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Lifeline

John Stein

Label: Whaling City Sound
Released: 2022
Views: 465

Tracks

Up and at 'Em; Brazilian Hug; Invitation; Hotcakes; Jo Ann; The Roundabout; Django; On Green Dolphin Street; Recoleta; Funkin' It Up; A Weaver of Dreams; Modinha; You'd Be so Nice to Come Home To; Nica's Dream; Moonlight in Vermont; Four Corners; Elvin!; Green Street; Love Dance; Ira's Tango; The Night Has a Thousand Eyes; I Remember You; Labor of Love; A Taste of Honey; Sugar; Le Causse du Quercy.

Personnel

John Stein

guitar

Album Description

With the release of Lifeline, John Stein celebrates a musical career as one of the most diverse jazz guitarists of his generation. Selected highlights from Stein’s varied discography capture his eclectic spirit with his honey-toned guitar effortlessly guiding listeners across several decades of brilliance. "Lifeline" is a landmark double album that celebrates the career of John Stein, making a persuasive argument for his inclusion among the most important guitarists of his generation. Selected highlights from Stein’s varied discography capture his eclectic spirit with his honey-toned guitar effortlessly guiding listeners across several decades of brilliance. After retiring from a longtime career at his alma mater Berklee College of Music where he held a professorship since 1999, and upon recently contracting a rare autoimmune disease, the esteemed jazz veteran decided to synthesize his remarkable body of recorded work. Sharing his unique musical vision, John Stein presents Lifeline. The recorded output surveyed on this compilation spans more than twenty years, from Stein’s 1999’s Green Street to the most recent recording, 2021’s Serendipity. Throughout this assortment of releases, Stein has been consistently regaled for his expansiveness, turning heads with his emotive, subtle, grooving, and precise stylistic excursions. “Working with a clean, undistorted classic jazz-guitar sound, he renders maximum swing and expression,” said veteran jazz critic Jon Garelick in a review for The Boston Phoenix. Stein began playing guitar at the age of 7, but he began studying jazz seriously at the age of 30 when he enrolled at Berklee College of Music. From there, Stein established the tendencies he would demonstrate throughout his career – a warm, clean tone, a serious knack for composing, and an ability to vividly capture a mood through his music. “There’s a wealth of detail – the dips and turns of phrases, accents falling like words – that he gets at even the fastest tempos,” Garelick added. The Lifeline project came about because of an unexpected health setback. Out of the blue, Stein contracted Myasthenia Gravis, a debilitating nerve and muscle disorder that left him severely impaired, requiring a long stint in the hospital, including two weeks in the ICU on a ventilator. Thanks to excellent medical care, Stein was eventually able to return home, but once there he found himself unable to play guitar. Stein now says: “My coordination is slowly coming back. I have had to adopt a lighter touch with my left hand principally, but also with my picking hand. By adopting a lighter touch, I am gaining some new playing options that I hope to incorporate as my strength and coordination return. I consider all the guitar relearning that lies ahead part of my therapy.” Lifeline, a spectacular overview of Stein’s virtuosic prime recordings over the years, celebrates the past and future in hopes of a return to those musical heights.

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