Leni Stern African Trio at Brooks Hall

On Saturday March 3rd, The Charlottesville Jazz Society and WTJU are pleased to present jazz and world guitarist/vocalist Leni Stern in concert at UVA’s Brooks Hall at 8:00 pm.

For over 25 years Leni Stern, who last appeared in Charlottesville with Monika Herzig’s all-female band in 2016, has crafted a sound that is equally transforming, malleable, fluid, and moving. Charlottesville audiences are invited to celebrate Leni’s courage in immigrating from Germany to become a female jazz guitarist and bandleader, as well as that of her Senegalese bandmates, who bring their mastery and experience to her music....

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On Saturday March 3rd, The Charlottesville Jazz Society and WTJU are pleased to present jazz and world guitarist/vocalist Leni Stern in concert at UVA’s Brooks Hall at 8:00 pm.

For over 25 years Leni Stern, who last appeared in Charlottesville with Monika Herzig’s all-female band in 2016, has crafted a sound that is equally transforming, malleable, fluid, and moving. Charlottesville audiences are invited to celebrate Leni’s courage in immigrating from Germany to become a female jazz guitarist and bandleader, as well as that of her Senegalese bandmates, who bring their mastery and experience to her music.

Early on Leni led bands supported by such heavyweights as Bill Frisell, Michael Brecker, and Paul Motian. Everything changed when in 2005 Leni was first invited to perform at the Festival au Desert in Timbuktu, Mali. It was there that she would meet and befriend several African musicians who would inspire her to dive headfirst into the traditions of West African guitar.

In the past 13 years Leni has worked hard to forge a new sound that is all her own, studying and practicing the rhythms and tonalities of West Africa. It is finally, with ‘3’, that her most authentic voice can be experienced. On her most recent recording Leni is Joined by her regular NYC-based trio of bassist Mamadou Ba and percussionist Alioune Faye, who will also perform with her in Charlottesville. Leni’s compositions pay homage to the drum patterns of traditional Senegalese folk songs, resulting in a new repertoire of cross-pollinated ideas and reverence to jazz, to blues, to Africa, to a folk music of today’s diaspora. The trip is only just beginning for Leni Stern. In 2017 she was named one of the 50 Most Sensational Female Guitarists of All Time by Guitar Player Magazine.

Tickets to see the Leni Stern Trio at UVA’s Brooks Hall on March 3 are available online at lenistern.brownpapertickets.com, and in person at the Tin Whistle Irish Pub, Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 pm. The cost is $20 general admission, $15 for paid supporters of The Charlottesville Jazz Society, and $10 for students. Any tickets remaining at the door will be $25 for all. For more information call Gary at (434) 249-6191. And be sure to listen for Leni’s music on WTJU, 91.1 FM.

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