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MIKE STERN
These Times
ESC Records
By Don Henke
 Stern's new album came out last week and record stores are going to have a hard time deciding what bin to put it in. There's a little rock, a little jazz and a lot of world music. These Times is a good name for it because in these times you can't have anything that's strictly jazz because it won't sell.
 Stern has always leaned more toward fusion than straight-ahead jazz, so this recording should please his fans. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta plays mostly backbeats on several tunes. He's out on "What You Believe", which has no drummer, and "Remember", on which Dennis Chambers takes over the drum chair. The basses are loaded with electric players Richard Bona, Victor Wooten and Will Lee. Jim Beard, formerly with Wayne Shorter, produced and plays synthesizer, piano and organ, mostly in the background to add color. Arturo Tuncboyaciyan is on percussion throughout.
 The opening track, "Chatter", is fusion leaning close to rock than jazz. Kenny Garrett plays soprano saxophone on this one. Stern, who wrote the music for all the tunes, says "This was loosely inspired by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan." Actually, the whole disc has an Arabic quality hovering in the background and sometimes coming to the fore.
"Silver Lining" and "I Know You" have a definite world music sound and Bona sings (either wordlessly or in his native tongue, it's hard to tell). The latter tune, written for Stern's wife the guitarist Leni Stern is slower than the former. The best part of "I Know You" is Bela Fleck's banjo playing.
"Mirage", another Middle Eastern -sounding tune, has a vocal by Elizabeth Kontomanou, who is also credited with vocals on the first two. She actually sounds a lot like Bona and sings the same way so it's really hard to tell the difference. If anything, her voice is slightly lower than Bona's falsetto.On this one tenor saxophonist Bob Franceschini comes in late in the song and rides out the fade.
"If Only" is another showcase for Bona, who wrote the lyrics and sings then in his native Douala dialect. It is a poignant song about when he was a boy in Africa. He was going someplace with friends and they all took the van ahead of him. You can guess what happened. It is rather beautiful.
 "Street Rhyme" is just what the title sounds like. Growing up in D.C. Stern heard kids' jump rope rhymes and tried to get that feel in the tune. Kontomanou sings on this one but it doesn't sound like any jump rope rhyme to the casual observer. Saxophonist Bob Malach does what his colleague does on "Mirage". He comes in near the end and rides it out.
"Avenue B" is a nice slow bluesy ballad that is one of the few tuneswith a jazz sound. Stern and Garrett (on alto here) have some very good moments.
 There have been many tributes to the late Bob Berg, who was killed in a traffic accident a little over a year ago. Stern, who once co-led a group with Berg, wrote the tune "Remember" before the accident and decided later to title it and dedicate it to his former comrade. Rather than a treacly ballad he decided to use this tune, a real burner and the style which Berg used to play. Stern and Franceschini have excellent solos as the tune builds behind the driving drumming of Dennis Chambers.
 The title tune, "These Times", is a long, slow ballad with Stern and Garrett both showing great slow tune chops. Beard's synthesizer complements Garrett's solo well.
"What you Believe" is a folky tune with Bona on vocals and percussion. There is no drummer but Bona plays small percussion pieces as the tune builds to a crescendo and Don Alias comes in on larger percussion. It's overdubbed quite a bit with Bona becoming a choir and playing bass and percussion and Jon Herington contributing several rhythm guitars.
The album goes out the way it came in, with rock and funk on "Last One Down". Beard has a good solo on clavinet on this one.
 If you're a Mike Stern fan, you'll probably like this one. If you're not, it has enough variety to please almost everybody. Provided, of course, that you don't mind paying for the couple of tunes you like.

Contact Don Henke at papajazz@earthlink.net
 to check out the possibilities for your CD review and/or liner notes.