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"Luminous lyricism...the piano more caressed than played...with
sublety, nuance, warmth, effortless swing, beauty of line, and
sophistication of harmony and dynamics."
- Sydney Morning Herald
"Stern has her own voice -- she extracts a lovely timbre from
the piano...refusing to waste notes"
- Jazziz Magazine
"She has a Monk-like quirkiness in her playing; there is a sense
of melancholia and wistfulness that opens windows to her soul."
- JazzTimes
"Stern is eclectic to the nth degree."
- Philadelphia Daily News
Ed Bride, The Artful Mind, April 2006
"Peggy Stern, Improvisor, composer, pianist
"The key to success in the Jazz world can open the doors of life
in general: have a direction, but know how to improvise. Growing up,
our parents probably told us that direction is essential for any
career; we later learned the importance of improvisation, also known
as spontaneous, unscripted action (or in the musical world,
performance. Indeed, a Jazz purist might define improvisation as
"spontaneous composition").
"As a composer of choral works, interpreter of Brazilian music
for duo and other configurations, creator of energetic piano trio
numbers, and more recently leader of a salsa and samba group of
varying sizes, Peggy Stern maintains a Jazz orientation by always
holding that one definition. "Jazz is improvised music, so
within that umbrella, I consider what I do to be Jazz. When people
think of Jazz, they often think of bebop, and while I do that for
fun, that's not really what my focus is, what will be my legacy."
"Solidly grounded in classical music, Stern's legacy is likely
to include a commitment to melody, something that is missing in some
performers who try to impress audiences with finger acrobatics,
technique and scales, in lieu of melody and harmony. Her technique is
as varied as one can describe, from delicate to powerful, beautiful
to angry. But always with a memorable melody, and usually with a
solid beat. Audiences at her recent appearances at Castle Street
Café in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, have described her as
a "monster pianist," which is a major compliment in the
music world.
"The pianist's website mentions that she has performed in some
unusual situations, so that seemed a normal starting point for an
interview. Though it's difficult for her to single out any particular
example for its unusual character, "They're all unusual in their
own ways," some of her appearances are clearly far from routine.
"Last Fall, for example, she did a duo tour with the legendary
alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, with whom she has appeared and recorded
(at Birdland here in the U.S., among other places). In the mountains
of Sicily, they appeared in an old theatre in front of perhaps 600
people, with a repertoire that ranged from free, unplanned music to
standards (Konitz had told her to learn "Cherokee" in every
key, for example). Doing some solo time, she played a Sicilian tune,
"Maruzella, Maruzze," one that was conjured by her previous
visits to the Mediterranean. The striking venue and the impact on the
audience comprised her fondest memories of the tour.
"Then there was the tour with a California-based band of Irish
musicians, called Puck Fair, consisting of piano (naturally),
percussion, and flute. In one planned stop, the venue had burned down
the night before. For the gigs that did materialize on that tour, she
was deeply engrossed in the Celtic music, and at the same time
observed that the Irish reputation for vivacious living was well-deserved.
"The Puck Fair tour happened some 20 years ago, when Stern's
skills as an improviser were just beginning to be recognized. She was
living in Seattle at the time, and passed through a lot of musical
doorways, both before and since.
"Stern's music has a particularly broad ethnic base. In addition
to European and American classical music, it draws from Brazilian,
African, Jewish, Irish, Cuban, and traditional jazz influences, all
known for enchanting melodies and/or strong rhythms. She grew up in
Philadelphia, moved to Rochester to study at the Eastman School of
Music; to Boston for further study at the New England Conservatory,
and then entered the world of the occasionally migrant working musician.
"After a stint on Cape Cod, she moved to San Francisco, a
location that probably was the first to have a major influence on her
adoption of Jazz: she took up improvisation, and it suited her well.
