Leni Stern was named one of the “50 Most Sensational Female Guitarists of All Time” in Guitar Player magazine’s 50th anniversary issue in 2017, with the publication aptly dubbing her “a genre-defying adventurer.” Leni’s example shines beyond just prowess on her instrument. The pursuit of her career across more than four decades has been in effect a political act – a practice in strength and defiance to be a woman and a bandleader, a female electric guitarist and a composer, an artist who produces her own albums and manages her own career. Moreover, given our recent political climate, it is now more essential than ever to celebrate the immigrant experience that brought Leni to the U.S. from Germany and her bandmates from Senegal and Argentina. Leni’s inspiration has long been the interconnectedness of music, history and our humanity. She says: “Music is one of the truest, most beautiful expressions of the human spirit, crossing borders, dissolving tribalism, binding us together – if we let it.”
Leni has been on an evolutionary road over the past decade and a half, as she fused her long-honed contemporary jazz sound with a deeply felt exploration of West African styles. She has traveled and studied extensively in Mali and Senegal, performing with the likes of iconic singer-songwriter Salif Keita and other African notables. The Munich-bred New Yorker’s trans-Atlantic journeys have yielded a fresh, personal idiom, one where progressive virtuosity blends seamlessly with age-old folk traditions. Leni’s trio with bassist Mamadou Ba and percussionist Eladji Alioune Faye – both natives of Senegal – released the albums 3 in 2018 and Jelell in 2013, along with figuring into the expansive cast of her Dakar Suite of 2016. Now the trio has become a quartet with the addition of Argentinian keyboardist Leo Genovese, a highly regarded talent on the New York scene as both a leader and as a collaborator with the likes of Esperanza Spalding and Jack DeJohnette. Leni’s first album with her quartet – released in summer 2020 and aptly titled 4, for showcasing the new foursome – drew on the crystalline guitar, West African rhythms and multilingual songs that listeners know from her recent string of releases, with Genovese’s improvisational fire and hints of South American lyricism now integrated into the mix. The result earned 4 glowing reviews in both DownBeat and JazzTimes, among other publications.
The newest album from Leni is Dance, to be released in June 2021. A product of pandemic times, Dance was written and rehearsed in autumn 2020 and then recorded, under safe conditions, at Shelter Island Sound in December 2020, with Leni producing. For those in need of music to purge the pandemic blues, Dance fits the bill perfectly, brimming as it does with rhythmic joie de vivre and hum-along melody. The album sees Stern again fronting her cross-cultural New York quartet, featuring Genovese, Ba and Faye. One of Leni’s confreres from her days playing in Salif Keita’s band, Haruna Samake, also added his harp-like kamele n’goni to several tracks from afar and co-wrote one song with Leni, the buoyant “Kono” (“Bird”). Dance – Leni’s 23rd album since 1986 and surely her most irresistible to date – is another set of hook-heavy, multilingual songs colored with a blend of international rhythms and Leni’s jazzy, ever-melodious six-string sound. The release of Dance will be preceded by multiple singles, the first being the swaying, prayer-like “Yah Rakhman,” written by Leni and Faye. Other Dance highlights include the freshly arranged, richly harmonized traditional West African griot tune “Daouda Saane” and the hard-grooving, Genovese-penned “Kani” (“Spicy Pepper”), which includes some characteristically high-flying solos by the pianist.
About the new album, Leni says: “Well, first of all, the music we made is so bouncy – the rhythms just took over! You can’t keep still, playing or listening – that’s why I titled it Dance. But it felt special just to be in the studio. Simply getting together to make music is something to cherish, now more than ever – you can’t take anything for granted. Some of these conditions, though, I’m used to… I’ve worked a lot in Africa over the years, and health precautions were just a part of being there, taking care not to catch malaria or dengue fever. That’s part of the reality of life there. Trying to make the best of things during a lockdown has also been part of my experience. I made my album Smoke, No Fire in Mali during the military coup there in 2012, with curfews and all the anxiety. When the world around you is threatened, it creates a sense of urgency and focus. We made Dance like that, but trying to invoke a spirit of joy – and resilience.”
