JAZZ UNDER PRESSURE

Mike Stern Band

Regatta Bar, Cambridge MA

October 3, 2025

Story and Photography by Joshua Touster

Mike Stern - Guitar Dennis Chambers - Drums Leni Stern - Guitar and Ngoni Edmond Gilmore - Bass Bob Francschini - Sax

Despite everyone's best efforts, life is sometimes unpredictable, and things don't always go as planned. Mike Stern's early set on night two of his run at the Regatta Bar last Friday evening proved that point all to well.

Stern is an extremely talented guitarist who always seems to have a huge smile on his face. Greatly influenced in his younger days by jazz greats Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall, he joined Blood, Sweat and Tears in 1976, before moving on to play with Billy Cobham's band in 1979. Two years later he joined the Miles Davis group and played with them from 1981-1983.

Stern would go on to tour with Jaco Pastorius's Word of Mouth Band from 1983-84, and in 1985 returned to tour with Miles once again. In 1985 Mike Stern began a solo career, and over time released more then twenty albums of his own.

The last time I had seen Mike Stern was in September of 2019, so I was extremely excited when I walked into the comfortable confines of the 220-seat Regatta Bar that had first opened it's doors on January 29, 1985. The venue is located on the second floor of the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, and is one of New England's leading jazz clubs, often filled with Berkeley School of Music students and other knowledgable jazz aficionados, who if lucky enough to get a front row table are literally toe-to-toe with the performers.

As showtime approached there seemed a sense of nervousness emanating from the stage area... and then... a huge sigh of relief as the bands bass player, Edmond Gilmore and his instrument finally arrived on the scene.

Better late then never...

All was well for the moment and the show began with the band's first composition, Like a Thief written by Mike's wife Leni, who played Ngoni (a traditional West African string instrument) on the tune before switching to guitar for the rest of the set.

The band then made their way through Connections and Echos, two compositions from Stern's recent LP; Echoes and Other Songs.

Between songs, Stern stepped to the microphone to explain with a bemused smile that the drum-kit Dennis Chambers was playing was a borrowed Canopus, a brand that certainly seemed to give him a chuckle. It might not have been the drummer's regular kit, but the audience wouldn't have known it by listening to Chambers stellar drumming.

Stern and Chambers have partnered together for over 35 years, and he has drummed with the likes of Santana, Steely Dan, John Scofield, John McLaughlin and a host of other topnotch musicians.

As Stern began a solo, backed only by Chambers, I noticed bassist Gilmore in a state of high anxiety, frantically attempting to restring his bass, plugging and unplugging cords from his amp, and eventually proceeding to tune the strings with a digital tuner. The pressure on him to put his instrument in working order smack in the middle of a song was palpable. As Stern continued to solo Gilmore obviously got the bass working to his satisfaction, and as the full band joined in, Gilmore took his own solo and proceeded to blow the room away.

Eventually everything seemed to fall into place, and for the rest of the set the audience were treated to some beautiful interplay between the extremely talented band members. Sadly an encore was not to be. Time had run out and the room needed to be cleared to get ready for the late set.

After the show I asked Edmond Gilmore about his onstage struggle with the bass. Here's how he explained it:

“Right before the show I change the battery in my electronic bass, but after doing so there was no sound coming from the bass... no signal... nothing.

I thought maybe some cable came out? It’s jumpers, not a soldering system, so I open up the instrument and am trying to mess with it....Still nothing.

So a guy comes to save me with a borrowed bass and it's a Fender jazz bass, and he uses kind of heavy gauge strings.

So I play the first four songs and then we have this kind of trades when we each do our own solo, and by the time I know what I am dealing with I realize I have four more solos in front of me.

So I decide to change the gauge to what I’m used to and that’s it. This is the first time I've played this space. it’s the first time I played this bass.... it’s challenging. It has a different action, a different tension. The neck is set up a little bit different, the pick-ups are a different height.

When you’re dealing with equipment not working well, it put me a little bit on edge tonight, but you know, that’s part of being a professional. You have to know how to deal with every situation. I mean... trust me, I’ve dealt with crazier situations in my life than that.

I just I wish I had a little bit more time beforehand with the bass so I could mess with it and adjust it. But I had to do it during the gig so you throw yourself right in.”

Although I wasn't present for the late set, I can only assume that things went much smoother as the evening progressed. As Gilmore mentioned “that's part of being a professional”, and the members of the Mike Stern Band are certainly that...the consummate professionals.