<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><DIV bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#FFFFFF" vlink="#000066" alink="#333333" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; "><CENTER><TABLE width="692" height="2807" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><TBODY><TR height="174"><TD height="174" colspan="3" valign="top" class="border" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; border-top-width: thin; border-right-width: thin; border-bottom-width: thin; border-left-width: thin; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-right-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-bottom-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-left-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); "><IMG src="http://www.lenistern.com/home/emailer2.jpg" width="343" height="145"></TD><TD width="317" align="center" valign="middle" class="border" height="174" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; border-top-width: thin; border-right-width: thin; border-bottom-width: thin; border-left-width: thin; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-right-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-bottom-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-left-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); "><IMG src="http://www.lenistern.com/home/DSCF0080.jpg" alt="" height="172" width="245" border="0"></TD></TR><TR height="11"><TD height="22" colspan="2" align="left" valign="middle" bgcolor="#BBBBBB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; "><BLOCKQUOTE> </BLOCKQUOTE></TD><TD rowspan="8" colspan="2" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#0000AA" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; "><P align="center" class="style12" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "> <SPAN class="style12" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><BR></SPAN></P><BLOCKQUOTE><DIV align="center"><BLOCKQUOTE> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BLOCKQUOTE><P align="center" class="style43 style46 style69" style="font-size: 24px; font-family: VintageTypewriter-SmithUpright; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><SPAN class="style73" style="font-family: VintageTypewriter-SmithUpright; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; ">Leni Stern in Berkeley, CA<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></SPAN><BR>playing music from her new release<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN><BR>Africa</P><P class="style78" style="font-family: Futura; font-size: 18px; ">Nov. 28th<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN><BR><A href="http://www.thefreight.org/" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Freight and Salvage</A><BR>8pm<BR>1111 Addison Street<BR></P><P class="style78" style="font-family: Futura; font-size: 18px; ">Mamadou Makan Kouyate - calabash<BR>Edwin Livingston- bass<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN><BR>Brahim Fribgane - oud<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN><BR>Barbara Higbie- piano and violin<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN><BR>George Brooks - reeds</P><DIV style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-size: 24px; font-family: Futura; "> <BR class="webkit-block-placeholder"></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><P align="center" class="style43 style46 style69" style="font-size: 24px; font-family: VintageTypewriter-SmithUpright; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><SPAN class="style55" style="font-size: 12px; "><SPAN class="style74" style="font-size: 10px; "><SPAN class="style75" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><STRONG>Tamara Turner, CD BABY<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></STRONG><BR>In a day and age when music has grown into an industry, a profit-driven machine with multiple parties scrambling for their share, it’s deeply heartening to take respite in songwriters like Leni Stern, who haven’t lost the spirit and connection from which music stems: the quiet and not-so-quiet voice of the soul, the cries and laughter and clumsy or elegant footsteps of humanity as we stumble to not just exist, but thrive in this world. Stern is one of those rare songwriters with the gift to cut through all the fluff in the music business and reach the heart of her audience with songs so exquisitely honest, innocent, vulnerable and human that a bridge is created between the music of our ancestors and that which hasn’t yet been written. This exciting new EP takes us to the sands of Mali, sharing songs with Bassekou Kouyate, Ami Sacko and Haruna Samake. Joined, in addition, by the likes of the late Michael Brecker, Mike Stern, Mah Soumano, Dally Kouyate, Omar Kouyate, Moussa Bah and many more, Alu Maye was recorded at Salif Keita's Moffou Studios in Bamako. While it’s not surprising to find oneself so fully moved by another one of her projects, there is always an element of freshness and unexpected beauty blossoming from her work. Leni has always impressed us with her ability to seamlessly weave folk, jazz and world; the colors of her musical imagination are delicate but resilient; there is a sense of frostiness, of otherworldly subtlety with a heart of profound strength. Everybody knows that it takes the most strength to be gentle and vulnerable, that it’s the cruel who are weak. Leni’s music brings this concept to mind by reminding us that within the most sensitive music lies humanity’s greatest hope, strength and ability to not just survive the future, but to find love for each other in the journey. The only thing wanting in this album is more of the same; that will soon be provided in an upcoming full-length release, now under way in Mali. If you’re like us, you won’t want to wait for the full-length before sampling and living with this gem. Go ahead- this will be the most satiating appetizer you’ve had in some time.