It feels like Bangkok or Madras outside. Rainy season. Covered skies, drizzling rain. Very exotic.
I seem to be the only one that likes it. There is a whole set if Indian ragas for this weather, the malhars. Very beautiful!

The idea for this song came to me while waiting in an endless line at immigration in England. There were people from all over the world around me, all patiently waiting. I could see the rainy pale grey sky through a window on the other side and i couldn't help but wonder what I had, what everybody had come here for. I was coming from Africa and had just seen, first hand, the mess the European colonial regimes left there. I was on my way home to America, the most powerful nation on earth today. Bush and Cheney were still running the show. Thieves, all of them.

I am in Paris. The sky is grey, it has been raining all day. I rehearsed with Ousmane kouyate and his band for the cd release party at the new morning on Wed. The grooves are intense, high energy, the guinean guitar style is riding weightlessly above us. I have to really concentrate to stay on. It feels very familiar. I spent a winter in Bamako playing in Salif Keita's band with Ousmane. He would give me a part to play and leave me to play another part himself. If the band plays in 4/4, my part would be in 6/8, or the other way around. I feel like a percussionist. I used to think that playing the same thing over and over and over would get boring and it's not...far from it! Because everything changes as the grove gets deeper and deeper. They also resolve the chords way before the bass and it can get so very confusing. It is so easy to lose your place if you don't know. Ousmane is very strict, but very patient. He works us until everybody knows exactly where to play. I am silently a little happy when the Cameroonian drummer and the Malian percussionist get lost,  because then its not just the white girl on the electric guitar making a mess...... I am spent after 6 hours and happy. I am off to meet my friend Michelle for dinner near the Moulin Rouge. Yes, Paris is a little fabulous.

Hello Leni Stern Fans,

We at Leni Stern Recordings are holding a competition in order to see the wonderful talents of the video-making audience! Please use any of the songs available on Leni Stern's myspace page, make a music video for it, and send it in! Winners will be decided by Leni and her staff, and the top three videos will be posted on her website http://www.lenistern.com. Winners will also receive the autographed Leni Stern album of their choice. Deadline for entry is February 29th!

Good luck and Happy New Year!
-LSR

Leni and her band had a wonderful time in California last week, and we'd love to share her glowing review in the LA Times with you!
Best,
Leni Stern Recordings

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
DECEMBER 1, 2007

Leni Stern

Guitarist, singer and songwriter Leni Stern's geographic journey yields spiritual fruit.
By Greg Burk, Special to The Times
December 1, 2007

Staging benefit concerts and adopting babies are great, but musician Leni Stern has her own way of spreading the vibration of Africa: She has become an African. The people of Mali have even given the Bavarian-born guitarist and singer-songwriter a little piece of land, because they want her to stay. She's lived there about half-time for more than two years, and she wants everybody to know she's not suffering.

"We all come from Africa; it's the birthplace of humankind," Stern says by phone from the New York City apartment she shares with her husband, guitarist Michael Stern. "When you go there, you feel like you're coming home."

Consequently, she says, "we have a lot of things that we owe Africa, so we try to raise money, and our televisions are filled with images of terrible things.

"Get rid of malaria, for crying out loud, and get some cheap medicine out there," she adds. That's all well and good, "but we have created an impression of Africa, that it's a dangerous place filled with hardship, everybody there is miserable and crying all the time. You have to be vaccinated to the max, you can't drink the water, and you better not step on the ground. Well, you know what? None of that is true.

"It doesn't mean that we have to stop sending money for medicine," she says, "but Africa is beautiful. Africa is fascinating. You have never been among a nicer people. They really make it your quest that you should be happy. The food -- oh my God, the only thing that's a disaster is that I keep gaining pounds."

Stern allied herself with another white person in her new home. Only this one happened to be black.

That would be the renegade Afro-pop singer Salif Keita, an African albino. The blond Stern, who plays at Cafe Metropol downtown tonight, met Keita in Mali while using his studio and soon found herself splitting time between her own music -- influenced by the many months she's spent among Mali's Tuareg tribe -- and Keita's band.

In October, when Stern played on Keita's recording of U2's "One," the odd juxtaposition looked like an alliance of exiles.

Stern left a German acting career in 1977 to become a jazz fusion player in the U.S., later leaving fusion too (and America, really). Keita, born into the aristocracy, bucked tradition to become a lowly musician.