Dance follows close on the heels of the album 4, the summer 2020 release that showcases five compositions by Leni (including the beautiful, lullaby-like gem “Chartwell”), two by Genovese (“Japalema” being an LP highpoint) and one by Ba (“Habib,” which includes a guest solo by Leni’s husband, fusion guitar hero Mike Stern). Released digitally and on vinyl by Leni Stern Recordings, 4 was preceded by a clutch of singles from the record, including “Chartwell,” “Luanda” and “Amadeus.” JazzTimes enthused over the record, noting that “the groove is the thing.” And in its four-star review, DownBeat marveled over the “lyrical joy” of Leni’s playing, adding: “If you love the wail of Youssou N’Dour and the jangle of Franco Luambo, but also have a soft spot for música popular brasileira, this multilingual, crisply produced, infectiously melodic and rhythmically percolating album is for you.”
Produced by Leni in New York City, 4 features her not only on guitar but also on the n’goni, the “rhythm harp” of West Africa. “I often imitate the sound of the n’goni on my guitar, too – the guitar being such a chameleonic instrument,” Leni explains. “I’ve always been drawn to the sound of the n’goni, as well as to the kora, a similarly harp-like West African instrument. I love the warm, plucking quality to their untempered sound and the gently driving rhythm they can provide. Originally, it was the pentatonic melodies in West African music that I fell for – they called out to me. And they really stick in your ear.”
Having been raised in Germany, Leni grew up on Bach and Mozart, “so the harmonic structures of Western classical music are second nature to me,” she says. “With the music of 4, and now Dance, I wanted to incorporate more harmonic movement into my music again, to go along with its West African and South American rhythms. There’s even a bit of India in there, too. Inspired by John McLaughlin, I went to Mumbai in 2001 to study classical Indian vocal music and its science of ornamental melody, to help give my guitar playing a more liquid, vocal quality. Then, of course, there is the call-and-response from African music and American blues in our music. There are a lot of different sounds within our sound.”
Regarding the band’s rhythm section, Leni says: “Mamadou, Alioune and I have developed together an authentic African rhythmic feel, stark and highly syncopated. Mamadou and Alioune are like brothers in their common understanding of rhythm. Mamadou is also a specialist at evoking traditional West African instruments, like the n’goni, on the electric bass. Along with their deep roots in traditional music, the two of them played together in a rock band in Dakar. So, they also know how to write a chorus with a rock feel, with lyrics in the Wolof and Serer languages.” Enthused over the band’s newest member, Leni adds: “Leo Genovese reminds me of the artists I love most from South America: Astor Piazzolla, Hermeto Pascoal, Milton Nascimento. He never fails to put a smile on my face, as well as on the faces of Mamadou and Alioune. They always say, ‘Leo is so baaad!’ They have really bonded. Leo really is a fantastic keyboard player, whether he’s on the piano or a synth. He has classical-level chops but also this deep groove. I’m really excited about this quartet we have.”
Jazz and Song
Leni married Mike Stern in 1980, and their partnership has been a musically fruitful one, inspiring for both. “Of all the things I’ve learned from Mike,” she says, “the most important was how to integrate rock and blues with jazz in that soulful American style – as well as how to adapt the guitar to playing horn-like improvisation.” In the early ’80s, Leni and Mike helped stir up a vibrant scene at the Greenwich Village club 55 Bar. Her debut album as a leader, Clairvoyant (Passport, 1986), featured her alongside two jazz icons, guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Paul Motian. “I first met Paul at the 55 Bar back in the ’80s,” she recalls. “The group I was playing with needed a drummer, and Paul was there, so he got behind the kit. I was pretty petrified to be playing with such a renowned musician – I had been listening to him on records since his days with Bill Evans, after all – but he was lovely. Unlike some guys back then, he liked playing music with a woman!” Leni had been a student of Frisell’s at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. “I really learned how play jazz standards with Bill, using his style of thematic improvisation, which came out of Jim Hall and his melodic sensibility,” she explains. “To this day, I owe my sense of tone and legato phrasing to Bill and by extension Jim.” Fusion guitarist Hiram Bullock produced Clairvoyant and its follow-up from 1987, The Next Day. “Hiram taught me valuable lessons about how to work in the studio,” Leni says. “He was a mentor when it came to making records.”