She moved back East to New York, to become immersed in the essence of
personal performance and Jazz. She became a frequent visitor to
Bradley's, where the likes of Jimmy Rowles, Charlie Mingus, Hank
Jones, and Tommy Flanagan would routinely play and/or hang out.
"In the 1980s, she moved to Seattle with her new daughter Sarka
Mraz, and stayed for eight years, returning to New York in 1990. She
lived in Irvington, West Chester, and then on the upper West Side of
NYC, and part of that time was teaching at SUNY Purchase.
"Among the places with the greatest musical influences, or
inspirations, Stern says "they all served their purpose."
San Francisco was encouraging of improvisation; New York was great
for intense learning; Seattle encouraged new music, and it was a
supportive, nurturing environment for what she was doing. She
attracted a following there, something which many musicians never achieve.
"I have consistently found that the West Coast is much more open
to new ideas, much more supportive of new music." The East
Coast, she finds, is more parochial. The Jazz community on the East
Coast might not be very welcoming to something that they're not quite
sure how to characterize, she suggests, but hastens to add that the
quality of musicianship on the East coast outweighs the downside of
the discipline.
"Why leave that accepting, nurturing environment? In a way, she
was at the top of the Seattle creative music scene, "whatever
that meant." In New York, it was easier to disappear and
continue exploring and developing. "I could be really (BE)
nobody." Now, she is "re-inspired" musically, and
excited about making original piano trio music that leans heavily on
salsa and samba.
"It makes sense to back up a bit, and explore what got her into
Salsa in the first place. She traces it back to San Francisco, where
one of her first gigs after switching from classical piano was to
fill an empty chair in the band called SuperCombo, in the mid-1970s.
She did that for a year, six nights a week. The rhythm section was
entirely Cuban, and "they were putting up with none of my
nonsense." They were pure-enough Cuban that she couldn't even
get away with playing something in McCoy Tyner's mainstream modal
Jazz vein. "Don't do that," they'd tell her. So, "I
learned the real essence of Salsa, I had to fit into that group, do
things certain ways, or it just wouldn't work."
"As a cog of the rhythm section, the piano player didn't have
the freedom to wander, or dabble in other genres during solo time,
because then the wheel wouldn't turn.
"I could see the whole room dancing. I would look out there, and
it was just so beautiful." The combination of music and visual
appeal sparked an interest that is today's flame.
"But as to the SuperCombo gig itself, she relates, Eddie
Henderson came into the club, invited her into his band, "and
that was that," she joined the jazz trumpeter's band.
"Once she came to New York, she also worked in the legacy band
of the late Cuban percussionist Machito. Four months pregnant, coming
home from work around dawn didn't really fit a safe, healthy
lifestyle. So, after Sarka arrived, it was off to Seattle.
"Fast forward to today, where she calls upon all those past
experiences, especially learning the Cuban rhythms, in the salsa and
dance and funk music of her group, Estrella Salsa and Samba.
Listeners to her group wonder where all the music comes from,
suspecting her of hiding an additional pianist behind the curtain;
upon close examination, it can be verified that she only has two
hands, each equipped with only ten fingers. But all that training,
the work with the Latin groups, and the solid classical education,
obviously gave her a solid grounding in melody, harmony, and rhythm.
"She has been concentrating on salsa and samba for a couple of
years now, and it is no temporary orientation for the next album,
"This is what I really want to do, where I live rhythmically. I
like making heads bob up and down, it means a lot to me. Music should
dance, at least my music should. It's just another form of swinging.
Everything should swing; even classical music should swing."
"Among her musical influences, Stern names Chick Corea, Keith
Jarrett, and Bill Evans. "I listened to Bill every day...I must
have picked up a lot, there. And Horace Silver, his music dances. He
is not the greatest technically, but I love his composing. He's
great, and composing is so hard."
"A musician makes a living in two or three principal ways, one
feeding on the other: performing, recording, and for some, composing.