Malians aren't sure how to regard Keita. "They all say he's a sorcerer and has special powers, because they have this belief that albinos are different," Stern says. "And they act around him with a mixture of devotion and hatred. It's a strange situation I have gotten myself into."

It's not the first time. Stern has traveled to such disparate destinations as India, Kenya and New Orleans -- not just as a tourist, but also as a seeker who wanted to steep herself in the local musical cultures, each of which has influenced her own work.

Asked about the source of her wandering spirit, Stern wonders if a childhood admonition didn't contain some truth. "Whenever I was misbehaving, my grandmother used to say, 'Young lady, when the Gypsies ran through town, out of the kindness of my heart I took you into the house. If you don't stop, I will give you back to them!' "

Stern's Malian residencies have run the longest of her post-New York affiliations. She's been living among the Tuareg, whose nomadic ways, following their camels, sheep and goats as they graze, have butted up against the ever tighter restrictions of modern sprawl. She has learned to play North African instruments such as the skin-stretched n'goni (guitar or banjo) and the pole-necked guimbri, a kind of bass.

Most important to Stern, she's made friends. There's smiling Ami Sacko, the woman whose warm, sliding incantation, rather than Stern's intimate, vibrating soprano, is the first voice heard on Stern's new album, "Africa." There's Bassekou Kouyate, Sacko's husband, whom Stern describes as the only musician his peers allow to break harmonic rules with his aggressive, full-toned n'goni plucking. There's Keita, challenger of convention, who enjoys offsetting his own distinctive onstage image with a band that may include a white woman or a dwarf.

The interpersonal roots add a lot to the richness of Stern's "Africa," which sounds like anything but the standard cut-and-paste "world" collab. The feel is light -- in the auditory, emotional and even visual senses -- but serious observations on genocide ("Childsoldier") and drought ("Aman Iman") drift through like dust. And spirits hover, as two of Stern's old friends, saxist Michael Brecker (who played on the album) and percussionist Don Alias, were alive when she started recording "Africa" about two years ago but not when she finished.

Stern has wrought a work of variety and complexity that could nevertheless be mistaken for background music because of its surface beauty.

It requires little concentration, though, to reveal the depth of its art: the guitar droplets and bass pond-plunks of "Aman Iman," the inviting clay-drum rhythms of "Dakkan (What Is Written)," the bent Howlin' Wolf Afro blues of "Forest Song."

Many strands twist together into a flexible rope, lent a singular identity by the long, flowing lines of Stern's silvery electric guitar. A song's beginning often supplies little hint of where it will end. We're traveling here.

Least obvious and most impressive is the way Stern has locked into and condensed the mystery of Malian groove, especially on "Keita," whose title is its tribute. Shoulders shake; drums pop up all over; the rhythm and momentum grow big, bigger and biggest, despite the urgent sense of something . . . disappearing.

Stern hasn't spent her whole life flying over desert in a dune buggy, sponsoring a sheep sacrifice, losing her credit card at a Timbuktu river crossing and playing Strat under the appraising gaze of local imams. ("The real religious leaders are unbelievably charming and open-minded," she says with a laugh.)

Her journey has taken many turns, including a severe smackdown with breast cancer two decades back.

"Through the skill of my oncologist and my doctor, and several witches and wizards from all over the world, I'm here to talk to you," says Stern, who'll be backed tonight by oud and doumbek player Brahim Fribgane, saxophonist George Brooks and percussionist Mamadou Makane Kouyate.

"I had chemotherapy, cosmetic surgery and then intensive rebuilding of the immune system with Ayurvedic medicine, with Western medicine, with Chinese medicine. I went to Tibet -- and yes, I got a mantra from Buddha!"

Stern began to reconsider her path, evolving away from respected fusion work with the likes of drummer Paul Motian, guitarist Bill Frisell and guitarist Wayne Krantz. She got involved with promoting cancer awareness and decided she wanted to start her own label and sing her own songs.

Although Stern is capable of making a universal connection, the commercial part of that universe doesn't know it yet. She's not religious; she says her music is her prayer.

But maybe there's a hint of her potential in her song "Finally the Rain Has Come."

Every time she played the song, "it would rain, and I would get soaked, and my amp would malfunction," she says. "I played it in San Diego, and the guy said, 'Don't play any earthquake songs.' "


Here is the link:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-stern1dec01,1,7440195.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

I am thrilled to share this wonderful review!