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class="style76" style="font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><BR></SPAN></P><P><STRONG>THE WASHINGTON POST</STRONG></P><P>LENI STERN"Love Comes Quietly" Friday, June 9, 2006</P><P>LATE LAST YEAR singer-songwriter and guitarist Leni Stern released a four-song EP called "10,000 Butterflies" that pointed at intriguing things on the horizon. Now comes the payoff: a new CD featuring those tracks and nine others that will only enhance Stern's reputation for creating music that radiates a haunting power and beauty. These days it's impossible to neatly sum up Stern's sound. Elements of folk, pop, jazz, soul and funk clearly inspire her, along with an increasingly strong current of world beat influences. On "Love Comes Quietly," a collection of songs and instrumentals, Stern embraces everything from Motown grooves to Indian modes, and yet there's nothing that sounds fashionably eclectic or the least bit showy. Instead, a chamber-like intimacy often prevails, a quality enhanced by a series of imaginatively woven arrangements featuring Stern's yearning voice, poetic imagery, liquid guitar lines and the nimble support of bassist James Genus, slide guitarist Stephen Bruton, violinist Ernesto Villa-Lobos and others. A sense of wonder and hope marks some of the ballads -- the album's title cut and "Have Faith in Me," for starters. But that doesn't mean that Stern's songwriting lacks a sharp, ironic edge. Just listen to "Beauty Queen," a perceptive vignette about Manhattan street life, or "10,000 Butterflies," the album's foreboding highlight, or "The Road to Hell," which sounds like something Rickie Lee Jones and guitarist Bill Frisell might have concocted. In the end, though, it's hard to imagine anyone but Stern pulling all of this together with as much charm and conviction. The WASHINGTON POST - Mike Joyce<BR>"The New York-based guitarist and singer-songwriter has been on a roll for several years now, producing a series of widely acclaimed and highly personal CDs. Her soulful and poetic music is best appreciated in this kind of intimate setting." The Washington Post 6 2 06, Blues Alley Preview</P><P>For more information about Leni Stern, or a review copy of 'Africa', contact<A href="mailto:SethCohenPR@earthlink.net" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">SethCohenPR@earthlink.net</A><SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>or 212-873-1011.</P><DIV style="font-size: 24px; font-family: VintageTypewriter-SmithUpright; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> <BR class="webkit-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "> <BR class="webkit-block-placeholder"></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR><TR height="1"><TD width="332" rowspan="6" valign="top" bgcolor="#b9b9b9" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; "><P align="center"><A href="http://lenistern.com/home/index.php?p=records/afc/index.php" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><IMG src="http://cdbaby.name/l/e/lenistern11.jpg" alt="" height="200" width="200" border="0"></A></P><P align="center"><SPAN class="style19" style="font-size: 24px; font-family: VintageTypewriter-SmithUpright; "><A href="http://cdbaby.com/cd/lenistern9" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">new album available now</A></SPAN></P><P align="center" class="style55" style="font-size: 12px; ">a "chamber-like intimacy often prevails, a quality<BR>enhanced by a series of imaginatively woven arrangements featuring Stern's<BR>yearning voice, poetic imagery, liquid guitar lines...."<BR>- Washington Post, Mike Joyce<BR><BR><BR></P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="1" rowspan="6" valign="top" bgcolor="#BBBBBB" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; "> </TD></TR><TR></TR><TR></TR><TR></TR><TR height="1"></TR><TR><TD width="332" height="123" valign="top" bgcolor="#0000AA" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; "><P><STRONG>WASHINGTON POST</STRONG><BR>"Creating Music That Radiates a Haunting Power and Beauty"<BR></P><P><STRONG>JAZZTIMES MAGAZINE</STRONG></P><P>Love Comes Quietly<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN><BR>German-born New Yorker Leni Stern’s blues, jazz and rock licks on seven CDs in the 1980s and ’90s gained her a following among guitar aficionados, but in 1997 she abandoned instrumental music to flower into a singer and songwriter. On her fifth vocal effort, Stern’s songs take on a greater urgency, with part of that surely a result of her worldwide travels, most recently to Africa, India, Cambodia and Thailand. “Inshaallah,” for example, is a richly layered song—with a beautiful oud performance by Brahim Fribgane—written and performed in Africa for the people in the desert of Essakane. Stern’s descriptive images of a wandering woman concludes with her “tall