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ANDREW STERN NEWS

Introducing…. CRYSTAL LIZARD!!!

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Ok… HERE WE GO! Introducing CRYSTAL LIZARD!!  Gavin McCarthy, John Sheeran and Andrew Stern have combined forces in this new heavy power trio. We’ve been busy working up original tunes/sounds and our first gig is Tuesday June 21st at the Midway Cafe. Click HERE for our first track, “Tensor”. BOOM!!!!

Naftule’s Dream 25th Anniversary Concert

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This Wednesday night, the Naftule’s Dream 25th(!!) anniversary concert! I was fortunate to join forces with these guys in the early 00’s, following a lineage of badass punky/arty/noisy guitarists, Pete Fitzpatrick and Brandon Seabrook. How to describe? As one reviewer put it, “Imagine Albert Mangelsdorf, Ivo Papasov, Jimi Hendrix, and Ran Blake jamming with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at a Hassidic wedding and you’ll get a piece of the idiosyncratic picture here”. This band is killer and this will be quite a night– cant wait! https://jartsboston.org/…/the-boston-festival-of…/…

AS3 + Fell/Gallagher/Gray

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AS3 has been whipping up new originals, plus we’ll play music by John Barry, Chopin, Neil Young and Rashaan Roland Kirk. Then, Steve Fell, Jesse Gallagher and Luther Gray team up for improvisatory explorations. A sweet night of adventurous guitar trio’ing– expect the unexpected– you only get this here, folks!

AS3 + Clear Audience

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AS3 hits again, this time with our good buddies Clear Audience (Andy Voelker/Steve Fell/Jef Charland/Luther Gray.

We’ll play our originals plus music by Albert King, Neil Young and Frederic Chopin.

Tuesday October 5th, 8pm at the Lily Pad

AS3 Live

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In the waning days of 2020, my trio AS3 released a record about the year we all lived through. Next Tuesday night, we finally get the chance to play it live. Playing with Brad and Dave is a thrill and with these guys, the music always far surpasses what I thought possible when writing the music. Special bonus is Steve Fell/Jesse Gallagher/Luther Gray finish the night out afterwards. We look forward to sharing this music with you….

AS3, “Twenty | Twenty” ~ NOW AVAILABLE ~

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Back in October, I felt the urge to put 2020 into music before year’s end.  With tremendous talents from my brothers Brad Barrett and Dave Fox, here is “Twenty | Twenty”.  We all have a lot of feelings about this past year and everything it has entailed. I don’t know if this will make any difference, or if this counts as “doing our part”,  but hopefully this will mean something to somebody, somewhere, sometime.  I know it will to us, especially as the years pass and we look back to this as a memory of a strange and unfortunate time.  November 7th, 2020 however, will always be remembered fondly by the three of us.  It was a triumphant day, bright with the celebration of much needed change.  News broke as we drove to the studio and people honked their horns and danced in the streets.  There was a feeling of hope and elation, a break from tough times on a warm, sunny November day.  Darkness is here too, of course, and you will hear the ups and downs of this turbulent year in the tracks contained here.  Thank you for listening.
Purchase/listen HERE

AS3: “Twenty | Twenty”

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AS3 update: we are now in the mastering phase for our new record, “Twenty | Twenty”. Its sounding super dynamic and we’re very excited to have this musical reflection of this past year in the home stretch. It’ll arrive before year’s end. Photo by Michael Michael D Spencer

AS3 at Dimension Sound Studio

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Holy cow what a day! En route to making a record about this year, news broke of the blue victory and Biden gave his speech as we tracked our last tune.  Triumph all around!  New AS3 comin at you– a musical reflection of this year…. stay tuned for late December release.

Music stuff brewing….

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Y’all know its been a crazy year.  There’s been a lot of forced downtime, but there’s also been a lot cooking behind the scenes.  Stay tuned for: new Gill Aharon Trio recording, new Bob Bradshaw recording, new AS3 record, a duo with bassist Greg Loughman and a new song-writing collaboration with Dennis Brennan.   Other projects on the horizon include Half Holy Hearts, rock and roll with Lenny Lashley and a few other as-of-yet-to-be-named projects with various and wide-ranging collaborators.  Forward!

