Mike Stern: Playing by Heart

AAJ: He was one of my favorite sax players, too. Mode for Joe , In and Out '

MS: Of course. Ridiculous. Unbelievable. All that, man, its incredible. He was a really great cat, too, in many ways. I just had a chance to play with him, Al Foster, Dave Holland at the Bluenote for a week. It really was a fun gig. And then we went to Brazil but it wasn't the same. It was Al and George Mraz. We went down there and did a couple gigs and then we did another week at the Bluenote with a more Brazilian band, Paolo Braga, doing Jobim tunes.

MS: Do you do Jobim tunes?

MS: Some. I mean I did more that week than ever. I mean they were tunes that I'd never heard before that he'd covered. He did a record ( Double Rainbow ) and he wanted me to play on the live gig. He did it with all Brazilians and nylon string player, but then it came down to the live gigs and we had done gigs together so he called me for that, too. So I had those chances to play with him and they were all fucking fun as hell.

AAJ: Are there pockets in the world where your stuff does best, that you can always count on?

MS: Europe is generally more for the arts, its more of an open situation, presumably because we spend more money in military and they spend more education and generally certainly music is in that, too. And there's a little bit of funding for clubs, which is unheard of here. So there's a little bit more of possibilities there, and festivals. There's just more of a priority of culture.

AAJ: You'd see less empty seats in clubs over there or in Japan.

MS: But everywhere that happens. It doesn't matter to me. I just keep getting gigs. And generally its been very cool, but you never know whether or whatever happens; an important basketball game's on'I don't care. I just show up and play the best I know how to play and that's all you can do. You play your heart out, man, and that's it! It makes me almost feel good, so I try to keep that happening. But anyway, you don't think about that, you just keep going. But so far, so good, I've been really counting my blessings that I've been so lucky to have played with such great players in my career and to just be able to now do what projects I want to do, in really my own band. And also, I should mention Dennis. We did a bunch of stuff over the summer.

AAJ: Yeah, you've always said that drummers are the most important thing.

MS: Well, drummers are damned important, man. As soon as drummers are involved you've gotta deal with the drummer first, 'cause that's your heartbeat right there. And everybody has different strengths and weaknesses. Like I play with cats like John Riley, for instance, or Al Foster or Terri Lynne Carrington, and she's amazing, she plays all kinds of stuff. They all are great. Dave Weckl brings a different strength and he's amazing musically and keep his own voice but he's got certain things that are stronger in certain areas than in other areas. And Richie Morales is another one who just plays his heart out. Lionel Cordew and of course, Dennis Chambers.

So you just get people that you dig start having some of your tunes and learn enough tunes and then start doing stuff with them. Ari Honig is another guy. I did this video and Ari Honig's on it; he's a motherfucker bassist and can play different stuff in his way. But the drummer, for me, you've gotta start there. You've got to have a really strong drummer. If you're going to use a drummer the shit's gotta have a certain kind of threshold where it's happening, because then it doesn't matter what anybody else does. I've always been lucky to get really smoking' players.

You've gotta have your heartbeat, If your heart goes it don't matter how well your kidneys are going, that shit's gone (laughs). Jaco used to say the same thing. If the drummer wasn't happening, man, he'd change up. He'd get somebody he could definitely work with. But once you add a drummer to a gig, he's got to be on, you've got to deal with it.

AAJ: Didn't you guys used to do some duo stuff?

MS: If you have a strong duo thing happening and you add a drummer and the drummer's ain't happening, the duo ain't gonna be happening. If you want to just keep your own time with a duo that's something else, totally. But once you add a drummer he's got the most responsibility, he's the strongest player onstage, just physically and dynamically and everything. But yeah, I've of done a lot of gigs with a duos.

AAJ: So what's happening with the back catalog now?

MS: Well, they're doing surround sound stuff now, of this record, and maybe if I can get some of the ones from Warner.

AAJ: Like a 5.1 thing?

MS: Yeah, but Warner is hard to get catalog from the companies. Hopefully they'll just keep that stuff out and maybe do their own 5.1 for some of those titles, or a composite record or different records.