After her two albums for Passport, Leni made a string of albums for the Enja and Lipstick labels: Secrets (1989), Closer to the Light (1990), Ten Songs (1992), Like One (1993) and Words (1995). Along with such collaborators as saxophonists David Sanborn and Bob Berg and drummer Dennis Chambers, the Secrets, Closer to the Light and Ten Songs records featured Wayne Krantz in the lineup on second guitar. Leni also recorded a guitar duo album co-billed with Krantz, Separate Cages (Alchemy, 1996). “Wayne and I were a perfect match – we complemented each other’s styles,” she says. “I’m a big-strokes person, while Wayne is a very detailed player. He’s an exceptional guitarist, and we had fun together during that period.”
With 1997’s Black Guitar, Leni began producing and releasing her own albums – and singing on them. “I was fusing my jazz influences with inspirations from the singer-songwriter world, trying to meld the two,” she explains. “Singing was a change for me, even though I had sung in the theater and in church as a young person in Germany. I started to explore songwriting at this point, and I encountered a community of singer-songwriters, which expanded my world and I began writing lyrics in English for the first time.” The JazzTimes review of Black Guitar liked the result, praising Leni for possessing “an ear for memorable, complex melodic hooks and keen insight to the human condition, as well as sublime guitar skills.”
Over the next decade, Leni further explored this jazz-meets-pop territory, releasing records via her own Leni Stern Recordings label, as she has done ever since. This period yielded the albums Kindness of Strangers (2000), Finally, the Rain Has Come (2002), When Evening Falls (2004) and Love Comes Quietly (2006). These records featured her original songs, as well as covers of hits by the likes of The Police and Joni Mitchell. She often enlisted high-end musicians in the studio, including Frisell, John McLaughlin and saxophone star Michael Brecker, as well as bassist James Genus and drummer Keith Carlock. All Music Guide encapsulated this sequence of records with its laudatory review of Love Come Quietly: “Stern is an artist, pure and simple… Love Comes Quietly is a collection of poetic songs about tenderness. It is gentle, open and, therefore, vulnerable. These songs have energy, a roughhewn grace and, above all, they are emotion itself – there isn't an insincere moment here. This would be a fine place to introduce yourself to a musician of uncommon caliber and vision.”
African Journey
Leni performed at Mali’s Festival in the Desert in 2006, getting to know many of the native musicians on site in the Sahara Desert three hours outside Timbuktu. She began spending several months a year living and working in Mali and Senegal. These experiences led to a bold new era in her music, starting with the EP Alu Maye (Have You Heard) and album Africa, both released in 2007. All Music Guide, in its review of Africa, sets the stage: “Stern – a guitarist and singer whose artistic restlessness over two decades of recording has thankfully kept her output consistently fresh, unpredictable and invigorating – cut Africa at Salif Keita’s studio in Bamako, Mali, using a large cast of local musicians and singers alongside Western players, adding overdubs of her husband, guitarist Mike Stern, and the late jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker. It’s a stirring mix in which Leni Stern’s crisp, bell-toned electric guitar runs and the sharp horns and melodious keyboards integrate fluidly with talking drum, n'goni and oud. Stern’s impassioned vocals receive a dynamic boost from the battery of Malian vocalists giving voice to her words in their native language. With Africa, she has absorbed not only the sounds but also the feel of native African music.”
