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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Passionate compositions/playing from a true guitar god., December 10, 2000
I can't believe no one's reviewed this yet; this is one of my favorate CDs. It is totally instrumental and lies about half in the smooth jazz vein and half in the tweaked harmony fusion vein ( a la Michael Brecker ).If you've never heard Stern before and you're a fan of great rock guitar, this could be a great intro to fusion for you. Mike plays a Telecastor guitar and burns with a rock player's tone and urgency, while possesing a jazz player's harmonic sense. Stern was Miles Davis' guitarist for a while and it's easy to see what Miles heard in his playing. Playing aside, however, Stern is in that rare circle of virtuoso guitarists whose compositions equal the calibur of the playing. Belive me, this guy could make a living in the music buisness being solely a composer. While able to write in the jazz/fusion vein very well (Walkie Talkie, Odds or Evens), I think Stern has a unique gift for coming up with simple, heart-wrenchingly beautiful material (Common Ground, If You Say So). Sandbox is a tune penned by his wife, Leni, and it is absolutely gorgeous. This disc is a highly varied collection of well written, well played songs. Whether you're into jazz/fusion or you just appreciate virtuoso musicianship (all the backing players are incredible too), buy this album. It's a steal at Amazon's price.
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