gun [that] never leaves her side.” Stern’s world-music influences come to light again on the traditional song “Reseke Bare Tore Nain,” which offers Dhanashree Pandit Rai’s almost chilling vocals. The CD’s title speaks to the overall mellow quality of musical expression offered by Stern and main band members James Genus on bass and Keith Carlock on drums. But like all of Stern’s work, there’s plenty of texture to stick to your ribs: her Enya-like vocals and Ernesto Villa-Lobos’ violin on “Cheyenne,” her folksy timbre combined with electric guitar solos sounding like a cross between husband Mike Stern’s edgier stuff and Pat Metheny’s mellower side. And Stern can charm as well with a tune like “10,000 Butterflies.” by Brian Soerge JazzTimes July/August 2006 issue</P><P><STRONG>TIME OUT NY<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></STRONG><BR>"Singer-guitarist Leni Stern was mixing elegant jazz moves with adult-pop balladry long before most of today's best-selling stars had appeared on the scene, and continues to do just that with her latest self-released CD, 'Love Comes Quietly'." 5/06<BR></P><P><STRONG>LA WEEKLY<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></STRONG><BR>'IT'S PERSONAL' 7/19/06<BR>BY GREG BURK All over the world, Leni Stern is the instrument Learning, learning. Leni Stern wants to know and grow and hoe that row. Her thirst has pulled her all over Africa, India and Asia to absorb the rhythms, the scales, the feelings into her voice and her electric guitar, to make herself into that universal translator in the pink capris. In a way, she’s learned to learn. “I was always a bad student,” says Stern, brow knit and lips pursed as if remembering rapped knuckles in Catholic school back in her native Bavaria. “I have a really emotional connection with music that makes me hard to teach. Because it’s . . .” She lets go of a laugh, high and piercing. “It’s personal!” Personal, yeah, but Stern didn’t shut herself up in a cave to plumb her soul; she kicked open all the doors. It seems she can be Leni only by plugging in the many natural connectors that stick out of her, much like her hair — always going in some stray direction. In chemistry, they call that polyvalent bonding. New molecules form every day. “Wherever you are, the place makes the music sound different,” she thinks. “Because you are the instrument.” Stern, who’s known mainly as a jazz artist, has reconstituted herself in amazing ways over the past decade. The process has had much to do with breast cancer — surviving it, loving others who did not survive, recognizing that, hey, we’ve got things to do here. Friends in Nepal said confronting her own demise was a blessing. “They told me, ‘Now you get free of the feel of death. And should you survive, you’ll be a much happier person.’ ” Having gotten hitched to American fusion-guitar prince Mike Stern after a rather high-profile career on the German stage, the former Magdalena (Leni) Thora earned her oats through most of the ’80s and ’90s stirring up atmospheric, sometimes funky Strat sounds with the likes of Bill Frisell and Paul Motian. Then, spinning outward from her collision with mortality, she rediscovered her voice (literally), adding vocals to her tool kit. “Things need to be spoken about,” she says, “to be in the consciousness of everybody.” Anyway, she ain’t the silent type. Different thoughts emerged, borne by Stern’s delicately teetering vocal melodies, which cling in the head like burrs, but not as scratchy. There were heart-wringing words of hope after an Italian terrorist explosion, flowing within the extended orchestration of “I See Your Face” (2000’s Kindness of Strangers). There were the polar expressions of “Love Everyone” and “Where Is God?” (2002’s Finally the Rain Has Come). There was a trembling flashback to a former addiction on “Dancin’ With the Devil” (2004’s When Evening Falls). When she sings and when she cuts her guitar loose on untracked mountainsides, the distinction between art and artist gets lost. Music isn’t what she does, it’s what she is. Which has a lot to do with where she’s been. Asked to draw some lines between her music and her travels, Stern lists a bunch of raga-based songs, and names compositions that came directly out of her knuckles being gently rapped — in Naga, India; in Cambodia and Thailand; among the Samburu tribe of Kenya; and among the Tuareg tribe of West Africa. She picks up languages pretty easily, but the music, she says, is like learning to walk again. Exhilarating effort. Stern’s insinuating new Love Comes Quietly, the most varied album she’s ever done, wafts a pronounced African aroma amid the sensually inflected strains of her guitar. A hesitation beat that might remind you of its Jamaican descendants prods “10,000 Butterflies,” a prayer in support of refugees; its almost despairing lyrics are balanced by a hopeful musical environment. The dancing casbah chorus of “Inshaallah,” about a woman, her camels, her rifle and the desert, might become your mind’s constant soundtrack. Three colorful instrumentals softly convey a day’s baking heat fading into sunset. The city also finds its place — the urban madness of Stern’s Manhattan home shadows the menacing “Beauty Queen”; the street jugglers and magicians of “Have Faith in Me” reflect the smile that comes so easily to her face. Further abroad, the way the raga-derived “Love Comes Quietly” tiptoes in and out, sexy and