UGLY BEAUTY is OUT NOW!!!

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Hello friends,

Today marks the release of our record, Ugly Beauty. The record is available for digital download via Bandcamp HERE.  Feel free to listen; better yet, purchase the 14 track record and help support the music.  We put a lotta love into this thing…

Releasing a record is supposed to be a time to celebrate the completion of a creative product, a time to share. We looked forward to playing this music live in front of people. Who knew when we recorded this last November, that so much in America and the world would unravel in the meantime. Now, by simply arriving at this time, this record takes on different and additional meaning.

This record is comprised entirely of the music of our hero, Thelonious Monk.  An African American pianist and composer, he is considered by many to be one of the most important and prolific contributors in jazz. His unique gift of non-traditional and sometimes “off-kilter” pianistic and composition styles was truly singular and set jazz in a startling direction, making different musical trajectories possible. There would be no jazz without the African American experience, and Monk blasted it into his own idiosyncratic atmosphere.

This record represents our take on Monk’s music. By design, is not “straight-ahead”; most of what is here is no longer “jazz”.  We’ve put his music through our own filters, just as he took traditional styles and crafted them into his own music.  We have punk, disco, noise, rock, ambient and yes, ok, maybe a little jazz.  So goes the tradition of absorbing the past and pressing it forward, sometimes changed into completely different and unrecognizable forms.

Black lives matter. They are integral to the American experience, from which we all draw. Without them, none of this would be even imaginable. In the end, this album rests on Monk’s shoulders. Without him, we wouldn’t be here.

Thank you– we appreciate your support!
~ Andrew, Jef & Jared

Home studio up and running

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I figure with everything going remote these days, now is the time to get my home studio going.  I am thrilled with the results and am having a blast doing studio work from home– hit me up if you need guitar tracks!  I’m also steadily chipping away at my second solo guitar record… stay tuned….

 

UGLY BEAUTY records!

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Man oh man!  Our Monk trio, UGLY BEAUTY (Jef Charland/bass; Jared Seabrook, drums) finally made it to the studio.  This is gonna be a doozy of a record.  Extreme liberties were taken with these tunes– wow.  Huge thanks to Dan Cardinal at Dimension Sound Studio for kicking serious butt.  Stay tuned as this develops….

MAGNET-O! Now available!

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Today, we celebrate the release of the eponymous debut by our esteemed power trio, MAGNET-O!  This was a very fun (and very quick) record that we made and I am pleased to no end at the results.  Listen at your leisure and if you feel like purchasing the record for download, well then you’d be supporting us out here making stuff.
Either way– CRANK IT!!
Listen HERE
Record release show:

Wednesday October 16th, 8pm

Midway Cafe in JP
– MAGNET-O!
– Castellana/Stern guitar duo
– Gill Aharon Trio

UGLY BEAUTY: Monk for Electric Trio, Sat 4/27

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So stoked for Ugly Beauty to play at the Lily Pad this Saturday!  This group (me, guitar/ Jef Charland, bass / Jared Seabrook, drums) played years ago and I’ve always wanted to get it going again.  Well, here we are.  This is a NO JAZZ ZONE.  We take our favorite Monk tunes and put em thru the wringer: punk Monk, noir Monk, slide guitar Monk, noise Monk. MONK!

Saturday April 27, 3:30-5:00pm at the Lily Pad, Inmman Square Cambridge.

** poster by Bradley Clifford Peterson 

Gill Aharon “Trio”

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I’m a very lucky guy to have had a weekly residency with this group for the past 9 years.
This was a BLAZING set last Sunday afternoon at the Inman Eats Festival. >WOW< Wednesday nights at the Lily Pad, Inman Square, Cambridge Onward>>>>>>GAT Inman Eats

Budz and Novak Pickups

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I want to give a shout out to two pickup builders who have helped me immensely. Pickup builders David Budzinski (Budz) and Curtis Novak have built numerous pickups for me in the past few months. Listening to my ideas/needs, they’ve wound both standard and unique/special order builds that have greatly enhanced my instruments. They are attentive listeners, skilled craftsmen and generous supporters at the top of their game. Check them out:
BUDZ
NOVAK

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A great night in Jamaica Plain!

