From 1983 to 1984 he toured with Jaco
Pastorius (a period also characterized by heavy drug use)[5] and in 1985 returned to tour with Davis. Stern and his wife
were in rehabilitation, and they were also helped by Michael Brecker and others.[4]

Stern's solo debut, Upside Downside, was released on Atlantic Records in 1986, with
Jaco Pastorius, David Sanborn, and Bob Berg. From 1986 through 1988, he was a
member of Michael Brecker's quintet, appearing on Don't Try This at Home. His
second Atlantic album, 1988's Time in Place, featured Peter Erskine on drums, Jim
Beard on keyboards, Jeff Andrews on bass, Don Alias on percussion and Don
Grolnick on organ. His next album, Jigsaw, was produced by guitarist Steve Khan
and included the song "Chief", Stern's tribute to Miles Davis.

In 1989, he formed a touring group with Bob Berg, Dennis Chambers, and Lincoln
Goines. They remained together through 1992 and are featured on the album Odds or
Evens. In 1992, Stern joined a reunited Brecker Brothers Band for two years. His
Mike Stern at the Liri
acclaimed 1993 album, Standards (and Other Songs), led to his being named Best
Blues Festival, Italy, in
1998 Jazz Guitarist of the Year by the readers and critics of Guitar Player. He followed
that up with 1994's Is What It Is and 1996's Between the Lines. Both received
Grammy Award nominations. In 1997 he released Give and Take, with bassist John
Patitucci, drummer Jack DeJohnette, percussionist Don Alias and special guests Michael Brecker and David Sanborn.
He won the Orville W. Gibson Award for Best Jazz Guitarist.

After fifteen years with Atlantic, Stern signed with ESC Records for the 2004 release of These Times, an eclectic album
that included guest appearances by bassist Richard Bona, saxophonist Kenny Garrett, and banjoist Béla Fleck. He
joined the Heads Up label with the August 2006 release of Who Let the Cats Out? In 2008, he collaborated with the
Yellowjackets for their Lifecycle album, contributing two compositions and performing on most of the tracks. He
toured with the Yellowjackets for much of 2008 and 2009. In February 2009, in the first in a series of articles to
celebrate Down Beat's 75th anniversary, he was named one of the 75 Great Guitarists of all time.

In August 2009, Stern released Big Neighborhood, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary
Jazz Album.[6]

He was presented with Guitar Player magazine's Certified Legend Award

on January 21, 2012. This was given to him at the Muriel Anderson All-Star
Guitar night, where he performed with Lee Ritenour. Other guitarists who
have won the award include Les Paul, Duane Eddy, Dick Dale, Larry
Carlton, and Tommy Emmanuel. In June of that year, Stern released All
Over the Place, which featured trumpeter Randy Brecker, saxophonists
Kenny Garrett, Chris Potter, Bob Franceschini and Bob Malach, drummers
Dave Weckl, Keith Carlock, Lionel Cordew, Al Foster, Kim Thompson,
keyboardist/producer Jim Beard and Stern's wife, guitarist and vocalist
Leni Stern. Acoustic and electric bassist present included Esperanza
Spalding, Richard Bona, Victor Wooten, Anthony Jackson, Dave Holland,
Tom Kennedy, Will Lee and Victor Bailey.

In 2014, Stern toured with guitarist Eric Johnson in the Eclectic Guitar
Tour. They recorded an album of the same name.
Stern performing in Munich, 2001
In the summer of 2016 Stern reported a serious injury to both shoulders
and especially to his right arm after tripping and falling by accident.
Because of these injuries he had to pull out of his European tour and modify his guitar playing technique to be able to

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play on stage again.[7] In the summer of 2017 he came back to Europe on tour with a new formation called Mike
Stern/Randy Brecker Band featuring Randy Brecker (trumpet), Teymur Phell (bass guitar), Lenny White (drums).[8]

In 2017, he shot a series of videos entitled "Mike Stern: Burn with Stern!" for TAGAPublishing.com where he teaches
students how to play jazz guitar.[9]

Equipment
An early and important guitar for Stern was a hybrid 1950s/1960s Fender Telecaster, previously owned by Roy
Buchanan and Danny Gatton, which was stolen from him in an armed robbery in Boston. This guitar is the basis for a
custom-made guitar built by Boston-based luthier Michael Aronson,[10] which has a Telecaster style body with an
original 1950's Broadcaster neck. There is a Seymour Duncan humbucker in the neck position and a Bill Lawrence
single coil in the bridge.