insistent, you’d almost think it was a dream; Stern is at her finest here. That’s one of the things she says, actually: that in the state between waking and sleeping, we come to know ourselves. Stern’s itinerary this year has included a collaboration in Mali with string player Bassekou Kouyate, and a Gnawa trance-music festival in Morocco. Expect new fruit from these seeds. So much of this “world” music has religious connections, though — doesn’t a German of no particular faith feel uncomfortable sometimes? A previous Moroccan lila (healing jam-ceremony) was one of the few times she can remember, “not because of anything that was actually happening, but because I knew that the participants would eventually use their daggers to cut themselves and go into a trance.” Obviously I’m a fan, and Stern puts up with my questions, so I catch up with her whenever she’s in L.A. I’ve collected a few mental snapshots.<BR>1) Playing the Baked Potato in Studio City, Stern is deep in a solo, her eyes closed with an expression of complete involvement; behind her is the very sensitive and thoroughly amazing Texas drummer Brannen Temple. Some of her notes come from especially interesting places — mistakes, some would call them; I think of them as inspirations. Listening, I notice that I’m breathing more deeply. Later I ask how she feels about taking chances. “Maybe I should be a little more cautious,” she says. “But it’s a conversation. Sometimes with Brannen, it’s go-go boing-boing . . . you throw caution to the wind. He has a thing. He understands the guitar, he really does. And the people that play it.”<BR>2) Stern is having an idea session at her hotel with songwriter Larry John McNally, with whom she’s collaborated in the past; she still likes to bounce ideas off him. She’s working on “The Road to Hell,” a lazy blues with a twisty riff that will end up on Love Comes Quietly. He suggests switching a couple of words for rhythm, and she likes that. Then he wonders if she should change the lyric about Canal Street; many listeners won’t know where that is. “The song needs to be in New Orleans,” says Stern. “Even if people don’t know it, they’ll feel it.”<BR>3) Stern isn’t imposing, but she’s studied Shaolin martial arts, and she’s strong — look at the way the Tibetan character tattooed on her left arm ripples when she heaves her amp onto the stage. Some help with the effects case? Sure. But I get the feeling she’d really rather lug it all herself. It’s just one of the things she does.<BR>4) Stern has ordered Japanese eggplant and guacamole: She needs to watch her carb intake since the family diabetes flared up a couple of years ago. The food comes, and she doesn’t even have to taste it; we’re in America. She grabs a bottle of Tabasco. Turns it upside down. And dumps it all over everything. Leni Stern, Sat., July 22, 7:30 p.m. at Genghis Cohen, 740 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A.</P><P><STRONG>THE NEW YORKER</STRONG><SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN><BR></P><P>"The guitarist Leni Stern is a New York City favorite who deserves wider recognition." 6/06 "Jazz, blues and folk mingle nicely in work of guitarist and singer Leni Stern." 5/06<BR></P><DIV> <BR class="webkit-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="webkit-block-placeholder"></DIV></TD></TR><TR align="center" valign="middle" class="border" height="35" style="border-top-width: thin; border-right-width: thin; border-bottom-width: thin; border-left-width: thin; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-right-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-bottom-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-left-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); "><TD height="35" colspan="4" class="border" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; border-top-width: thin; border-right-width: thin; border-bottom-width: thin; border-left-width: thin; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-right-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-bottom-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); border-left-color: rgb(185, 185, 185); "><FONT size="+2" face="Washout, Washout-Thin"><A href="http://www.lenistern.com" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">www.lenistern.com</A><BR><FONT color="#CCCCCC" size="2">all photos by ebet roberts</FONT></FONT></TD></TR><TR align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#0000AA"><TD height="22" colspan="4" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; "> </TD></TR><TR><TD width="332" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; "></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER><CENTER><P>---------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR><FONT size="-1" face="arial, helvetica">To be unsubscribed from the CALIFORNIA mailing list, simply click on the link below:<BR></FONT><A href="http://lenistern.com/cgi-bin/subscribe/s.pl?r=1&l=10&e=lsr=:lenistern.com" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><FONT size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"><B>Unsubscribe lsr@lenistern.com</B></FONT></A><BR><BR><BR></P></CENTER><P><FONT size="-2" face="Arial, Helvetica"><A href="http://www.subscribemepro.com" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><B>This mailing proudly powered by Subscribe Me™ Professional - Enterprise Edition</B></A></FONT></P></DIV></SPAN></BODY></HTML>