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What a tremendous and inspiring night of new/improvised music at the Midway Cafe last night!  Eric Hofbauer’s Radio Waves, Andrew Stern Trio, and the Dan Rosenthal quintet.  A great hang with some of my favorite friends and musicians.  This is the scene!

Midway hang

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Tracked the basics for new Beat Circus record at Q Division.  Definitely the most ambitious, wide-ranging recording project to date. Kudos to Brian Carpenter for bringing it together and extra special thanks to Rafi Sofer for making it easy and sound incredible. It sure was a pleasure making music with Paul Dilley and Gavin McCarthy again. There’s more to do but this record is off to a hell of a start. Stay tuned…

Beat Circus Q Division

Interview on WZBC

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Brian Carpenter, with whom I’ve worked for the better part of the last decade in Beat Circus and the Confessions, had me in for an interview on his show Free Association a few weeks back.  We talked influences and played some of my last three recordings.  Listen HERE

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Telescope plays the Mandorla Music Series on 12/5/15

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TELESCOPE is very excited to play the next installment of Mark Redmond’s excellent Mandorla Music series next Saturday December 5th, 8pm at Third Life Studio in Union Square Somerville. The usual suspects (James Rohr, Greg Loughman, Mike Connors and me) will be tackling my originals as well as music by Machito, Gill Aharon, Charles Mingus and Bill Frisell. This is a great listening room– we hope you can make it!Telescope Mandorla

TELESCOPE: Mandorla Music Concert, December 5th!

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Sat Dec 5, 8pm:  Telescope.   One minute guitarist Andrew Stern is a roots-rock frontman, and the next he’s a jazz guy, or an avant-garde explorer, or a pastoral stylist.   With Telescope, he brings all of these together in a stew of instrumental country jazz with an edge.  In addition to Andrew on Telecaster, Telescope features James Rohr on keys, Greg Loughman on bass, and Mike Connors on drums.   $12 in advance here, $15 day of show.  FB event page – yup.

Telescope cover crop

Home town hit

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TELESCOPE plays just down the street from my home at the Roslindale Farmer’s Market this Saturday September 5th, from 11am to 1pm.  We’ll be in the tent in the middle of the green in Roslindale center.  Bring the family and buy some veggies!

tele room crop

Confessions shoot video for “This Lonely Road”

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The Confessions were onsite this past weekend shooting video in NYC and Boston for our new song “This Lonely Road” off of our forthcoming record “Far End of the World”. That’s director/cinematographer Joshua Black Wilkins behind the camera.  He’s making this thing….

Stay tuned for the record release on 9/25/15 at Cuisine en Locale in Somerville, MA!

https://www.facebook.com/bcandtheconfessions
www.joshuablackwilkins.com/

Bob Bradshaw

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Have been having a great time teaming up with singer/songwriter/guitarist and friend Bob Bradshaw.
Look for his new record and live dates soon!
http://www.bobbradshaw.net/

The Rosenthals

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I was graciously asked to add guitar to the new recording by The Rosenthals.
They are a fantastic family band led by my friend Dan Rosenthal (trumpet) and his father, Phil Rosenthal (Seldom Scene).
Some fine bluegrass/folk/jazz– check them out!
http://www.therosenthals.org/TheRosenthals/The_Rosenthals.html

Telescope’s “Air Traffic Controller” available now!

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I am proud to announce the release of my latest record, “Air Traffic Controller”. This is a group called Telescope, as the band is designed around the Telecaster guitar. We recorded the band live at Q Division Studio A. There are no overdubs, except for a theremin bit. The tunes are mostly my originals.

Andrew Stern– telecaster, tunes
James Rohr– piano, Wurlitzer, Hammond organ
Greg Loughman– bass
Mike Connors– drums

The album is available here:

Upcoming Telescope gigs:

Oct 20th: Midway Cafe
Oct 21st: Beat Hotel
Nov 12th: The Beehive