Performances in concerts and clubs provide energy that nurtures
creativity, and helps sell the recordings. Hard, lonesome work is
also necessary for any recording of original music: creating the
material that will be recorded and performed. Towards this end, there
are at least three Stern projects in various stages of gestation.
"She has an idea that draws on her classical training: a solo
album of classical themes. An unusual approach for most Jazz artists,
someone who has heard her a dozen or more times is convinced she can
do it. A trio album of Salsa and Latin-flavored original music is
first, however, and she will be in the studio on that project this month.
"Perhaps most ambitious on the "maybe" list is a work
for chamber orchestra that she will compose. The idea came after one
of her small-group concerts, after which the French Horn player
suggested that the material could be expanded to a full orchestral
version, and the rest will be history. Not a symphony, but a few
woodwinds, a chorus, strings, a couple of brass instruments and, of
course the piano.
"The Peggy Stern of today is no longer a city-dweller. As
occurred with so many people in other professions, the September 11
terrorist attacks drove her to move from New York City, to her
retreat in the mid-Hudson valley. That part-time residence is now
permanent...at least for now.
"It's a story worth telling, because it reveals another side of
her: the teacher, the committed citizen.
"A few years ago, she got her public school certification, and
withdrew from Jazz for awhile. "It was really rewarding, and it
allowed me to do something constructive for the community at
large." Teaching wasn't exactly new to her. She had taught part-time
at Purchase for seven years; at Cornish in Seattle for six, and at
the Walden School in New York City. 9/11 happened when she was
teaching music at a high school in Englewood, New Jersey.
"I got a call in class about the first plane that crashed into
the World Trade Center. We could see the smoke from the school. I
sent one of the kids down to the resource room to get a television,
which we turned on just in time to see the second one hit. I had to
stay with friends in New Jersey for two days; I couldn't get back
because the bridges were closed. Some of the kids had parents who
worked in New York, so that was a problem for them, too. "
"When she did get back home to her apartment on 97th Street,
"we could see the green cloud in the middle of the night; and it
had this stench of vaporized concrete, and death. Once they evacuated
Penn Station, and the Empire State Building, that was enough for us."
"So, she and her boyfriend at the time started thinking about
just packing it in, and heading for what was then their part-time
home in Boiceville; they relocated full-time by summer of 2002. Then,
came the New York certification, and she taught part-time in
Kingston, where she now lives. She wrote a musical about the Mars
rovers, "What Happened on Mars?," performed with great
enthusiasm, she recalls, by the 8-year-old students.
"I believe in making a contribution to the community; it bothers
me that the Jazz community spends a little too much time
navel-gazing; we can tend to be a little ego-based and not
community-based. I feel really good about teaching school children
and turning them on, and having them turn me on with all their crazy
energy. I'm sure I'll go back to that, in some way, even if it's
truncated. I really enjoy elementary school students, they're so
open. It's great fun, and it's cleansing."
"A few years ago, Stern became interested in jazz chorus. Having
been raised singing in choirs, she began writing for vocal groups,
both standards and originals. One of her compositions,
"Lunasea" is featured both in choral form on Konitz' album
Brazilian Rhapsody, as well as being the title tune of her own 1992
quintet album with Lee Konitz. A couple of years later, "New
Rain" and "Sunbath" (first recorded by Woody Shaw)
were featured with chorus and sextet on her album Actual Size. Two
more choir originals, "Delfine" and "Bore Me With Your
Love," will appear on her next CD, with the trio.
"A writer suggested to Stern that the process of composing music
is the most original form of art, starting from nothing and finishing
with a work that can be appreciated, if not understood, by all.
"I don't think of it that way, but it's an interesting theory. I
just know it's hard, and it's frustrating." Where does that
inspiration come from, then?
"Usually it comes to me when I'm not thinking specifically about
it. All of the really great moments come when I'm in a semi-conscious
state, at the piano. I may just be playing, with the idea that I
would like a new tune to come out. I may be under a deadline, then
I'm playing, and all of a sudden there's a germ of a motive a little
bit, a piece; I can hear it...it's the truth. That is a trip.
