Leni Stern Featured in Annual Women's Issue of JAZZIZ
“Especially as a woman, when I came to Africa, I could see they were just thinking, 'What the hell?' But then you play what you know is their favorite blues lick, and then there's, 'Oh, yes, that we know'"
JAZZIZ MAGAZINE
Leni Stern Q&A feature, July/August 2008
By Melissa Blazek
Though not an African native, the blonde, German-born, Berklee-trained jazz guitarist Leni Stern has become a windswept desert wanderer in heart and spirit. While recording her latest album, Africa (Leni Stern Recordings), she immersed herself in West African culture, living there for the better part of two years. From that rich experience, she created a collection of songs that are an aural history of her music lessons, and that were further drawn from passionate fireside debates and observations about a vast region of the world that is both elementally sacred and relentlessly plagued by political unrest.
It all happened serendipitously: while playing the Festival in the Desert in Essakane, Mali, a few years ago, she was asked to volunteer for a UNESCO Global Alliance project organized by Afro-pop star Salif Keita at his Moffou Studio in Bamako. Those sessions turned into the 2007 EP Alu May. She returned to Keita's studio for Africa, which features some of the continent's most respected artists, including vocalist Ami Sacko and n'goni player Bassekou Kouyate.
You're considered a griot now:
I am! I've been accepted. I sing on the record; it's an homage to these people. It tells stories of what happened there. Singers, songwriters, jazz musicians are all storytellers, with or without words. We have stories, but in a different sense ... defined by [artists like] Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. In our culture, it's still alive. It's just not given the same importance it's given in Africa. When I sat down and played with the musicians I met at the Festival in the Desert, it was so easy. It was like coming home.
Northwestern Africa is associated with the roots of the blues, but having spent time there, can you draw lines between its indigenous music and jazz? I hear a lineage. I hear it in the tradition of improvisation. When Ami Sacko, the great Malian singer, came and started contributing to the music in the rehearsals, I'd give her a solo like you would give to a guitar player. She would improvise poetry and melody. And that is really the jazz tradition -- the elaboration on the groove.
I paraphrase, but you once wrote that some blues licks and spare guitar strings give you a diplomatic passport:
They do! Especially as a woman, when I came to Africa, I could see they were just thinking, “What the hell?" But then you play what you know is their favorite blues lick, and then there's, “Oh, yes, that we know. The way she looks is a pretty mysterious affair, and her gender is really pretty highly mmmm, but we are understanding what she's saying." In a lot of these cultures, musicians are regarded higher than they are in our culture, which is nice.
Anything on the new record you hold particularly close?:
It changes, but I like “1000 Stars," which was written for Michael Brecker [who played on the songs “Saya" and “Ousmane"]. The day I learned of his death, I was playing at the Festival in the Desert. The opening line is, “I saw a thousand stars fall from the sky last night." It's true. When you are in the desert, you see so many stars. That night the griots very naturally gathered, and we sang this tribute to him because that's the way you do it in Africa. I think the song touches how I feel about him and others who have left us.
What lessons did Africa teach you?:
The part of music that I've always thought is very important is the spirit of music and the emotional content -- the real meaning of music. It allowed me to transcend all barriers of language, culture, and rights and wrongs that have been done by white people to black people. It's just to build a bridge, to reach out a hand. It's proof. I've always thought -- hoped -- that music could be an instrument of peace.
JAZZIZ MAGAZINE, July/August 2008, By Melissa Blazek
“Especially as a woman, when I came to Africa, I could see they were just thinking, 'What the hell?' But then you play what you know is their favorite blues lick, and then there's, 'Oh, yes, that we know'"
JAZZIZ MAGAZINE
Leni Stern Q&A feature, July/August 2008
By Melissa Blazek
Though not an African native, the blonde, German-born, Berklee-trained jazz guitarist Leni Stern has become a windswept desert wanderer in heart and spirit. While recording her latest album, Africa (Leni Stern Recordings), she immersed herself in West African culture, living there for the better part of two years. From that rich experience, she created a collection of songs that are an aural history of her music lessons, and that were further drawn from passionate fireside debates and observations about a vast region of the world that is both elementally sacred and relentlessly plagued by political unrest.
It all happened serendipitously: while playing the Festival in the Desert in Essakane, Mali, a few years ago, she was asked to volunteer for a UNESCO Global Alliance project organized by Afro-pop star Salif Keita at his Moffou Studio in Bamako. Those sessions turned into the 2007 EP Alu May. She returned to Keita's studio for Africa, which features some of the continent's most respected artists, including vocalist Ami Sacko and n'goni player Bassekou Kouyate.
You're considered a griot now:
I am! I've been accepted. I sing on the record; it's an homage to these people. It tells stories of what happened there. Singers, songwriters, jazz musicians are all storytellers, with or without words. We have stories, but in a different sense ... defined by [artists like] Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. In our culture, it's still alive. It's just not given the same importance it's given in Africa. When I sat down and played with the musicians I met at the Festival in the Desert, it was so easy. It was like coming home.
Northwestern Africa is associated with the roots of the blues, but having spent time there, can you draw lines between its indigenous music and jazz? I hear a lineage. I hear it in the tradition of improvisation. When Ami Sacko, the great Malian singer, came and started contributing to the music in the rehearsals, I'd give her a solo like you would give to a guitar player. She would improvise poetry and melody. And that is really the jazz tradition -- the elaboration on the groove.
I paraphrase, but you once wrote that some blues licks and spare guitar strings give you a diplomatic passport:
They do! Especially as a woman, when I came to Africa, I could see they were just thinking, “What the hell?" But then you play what you know is their favorite blues lick, and then there's, “Oh, yes, that we know. The way she looks is a pretty mysterious affair, and her gender is really pretty highly mmmm, but we are understanding what she's saying." In a lot of these cultures, musicians are regarded higher than they are in our culture, which is nice.
Anything on the new record you hold particularly close?:
It changes, but I like “1000 Stars," which was written for Michael Brecker [who played on the songs “Saya" and “Ousmane"]. The day I learned of his death, I was playing at the Festival in the Desert. The opening line is, “I saw a thousand stars fall from the sky last night." It's true. When you are in the desert, you see so many stars. That night the griots very naturally gathered, and we sang this tribute to him because that's the way you do it in Africa. I think the song touches how I feel about him and others who have left us.
What lessons did Africa teach you?:
The part of music that I've always thought is very important is the spirit of music and the emotional content -- the real meaning of music. It allowed me to transcend all barriers of language, culture, and rights and wrongs that have been done by white people to black people. It's just to build a bridge, to reach out a hand. It's proof. I've always thought -- hoped -- that music could be an instrument of peace.
JAZZIZ MAGAZINE, July/August 2008, By Melissa Blazek
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