SPECIAL TWO WEEK EDITION FOR CHRISTMAS VACATION
UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN; UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN…
MERRY CHRISTMAS

Mike Stern Band@Catalina's 12.18.09
By George W. Harris

Bringing in the Christmas season with tidings of comfort and joy,
guitarist Mike Stern and his all star band of Tom Kennedy/b, Randy
Brecker/tp and Dave Weckl/dr made music as powerful as the heavenly
host, with catchy tunes and lots of room for creative soloing during
their 1 1/2 hour opening set this Friday night.

Boasting essentially the same band that graced his high powered dvd
"The Paris Concert"(with Brecker's bopping trumpet replaceing Bob
Franceschini's tenor), Stern hit the ground running with a thunderous
reading of "Tumble Home" which featured not only some jaw dropping drum
work, but Brecker's snapping horn and Kennedy's
hand-faster-than-the-eye bass work, with Weckl's bewildering drumming
keeping the raucous music from turning into a riot. The amazing thing
about Stern, as he displayed so well this evening, that for all of his
well deserved reputation as one of the most supercharged guitarists (as
on "Chatter"), he's an amazingly accomplished composer and performer of
gentle and bluesy ballads, as he delivered gracious readings of the
moody "KT" as well as the ethereal "What Might Have Been" with the
delicacy of a diamond cutter. The former featured Brecker's gloriously
muted horn, while the latter included some murky and mysterious
interplay between Thompson and Weckl, both displaying their formidable
chops as well as their exquisite style and taste. Up for his up-teenth
Grammy nomination for his latest "Big Neighborhood" disc, Stern and
company give some Christmas cheer a week early.