How many ways can you think of to use a stick? You might throw it for your dog to fetch. If it’s a nice straight stick, you might use it to keep your runner beans upright. Or you might drop it off a bridge in a game of Pooh sticks. But what if you play the Chapman Stick in a band led by a vibraphonist? Then you might decide to participate in a sticky jam – your one twelve-string Stick and his four mallets improvising together.¹

If you think I’m clutching at straws, here, check out track 8 (of 11) on the N.Y.C. album by Steps Ahead.

Steps Ahead is an American jazz fusion band. It started as a part-time venture in New York City in 1979, the brainchild of vibraphonist, Mike Mainieri. Over the years, an impressive selection of musicians have contributed to the project. The personnel on the N.Y.C. album are: Mike Mainieri himself on vibraphone, saxophonist Bendik, guitarist Steve Khan, Bruce Martin on keyboards, Tony Levin² on bass and Chapman Stick, and Steve Smith on drums. Other lineups have included more notable musicians than you can shake a stick at, including: the saxophonists Michael Brecker, Bill Evans and Donny McCaslin, bassists Eddie Gomez and Darryl Jones, pianists Don Grolnick, Rachel Z and Eliane Elias, guitarist Mike Stern, and drummer Peter Erskine.

I can’t think of a better use for a stick or two. Can you?

Footnotes

1. You might like to invite the drummer, too. ↩︎
2. That man turns up everywhere! ↩︎