Having undertaken this journey, Leni was “paying homage to the African roots of jazz, studying with real masters, getting to know the rhythms of the music, the languages and of life there,” she says. “I studied the n’goni and the calabash drum – as well as various West African rhythms, learning what makes them different and special. I eventually recorded the biggest parts of six albums at Salif Keita’s studio. Working there, it was easier to capture the sounds of instruments like the n’goni, the kora and various native drums in the right way. I also played in Salif’s band, which was quite a learning experience. What a singer he is! The range of his voice, how he invests such emotion in his singing. It was a masterclass in phrasing, in rhythm. He is truly the ‘Golden Voice of Africa,’ so inspiring.” She also played with star Senegalese singer-guitarist Baaba Maal, who brought her to perform at his Blues du Fleuve Festival. She learned from kora master Toumani Diabaté, too: “He taught me about the traditional rhythms of Malian music, as well as the rich orchestration you can achieve with a mix of string instruments and percussion.”
Malian n’goni player Bassekou Kouyate and his wife, vocalist Ami Sacko, were also key mentors, as well as contributors to Alu Maye and Africa, among other Leni recordings. “Bassekou taught me how to play the n’goni – the original African blues instrument,” Leni explains. “Ami is a griot. I accompanied her in songs for weddings and other ceremonies. The call-and-response that we know from the blues and gospel has its roots in traditional African music. It was fascinating that many of the songs that Ami taught me had a John Lee Hooker feel to them, both rhythmically and in the way that they recounted dramatic tales. One song, for instance, was the story of a man who was told by a seer that he was going to be rich, but that he mustn’t take anyone as his wife. Well, of course he does, and then he is poisoned on his wedding night. That’s just like an old blues song!” One of the most important instrumental lessons of Leni’s experiences in Africa, she says, was “how to honor the rhythmic potential of the guitar, not just the legato quality that my jazz training usually emphasized. I wanted to be able to imitate the n’goni, the harp-like kora and the balafon – an African xylophone – on the guitar.”
Leni’s globe-trotting musical odyssey continued with the 2009 EP Spirit in the Water, which included songs formed by her travels in Mali, Senegal, Madagascar and India. The next year’s album – Sa Belle Belle Ba (“Very, Very Big Snake,” a title referencing ancient African religious ceremonies) – presented richly textured arrangements with electric guitar, bass and drums complemented by n’goni, kora, an assortment of West African percussion instruments and various Malian backing vocalists. Kouyate, Sacko and Diabaté all contributed performances, recorded in Mali. WNYC’s Soundcheck program highlighted the record, saying: “Most musicians get to a comfortable age and stop pushing themselves into new directions. Not Leni Stern… On Sa Belle Belle Ba, there’s a joie de vivre present in her Mali-infused funk (or, perhaps, funk-infused Malian music). You can’t help but imagine that she plays her guitar smiling.”
After employing a huge cast of musicians for Sa Belle Belle Ba, Leni stripped back the instrumentation to essentials for her next album, 2011’s Sabani, which was all written and recorded in Mali. “Sabani was mostly just me on guitar, n’goni and tiple, a 12-string acoustic Colombian instrument, plus Haruna Samake on n’goni and Mamadou Kone on calabash and talking drum,” Leni explains. “I wanted to explore a more traditionally intimate, acoustic sound. We played together for two years prior to making the record and made a nice trio for the studio. Ami Sacko added some lovely vocals again, too.” All About Jazz said this about the album: “Many musicians have ventured into Mali to tune into the legendary musical vibrations, but few if any have assimilated so far into the social fabric as Leni Stern. She has totally reinvented herself and her method of playing guitar to the point that it is a fresh creation. Sabani stands as evidence of an artist at the peak of musical evolution and revelation.”
