Mike Stern
Give And Take

When I was a child watching "The Aristocats," the scene of the cat-mouse chase and the drunkard tormented in the background particularly excited and amused me. I soon realized that this excitement was probably due to the frenetic guitar solo that raged in the background. I immediately considered that sound a symbol of jazz guitar (as much as I could understand jazz, and as much as I could understand the difference between a guitar and a cheese sandwich...).
Now, after a decade or perhaps more away from the Disney front, that sound is still dear to me: it may have escaped, lost the clarity of its voice, but not its color, which I rediscovered after years by pure chance (or due to different circumstances I don’t recall the details of) one day listening to a certain Mike Stern, a certain "One Lines." It was the very first step into jazz for a teenager who listened to blues and was moved by the fate that had befallen the '70s.
I couldn't ask for better!

Since then, he couldn't help but become one of the most adored instrumentalists by me, ever since his youthful years spent in the sun of the great Miles (yes, some people have it all in life..).
But now let's move on to this album that good old Mike distributes to his audience in 1997, accompanied by (none other than) Michael Brecker and David Sanborn (tenor and alto sax, respectively), and by Patitucci and DeJohnette on bass and drums.

The compositions are mostly original, with the welcome presence of famous standards for the joy of lazy listeners like me, too tired to listen to an entirely new theme. Thus the ear is refreshed with Cole Porter's "I Love You," a stunning version of Coltrane's "Giant Steps," "Who Knows" which represents a deserved and successful tribute to Hendrix, and finally (the track that closes the album) the anatole "Oleo" (Sonny Rollins). Free from compositional "burdens," Stern lets himself be captured by the high virtuosity of his hands in his (sometimes redundant, though) phrasing.

The remaining tracks are pleasant, compelling, and well played, like the beautiful and already mentioned "One Liners," which hypnotizes the listener in 8-plus minutes of avalanches of sensible and well "placed" notes, the blues "Jones Street," "Lumpy," "Hook Up," the two ballads "Everything Changes" and the stunning "Rooms," and "That's What You Think" which consecrates Mike's extreme versatility, using strokes of rock to sweeten and modernize the now obsolete pill of swing.

Technically, the style of this album reminds, in some ways, of the acidic Scofield of the '80s, with the addition of decidedly longer and more thoughtful phrases, which perhaps leave too little room for more impulsive and frank spontaneity.
The record is beautiful; as mentioned, the tracks follow one another without straining the ear, which luxuriates in the cascade of scales, arpeggios, and patterns played almost in a whisper, with the rhythmic accompaniment wisely reduced to the essential.

It is perhaps the perfection and stylistic compactness of this album that raises a couple of perplexities: there are no peaks nor abysses. Everything is a perfectly balanced mix of styles, which merge too well to retain character. Considering then that from a compositional point of view the commitment could have been certainly more active, the minimum threshold for the rating definitely drops to 3.5.
But the wise and honest use of guitar techniques by this great man, and the great respect that musicians of this caliber deserve, push me to be lenient and rational. Plus, there's the memory of the kittens roaming around Paris and their adventures...

4. Rounded down.