ALL MUSIC
FOUR STARS
AMG ALBUM PICK
AFRICA
Review by Jeff Tamarkin
In recent years, Western artists such as Corey Harris and Markus James have traveled to the West African nation of Mali to make records, and Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, Robert Plant, and Taj Mahal are among those who've collaborated with Malian musicians or at least been fascinated and influenced by Mali's role as a source of the blues. To that list add Leni Stern, whose simply titled Africa is the result of two years of getting to know and finding common ground with Malian artists on their home turf. Stern, a guitarist and singer whose artistic restlessness over two decades of recording has thankfully kept her output consistently fresh, unpredictable, and invigorating, cut Africa at Salif Keita's studio in Bamako, Mali, using a large cast of local musicians and singers alongside Western players -- including her husband, guitarist Michael Stern, and the late jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker. It's a stirring mix in which Leni Stern's crisp, bell-toned electric guitar runs and the sharp horns and melodious keyboards integrate fluidly with talking drums, n'gonis, and ouds, and Stern's impassioned vocals receive a dynamic boost from the battery of Malian vocalists giving voice to her words in their native language. Africa, to its great credit, has absorbed not only the sounds but the feel of native African music. It's a stunning, respectful tribute to Mali's artistry, and to Stern's diligence in making it happen.

http://wc09.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:j9fqxzehldke

My recent trip to Africa was planned to be just a visit to say thank
you to all the musicians and to bring the finished cd to everyone
that had worked on it.
I started in Dakar, Senegal were I had recorded and written
"Childsoldier" with 3 musicians in Baaba Maal"s band: Hilaire
Chaby , Massamba and M'barra Cisse.
Also there was Abdou Rachman, the engineer. my visit coincided with the
celebrations that mark the end of the month of Ramadan.
Baaba Maal played a concert at the stadium in Dakar and invited me
to join him and his band on stage.
Baaba has invented the term "friends of Africa." I first heard him
mention it on the tv show Samedi Loisir we did together in Bamako ,
Mali in the spring.
He uses it to describe people that come to Africa out of love for its
culture, the music, the arts, the films, the stories,... not to take
from Africa and leave.
He is very involved in politics. He is the UN embassador for the
youth of Senegal, and he is very outspoken about many issues
concerning the musicians of Africa.
I felt that my presence, as a white woman, electric guitarist, and
singer in this concert, was to illustrate the point that music
transcends religion, gender and race.
Regardless of who we are, we can celebrate Ramadan together.
i don't know Wolloff or Pular , the local languages, enough to
understand what he said. I just heard my name spoken and sang by him.
We performed "Alu Maye" together, the song that tells the story of how
I got my African name Oumou, and how i got accepted into the line of
storytellers.
When i came down from the stage a group of fans was waiting for me,
all women. they took their perfumes from their purses and started
spraying me.
I went home in a cloud of Chanel.
I left for Bamako the next day. it's only an hour away, and I got there
in the afternoon, in time to visit Ami Sacko , Bassekou Kouyate and all
the children.
I was amazed at how happy everyone was to see their names on the cd
cover. i guess African artists never mention their sidemen. i felt so
happy seeing everyone again.
i met Salif the next day at Moffou. He asked me to perform with the
band for the Ramadan concert on Saturday night. I loved going back to the
rehearsals with everybody. It was as if i had never left. Haruna,
Prince, Solo...i took my usual spot on stage and of we went. The
concert was amazing. Before the 2nd set the last of the monsoon rains
poured down on us.
It didn't get any cooler. The music video of "Alu Maye" is running on
Africable twice a day, so the audience recognized me.
Abu my Malian engineer had told me about the Bono project. He said
that Salif wasn't gonna do it because he thinks he can't sing in English.
Salif asked me however to put down guitars for the song 'ONE'. he
came during the recording and started singing along softly , in
English, with an accent, but i didn't think it took away from the
song, and told him so. We decided to try vocal tracks the next day.
I had my doubts how anyone but Bono could sing this song, but when
you hear Salif it is very obvious that he was meant to do this. What
an amazing experience to witness him recording this track! I really
hope that everyone gets to hear it.
On my return to Dakar Baaba asked me to record with him. I played on
3 songs. One of them is the story of a bird so beautiful that
everybody falls in love with him and tries to catch him, but the bird
prefers his freedom to all the beautiful things he gets offered: a
golden palace isn't what he wants, he wants to fly. Very interesting,
I thought. Baaba asked me to come back to record and play more, I'll
leave for Senegal on Nov. 14th.