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Monika Herzig's Sheroes: All in Good Time
by Dan Bilawsky
Time waits for no woman. In terms of the importance of creating an ensemble to promote and empower female musicians, pianist Monika Herzig came to that realization back in 2014. So she did what was needed, gathering a band of Sheroes to deliver music and message to the people. Now, ten years later, Herzig can look back with pride on what she's created, celebrate the present with this group's fourth record, and contemplate the future for a band that's had ...
Continue ReadingLeni Stern: The Twenty Year Audition
by Jim Worsley
Composer and musician Leni Stern has big news to share. She chose to do so quietly, with her usual cool, low-key and savoir-faire charm. In conversation with only my wife and I, recently at a jazz club in Los Angeles, she left us elated with the kind of news most other artists would be screaming from a mountain top. But that's not how this classy European-born artist rolls. It's another milestone accomplishment, in a career chalked with them. But let's ...
Continue ReadingLeni Stern: Dance
by Jim Worsley
Compelling is the word. If you are in search of a one word description of Leni Stern's new record, it is indeed the word. Then again, that aptly applies to her body of work over the past thirty-five years. Dance is as much a metaphor as it is a movement. Life, in its never ending struggle to survive and move forward, relies on the merriment of dance to inspire us, push us through the difficult times, and in turn enjoy ...
Continue ReadingLeni Stern: Dance
by Geno Thackara
If one key to a great dance is having the right partner, it must be a doubly (maybe even exponentially) better key to have several. Leni Stern began something of a sequence by forming a new trio for the straightforward 3 (LSR, 2018) and expanding to a quartet with 4 (LSR, 2020). The same group has further gelled, and everything is even more delightfully fluid--the sound palette from dusty guitar to sleek piano with some occasional n'goni harp for flavor, the ...
Continue ReadingLeni Stern: 3
by Neri Pollastri
Apprezzata chitarrista e cantante, con alle spalle un considerevole numero di lavori a proprio nome, la tedesca Leni Stern è nota anche in quanto consorte di Mike Stern, una delle icone della chitarra jazz e accompagnatore di Miles Davis in ben tre album. Al marito la Stern assomiglia molto per sonorità e approccio allo strumento, mentre si differenzia per la varietà di proposte artistiche, nelle quali l'Africa è come in questo caso presente in modo diretto sia per i ritmi, ...
Continue ReadingLeni Stern: 4
by Jim Worsley
For her twenty-second record as a leader, Leni Stern entitled the album 4 (LSR, 2020). No mathematical difficulties here. With the addition of keyboardist Leo Genovese, her band now comprises four musicians. Stern's longtime contributors, percussionist Alioune Faye and bassist Mamadou Ba, formidably round out the quartet. You may recall her last album, sans Genovese, was the engagingly spirited 3 (LSR, 2018). Moving on to geography, the Argentinian born Genovese adds a South American influence that intertwines ...
Continue ReadingLeni Stern: A Special Spirit
by Jim Worsley
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Leni Stern and I spoke about the pandemic, and her experiences with such, during her many travels to Africa. Because this conversation was prior to the senseless murder on May 25th, that incident is not mentioned. This wasn't my first dance with the incomparable Leni Stern so I knew what to expect. Always gracious, personable, and positive, as quick to laugh as she is to deliver sincerity with heartfelt prose. Our last “official" conversation, Leni Stern: ...
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