Leni recorded her next album – Smoke, No Fire (2012) – in Mali during a trying time for the country. “Sabani was a happy record made in happy times in Mali,” she explains. “But much of the writing and recording for Smoke, No Fire was done while I was stuck in Bamako during a military coup d’etat, in between curfews, waiting for the airport to reopen, and in the care of my wonderful Malian family of friends and musicians. The album speaks of my love for the country and the community I was welcomed into, despite all the difficulties.” The review of Smoke, No Fire in All About Jazz noted that “there is definitely a harder edge in the delivery and significance of the vocals, with an aggressive leaning toward rap to underscore the message from the streets.” Malian rapper Woroferela Moden guested on the record, while Leni sang in a mix of English and the Bambara language. Ami Sacko also collaborated on vocals, and young jazz star Esperanza Spalding added a bass track from New York.
It was for her album Jelell, released in 2013, that Leni first established her current trio with bassist Mamadou Ba and percussionist Alioune Faye, recording in Dakar, Senegal. The rhythms of the music evoke “my days hanging out at Youssou N’Dour’s club in Dakar,” she said. The album title is an expression in the Wolof language that means something like “Seize the moment” or “Go for it,” which they did by digging deep into those Senegalese rhythms. Among the other contributors to the recording sessions were the Seng Seng Faye Percussion Ensemble, made up of Faye’s five brothers playing the sabar drum. The Financial Times noted: “The last outing for Leni Stern’s African trio saw the German-born guitarist in Mali wielding her n’goni in uncompromisingly gritty style. This time, she is in Dakar, and her guitar playing is looser and jazzier; at the same time, she is backed by the five brothers Faye on sabar drums, and they light an urgent, crackling fire under her and the rest of the band, whether the songs are about drought or wrestling.” In its review, Jazz Weekly said: “Stern’s use of guitar has a loose, earthy touch, making her one of the few Westerners who has mastered the dancing guitars that permeate sounds ranging from Mali to Malawi.”
With her ambitious album Dakar Suite of 2016, Leni created an hour’s worth of music recorded both in Dakar and New York, with orchestrated textures and one of the biggest casts of players she had assembled to date. Dakar Suite reflects, as World Music Report has said, “the venturesome spirit that seems to guide Leni on her every musical quest.” The album’s roster included the Mamadou Ba and Alioune Faye rhythm section, as well as the Seng Seng Faye group of percussionists and various top New York jazz players – including Gil Goldstein on accordion, James Genus on double-bass, George Brooks on saxophone and Leo Genovese on piano and Farfisa organ, plus various other instrumentalists and backing vocalists from Africa and the U.S. Leni dedicated Dakar Suite to the memory of Senegalese patriarch Vieux Seng Seng Faye, one of the country’s great drummers and teachers. The album yielded the sort of music that spurred the Los Angeles Times declare that “Leni’s geographic journey yields spiritual fruit.”
After the textural feats of Dakar Suite, Leni once again stripped things back with her 2018 album 3 – so titled for its focus on the sound of her trio with Mamadou Ba and Alioune Faye, although there was room for occasional touches by returning guests Genovese, Goldstein and Mike Stern. The album harks back to Leni’s earlier recordings in that the emphasis is on instrumental tracks, with six instrumentals and only two vocal songs on 3. It was also the first time in many years that Leni had recorded an album fully in New York. In an interview with New York City Jazz Record, she explained: “I’ve learned now, from all the great African engineers in the African studios I’ve recorded in, how to get that type of sound – and how that sound is produced. I’ve learned how to make that acoustic sound come out of the African drums and the n’goni.” All About Jazz praised the result, calling the album “bewitching” before concluding this way: “Over the years, Stern has successfully paid homage to our musical ancestors while integrating the complexities of African music with the sensibilities of jazz. 3 is a powerful embodiment and exploration of African roots that takes it to another level and creates a sound, style and statement that is uniquely her own.”
