John Stein / Serendipity

 Like many serious musicians, John Stein was trying to find a way to reach his audience during the Covid-19 shutdown. He had just released “Watershed,” a career-defining recording to mark his planned retirement from Berklee College of Music where he was an acclaimed educator. When the tour in support of “Watershed” was scrapped due to the pandemic, Stein and the indefatigable Neal Weiss at Whaling City Sound came up with the idea of bringing Stein and his trio—with Ed Lucie on bass guitar and Mike Connors on drums—to the New Bedford Art Museum for a live-streamed performance. The show was an enormous creative success. While it was skillfully documented on video, Stein also had sound engineer John Farrell capture and mix the audio. From the opener, a take on Sonny Rollins’ “Alfie’s Theme,” to the closing, upbeat “Happy Hour,” a Stein original, the recording is a pure celebration of bristling energy and brilliant, intuitive performances. It’s the sound of unleashed happiness as embraced by three musicians, accursed pandemic or not, born to play beautiful jazz music.

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John Stein / guitar
Ed Lucie / bass guitar
Mike Conners / drums

Publicity:  Jazz Journal, All About Jazz, Staccatofy, Bill Copeland Music News, Neon Jazz,Whats’ Up Newp, Jazz Guitar Today,

Watershed: All About Jazz, Jazz News, KMUW, Rochester City Newspaper, All About Jazz, Jazz Weekly, WGBH Jazz Conversations, Jazz Journal, Midwest Book Review,

Wooden Strings: Jazziz on Disk, The Harpoon Room, Jazz Square,

Color Tones: All about Jazz, Jazz Quad, O’s Place Jazz Newsletter,Contemporary Fusion Reviews, Midwest Record, Kansas City Jazz Ambassadors Magazine, Los Angeles Jazz Scene, Midwest Record, Jazz Quad, Lydia’s Lifeline

Bing Bang Boom: Warta Jazz,