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 Jody Stecher |
A "musician's musician" - great lonesome vocals, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, old-time banjo, sarod. And a very wide scope of musical styles: Old-time, bluegrass, scottish/cape breton, Greek rebetika, Indian classical... Though mandolin is but one of his instruments, as a mandolinist, Jody Stecher deserves to be recogonized as being in the top mando-ranks, with great tone, tasteful phrasing and dynamics. His CDs with wife Kate Brislin are outstanding, straddling the fence between old mountain music and early country and bluegrass. He’s also worked in a duo with Indian sitarist Krishna Bhatt, and with Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser. Jody Stecher has been a mainstay in folk music for over three decades. His continuing musical explorations have covered bluegrass, traditional old-time and Indian classical music, echoing his deep understanding of these idioms, gleaned from years of dedicated study. A musician of constant aesthetic integrity, Jody is regarded as one of Americaís leading traditional folk artists. His recordings have served as a primer for a large and diverse group of musicians, including Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Peter Rowan, Martin Simpson, Seldom Scene, Laurie Lewis, Kathy Kallick, and the group, Hot Rize. Accomplished musician David Bromberg said, "Jody Stecher was basically my teacher. He opened my ears to more beautiful music than anyone else ever did... more than I ever knew existed. He is also one of my favorite musicians on Earth to play with. I have never known anyone so intensely and completely enveloped in music. It's my suspicion that if you drained all the music out of Jody, you could carry what was left around in an eye dropper." Stecher's guitar stylings have been noted as blues tinged, banjo influenced and highly inventive. They are fluid, evolving and subject to flights of fancy and improvisation in actual performance. Over the years, Jody recorded many albums with his wife and singing partner Kate Brislin. Then, in February of 2000, Acoustic Disc repackaged Jody's first two recordings from 1970 and released the music for the first time on CD, "Going Up on the Mountain". |
I think that Jody Stecher is one of the very great singers alive today. There is an extraordinary focus about his work, a capacity for concentration which approaches the fabled - and it's all trapped up in a knowledge that above all music lifts the soul or it is nothing. |
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