I had this experience of doing a radio show; and usually I'm really self critical, over the top, and basically it can be a good thing because it keeps you pushing but sometimes it can be over the top. I did this radio show on WKCR - Columbia University, and the guy has a lot of leeway to do stuff, this guy Ted Panken, who's a writer and a cool guy, and is definitely a jazz nut. And so we did something where we played stuff from this record and then played some of my favorite records, like guitar and horn records. We couldn't get to everything, but we played 'Smokin' at the Halfnote' (Wes), some Jim Hall/Bill Evans duos, like you mentioned; 'Undercurrents' and that other one, and then we played some of my stuff and I went, 'Oh, boy, this is suicide, man, my shit's gonna sound like shit', but it was cool! It worked and sounded great. It sounded like it worked in the same format and it reminded me so much of Europe and this one little college station, and a very cool one.

Europe is much more like that. I did something else like that in Europe. It just feels so interesting to me and I was relieved and happy, 'cause I don't listen to it after it's done ' you mix it, you write it - you know how it is. I mean certainly I know I worked my ass off, for better or worse, that's for sure. You're going to hear some effort in it. I'm really happy with the way this one came out.

AAJ: Do you think you'll be working with some of the other guys at ESC: Bill Evans or Randy?

MS: Yeah, sure. I'd love to do some stuff with Randy (Brecker). Bill, of course we played together with Miles, so that might be fun and of course Dennis (Chambers), we're still gonna be doing stuff. But I'm kind of keying more on not too many separate projects and just trying to do my own stuff, albeit with different cats. I like to change it up but I like doing my own stuff, it's a ball doing that, and I feel like it pushes me in a way, musically, that I want to be pushed. I really just want to develop whatever potential I have. And that seems to be the way to go for me, to do my own stuff and try to make it work with different cats. Sometimes it's hard to do. I've recorded almost a hundred tunes now, on other people's records ' written for them ' or especially on my own records and it's hard to play and get cats together and rehearse. And so sometimes you end up playing some similar stuff where you want to change up. It doesn't matter. If you get different guys and you play the same tune and they put their own thing on it. If the tune's open enough in a live setting, it's fresh, for me anyway. But that's one of the hard logistical things: to try to get cats together and do all new tunes. It's really hard.

AAJ: Do you see yourself playing with Pat (Metheny) sometime? You guys need to do a record.

MS: It'd be fun. I love his playing and all. But I think he did the thing with Sco and some stuff with Frisell and he's feeling like the same thing. I know he feels the same way about guitar. He's into it, but he's into other instruments and other colors, and I kind of feel the same way but I'd love to do maybe a cut with him, at some point before (laughs)'that would be a wonderful experience for me, I'm sure, but you never know, we'll see what happens.

AAJ: So do you get to play with any new players? Ever do anything with Wayne Krantz?

MS: Yeah, sure. Wayne's a great friend of mine and Adam Rodgers (with Scofield). I play with him sometimes. But my favorite's still are guys who are coming from blues and have that same kind of swinging thing, and I feel that very much from Sco, and something like that from Frisell. It's just where we came from and what was happening with the music when we grew up, I guess, and so I kind of feel that. There's another guy named Jay Azzolina, who's not particularly well known, but he plays his fuckin' ass off. First and foremost I hear that in somebody's playing and that's what gravitates me more than an interesting kind of player. You know, you can play a certain thing, the same line, but some people have this thing to it that gets me, anyway. And maybe two people might say, 'Well, I don't really hear it', but for me, I notice a certain time feel that I kind of gravitate towards. It's kind of a subtle thing but it's very strong for me and it makes me dig certain players. There's another guy, Pete Bernstein, I love. A straight-ahead player but he's got that same kind of in-that-world-that-I-dig, thing. It's not a question of whether or not he rocks it's more of a swing kind of thing, which I feel is even in my rock playing. And you wouldn't call it swing, really, because its not, but it is. There's a certain kind of thing when Sco plays funk I feel it swingin'. You know what I'm saying. And Frisell, the way he plays, its not so much swingin' but I feel something that gets me. I can't explain it.

AAJ: Its almost hard to describe, you've got to experience it.

MS: Exactly. It is hard. It's impossible to describe. I could try but it wouldn't do it justice. It's one of those things that should be left invisible. It's whatever it is. But there's a lot of great players that I try hook up with and try to learn from. There's so many different cats.

[Note: Mike's gear list includes a Mike Aronson Telecaster w/ a 50's Broadcaster neck or a Pacifica Telecaster style guitar running through a Pearce GR-1 w/ Hartke 4x10 cabinet & a Yamaha G-100 w/ 2 12's. Effects are: Yamaha SPX-90, Boss CH-1 super chorus, OC-1 Octaver, (2) DD-3 Digital Delays and a DS-1 Distortion. The SPX-90 is used for chorus only].

Photo Credit
Helmut Riedel .

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