Stern, Leni - Dance

Limited colored vinyl LP pressing. Dance finds Stern again leading her polyglot New York quartet with Argentine keyboardist Leo Genovese and the Senegalese rhythm duo of bassist Mamadou Ba and percussionist Eladji Alioune Faye. Dance was written and rehearsed in summer and autumn 2020 and then recorded, under safe conditions, at Shelter Island Sound in December, with Leni producing. Along with Genovese, Ba and Faye, the album features one of Leni's confreres from her days playing in Salif Keita's band, Haruna Samake, who added his harp-like kamele n'goni to three tracks from afar and co-wrote one song with Leni, the buoyant "Kono" ("Bird"). Along with "Yah Rakhman," co-written by Leni and Faye, other highlights of Dance include the freshly arranged, richly harmonized traditional West African griot tune "Daouda Saane" and the hard-grooving, Genovese-penned "Kani" ("Spicy Pepper"), which features some characteristically piquant solos by the pianist.