Spirit In The Water, the latest effort from guitarist-turned-vocalist Leni Stern, goes even further than her extravagantly praised Africa (2007) in melding her Western-honed songwriting skills with the rhythms and subject matter of the Plateau Continent. Haunting and sensuous, the six-song EP adds another wrinkle to what has become one of modern music’s great adventures.
Tracing Stern's journey involves more than a look at her passport – although that alone would prove pretty revealing. A jazz guitarist turned vocalist and geo-musical explorer, Stern emigrated from Germany to the U.S. in the late 70s (where she soon married guitar hero Mike Stern); in the last five years, she’s traveled widely through Africa and India, gathering material for her last several albums.
But Stern’s artistic trek outpaces even her global repositioning. She actually started as an actress in her native Munich (founding her own successful theater company at the age of 17). She then switched her allegiance to music and studied film scoring at the Berklee College of Music before abandoning that enterprise for the guitar; between 1985 and 1995 she recorded eight albums emphasizing her sensitive but confident technique and a facility with the softer side of contemporary jazz.
Then, in the mid-90s, Stern began writing and singing her own lyrics – in a refreshingly untrained voice shaped more by folk music than jazz – while bringing a harder edge to her instrumental work. In so doing, she crossed the line from jazz to pop, without sacrificing any of her artistry. And by the time she’d immersed herself in the music and cultures of Africa – she lived in Mali for the better part of two years – the experience provided a crucible from which she has forged an increasingly mature and emotionally transportive songbook. (At this writing, she’s back in Mali, between tours in superstar Salif Keita’s band.)
On Spirit In The Water, Stern’s guitar finds wonderful complement in the wide variety of percussion (plus oud, kora, and backing vocals) assembled for the date. It opens with “House Of Thieves,” the melody of which bears a striking if short-lived resemblance to the theme from Exodus, and I doubt the similarity is accidental. The African diaspora has often drawn comparisons with the Jews’ flight from ancient Egypt; Stern has turned that dynamic on its head by going to Africa for her musical liberation.
The title track, sung in both English and the Urhobo language of Nigeria, honors the aquatic deity Yemaja, originally a Yoruba goddess whose powerful presence now extends across a variety of African and Afro-American belief systems. Against a talking-drum rhythm as relentless as the tides, Stern uses her prayerful vocal to weave an incantatory veil, subsequently pierced by an extroverted performance from the Nigerian singer Kofo (“the Wonderman”). (Stern herself uses the Senegalese Wolof language on the other-worldly “In My Dream.”)
At only six tunes, Spirit In The Water is a short if glorious triumph, but don’t worry: there are plenty more where those come from. Stern’s next full-length album, due this fall, will reportedly comprise all new material in the same vein.
And on all these tracks, Stern achieves an almost mystical balance -- unmediated by African-American hybrids (like jazz or rhythm-and-blues) -- between the musics of two continents.
Comments