Worlds of Music
As Leni’s muse has led her around the world, her curiosity and empathy enabled her to develop collaborative relationships with kindred spirits across cultures. She appeared in a 2013 documentary film, Last Song Before the War, about Mali’s Festival in the Desert, where she first made the connections with the West African musicians who have had such a profound effect on her life and music. Having teamed with Salif Keita and his band on multiple occasions in Africa, the singer pulled her onstage Stateside to play a solo during his Celebrate Brooklyn! concert in 2008. Two years later, she performed at Carnegie Hall with her original African mentors: Bassekou Kouyate and Ami Sacko. As the Washington Post has said, “Stern doesn’t collaborate with the West Africans so much as commune with them.” Leni also played the U.S. Cultural Ambassador tour of Nicaragua in 2014, and she was artist-in-residence at Nepal’s Jazzmandu: The Kathmandu Jazz Festival in 2015. And, of course, she has played top jazz clubs across the U.S., as well as diverse festivals in Europe. Her live performances and ever-prolific recording career have earned Leni Gibson’s Female Jazz Guitarist of the Year award five times.
“All my travels and the wonderful people I’ve met and the beautiful music we’ve made together – it has all been a dream come true for me,” Leni says. “I love sharing the music with people, and I hope my records and the artists I collaborate with make listeners curious about the different sources of my music – so that they’re drawn to explore sounds from around the world. You can tell what a people is like from their songs and dances, just as you can from their food. These things make you feel closer to fellow human beings from across the globe, so that you sense the similarities you have with them rather than the differences. I think that’s more important than ever.”
— Bradley Bambarger
Career Highlights
1983 With ongoing residencies (also for husband Mike Stern), establishes The 55 Bar as a timely and long-lasting jazz institution in NYC. In coming years would play alongside many greats, including Dennis Chambers, Tim Lefevre, Joey Baron, Keith Carlock, James Genus, Gil Goldstein, Bob Malik, Esperanza Spalding, Kenny Walleson, Bill Frisell, Adam Levy, Michael Formenak, Scott Colley, Jenny Scheinman, and Brian Blade.
1985 Releases first album as bandleader and composer “Clarivoyant” with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell
1990 Invited to perform and record with all-star group for “Just Friends: A Gathering in Tribute to Emily Remler Vol. 2,” featuring Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, and Herb Ellis
1997 Leni Stern Recordings(LSR) is established with the release of “Black Guitar”
2000 Commissioned to write a piece with full choir and orchestra at The International Composing Competition “2 Agosto”, Bologna, Italy
2001 Spends three months studying raga form in Mumbai, India and performs at Bombay Jazz Festival
2003 Featured as on-air host for BET network, covering Reykjavik Jazz Festival
2004 Opens for Steel Pulse for nine weeks of North American tours with bandmates Brannen Temple and Edwin Livingston
2005 Composes live accompaniment to silent film “The Goddess”
2006 First invitation to perform at Festival in the Desert, Timbuktu, Mali
2008 Lifted to stage from the audience and made to solo with a live performance by Salif Keita at Celebrate Brooklyn in NYC
2010 Performs at Carnegie Hall with Bassekou Kouyate and Ami Sacko
2012 International Tour with Acoustic Africa 3 as special featured guest
2013 Featured in documentary “Last Song Before the War” about the Festival in the Desert, as well as "We Are America" by Esperanza Spalding (produced by Prince)
2014 US Cultural Ambassador Tour in Nicaragua
2015 Artist in residence at Kathmandu Jazz Festival
2016 Tour of Argentina; Featured performer at African Festival Wurzburg, Germany
2017 Named one of the '50 Most Sensational Female Guitarists of All Time' by Guitar Player Magazine, 50th Anniversary Issue
Leni Stern uses and endorses:
- D'addario strings and accessories
- Fender guitars and amps
- Free The Tone pedals
- Line6 pedals
- Xotic pedals
- Groove Gear accessories
- Seymour Duncan pickups
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