The Aronson guitar is in turn the basis for the Yamaha PA1511MS, the Mike Stern signature model.[10] The neck
position pickup is a Seymour Duncan '59 and it has a Tele Hot Rail in the bridge.[11]

Stern uses a pair of Fender '65 Twin Reverb amps or his Yamaha G100-212. Stern's recognizable chorused sound is
created in part by a Yamaha SPX-90, split for stereo. His pedal board mostly consists of Boss pedals. He uses two Boss
DD-3 digital delays, one of which is set to a long delay time for "big, spacey sounds."[10] His distortion pedal is a Boss
Distortion DS-1.[10]

Awards and honors

Nominations for Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album: Is What It Is (1995), Between the Lines
(1997), Voices (2002), Who Let the Cats Out? (2007), Lifecycle (2009), Big Neighborhood (2010)
Best Jazz Guitarist, Orville W. Gibson Award (1997)
Jazz Guitarist of the Year, Guitar Player (1993)
75 Great Guitarists of all time, Down Beat (2009)
Certified Award, Guitar Player (2012)

Discography
Neesh (1983)
Upside Downside (Atlantic, 1986)
Time in Place (Atlantic, 1988)
Jigsaw (Atlantic, 1989)
Odds or Evens (Atlantic, 1991)
Standards (and Other Songs) (Atlantic, 1992)
Is What It Is (Atlantic, 1994)
Between the Lines (Atlantic, 1996)
Give and Take (Atlantic, 1997)
Play (Atlantic, 1999)
Voices (Atlantic, 2001)
These Times (ESC, 2004)
Who Let the Cats Out? (Heads Up, 2006)
Big Neighborhood (Heads Up, 2009)
All Over the Place (Heads Up, 2012)
Eclectic (Heads Up, 2014) with Eric Johnson
Trip (2017)[12]

References
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1. Stein, Jean. Plimpton, George, ed. Edie: American Girl. p. 13.

2. Yanow, Scott (2013). The Great Jazz Guitarists. San Francisco: Backbeat. p. 187. ISBN 978-1-61713-023-6.
3. Thomas, Fred. "Mike Stern" (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mike-stern-mn0000413405/biography). AllMusic.
Retrieved 14 August 2017.
4. Panken, Ted (October 2, 2009). "In Conversation with Mike Stern" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160301081635/
http://www.jazz.com/features-and-interviews/2009/10/2/in-conversation-with-mike-stern). Jazz.com. Archived from
the original (http://www.jazz.com/features-and-interviews/2009/10/2/in-conversation-with-mike-stern) on March 1,
2016. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
5. Milkowski, Bill (2005). Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=iXDAtco1x5YC&pg=PA166). Backbeat Books. p. 166. ISBN 9780879308599. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
6. Relative, Saul (January 31, 2010). "2010 Grammy Awards: Michael Jackson Tribute, Lady Gaga and Elton John
Duet Highlight" (https://archive.is/20140116002008/http://voices.yahoo.com/2010-grammy-awards-michael-jackso
n-tribute-lady-gaga-5387701.html). Yahoo! Voices. Archived from the original (http://voices.yahoo.com/2010-gram
my-awards-michael-jackson-tribute-lady-gaga-5387701.html) on January 16, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
7. "Mike Stern injury 2016" (https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160708/arts-entertainment/mike-stern-pull
s-out-of-malta-jazz-festival.618165). Timesofmalta.com. July 8, 2016.
8. "2017 European Tour Estival" (http://www.rsi.ch/speciali/estival-jazz/le-star/Mike-Stern-Randy-Brecker-Band-feat.-
Lenny-White-Teymur-Phell-9233911.html). Rsi.ch. 13 June 2017.
9. Media, ALH. "Mike Stern: Burn with Stern! - TAGA Publishing" (https://tagapublishing.com/course/mike-stern-burn
-stern/). tagapublishing.com. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
10. Gold, Jude (June 2007). "Mike Stern". Guitar Player. pp. 28–30.
11. "PAC1511MS: Mike Stern Signature Pacifica Guitar" (https://web.archive.org/web/20091217011626/http://www.ya
maha.com/guitars/products/productdetail.html?CNTID=60155). Yamaha Corporation. Archived from the original (h
ttp://www.yamaha.com/guitars/products/productdetail.html?CNTID=60155) on December 17, 2009. Retrieved
October 15, 2010.
12. "Mike Stern | Album Discography | AllMusic" (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mike-stern-mn0000413405/discograp
hy). AllMusic. Retrieved 14 September 2017.

External links
Official site (http://www.mikestern.org/)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mike_Stern&oldid=848099387"

This page was last edited on 29 June 2018, at 19:43 (UTC).

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