"But how do I make that into a composition," she continues.
"Where does it go from here? And then you have all these veins
of possibilities, going every which way. If you're intelligent, you
can make anything work. But then you might come back to it a couple
of hours later and recognize that while it works, it isn't good. Or,
it doesn't work, after all."
"The inspiration could also happen while shopping, or sleeping,
even. But when that happens, "usually it's gone when I wake up.
Some things just escape into the air, and maybe they'll appear in my
next life...or next week."
"Besides being frustrating, the process of writing is delicate,
she asserts. "The piece I'm working on now is called 'Precious
Little.' I'm fighting for every measure; each measure has a whole
bunch of possibilities, and then when I land on it, how do I get to
the next measure?" The very next day, she wrote
"Sonnet," and "it just fell out of the sky, perfect,
nothing needed to be done to it." That's "the best kind of
moment" she knows.
"Sometimes, she may know how a composition is supposed to
finish, and she might work backwards. Unlike a symphony, there is no
blueprint for the structure of a Jazz composition. But there is a
process. Once she has that germ of the melody, the next step is to
"getting it into some form where I can improvise with it."
"Even her Jazz compositions display her classical underpinnings.
One of her best, she feels, was the aforementioned "New
Rain," from the CD Actual Size. The music was the result of her
trying to figure out an interesting way to introduce "Here's
that Rainy Day." Hence the title, which actually has nothing to
do with the lyrics, an original poem of lost love.
"Besides her personal accomplishments, among the things that
make Peggy Stern proud is her daughter Sarka Mraz, now 28. After
graduating from University of Texas with a degree in mathematics,
Sarka was scooped up by Teach for America, instituted by President
Clinton as a sort-of domestic Peace Corps for schools.
"At age 22, Sarka was teaching high school math to troubled
students in a tough Baltimore high school, then moved to the
D.C.-based SEED School, the first public charter boarding school in
the country. (A SEED school is based on a model created by The SEED
Foundation that integrates a rigorous academic program with a
nurturing boarding program. The academic program is college
preparatory in focus, while the boarding program teaches life skills
and provides a safe and secure environment 24 hours a day.)
"She worked there for two years, and is now working for the
American Institutes for Research, a behavioral and social sciences
think-tank, also based in Washington.
"Whether composing is merely creative or is divinely inspired is
a matter for the philosophers to settle. But Stern does offer some
insight on the question: "There is nothing that is more
wonderful than hitting that place where the music comes down and out
through your fingers, unobstructed. That is God, right here on earth.
The rest of it is us all trying our best to do that."
"But no matter what she is doing, the music is going to inspire
dance; "the audience doesn't have to be just staring, they
should be moving, up and moving. They just shouldn't be talking."
"If she were in the audience listening to Peggy Stern, she would
be up dancing. "I know what it means to have a whole room of
people, all feeling it, experiencing the same thing. Salsa music does
that in a really healthy way. The trick would be to solo, do my
thing, have my compositions head in that direction. Maybe it's a
little too progressive to call the music pure salsa, melodically and
harmonically. It's not imitation Latin music, though; rhythmically,
it's the real thing."
"As part of her immersion into mid-Hudson community life, Stern
is the artistic director of the Wall Street Jazz Festival, whose
third iteration takes place Aug. 5, in Kingston's uptown business
district. Featuring female-led bands, a rarity in the Jazz world, the
free festival is sponsored by the not-for-profit Sostenuto
Association, and is supported by underwriting grants.
"The festival is not the only thing she is doing in bringing
Jazz artists together with the community. She is also the creative
force behind the forthcoming Jazz Vespers at the Old Dutch Church in
the center of Kingston.
"So, she is beginning to show the makings of a producer not just
of albums, but of concerts and other "live" happenings.
"All for the love of Jazz, of course.
"Or at least improvisation. " |
