Album Review: Next Gen from John Stein
Album: Next Gen Artist: John Stein Label: Tiger Turn Artist Website: Johnstein.com A mix of jazz standards and originals, guitarist-composer John Stein's 2025 offering Next Gen features music inspired by his five grandchildren. Making the tunes personal for him while appealing to listeners on a broad scale, Stein's 19th project displays the flexibility and the sonorous lilt of the guitar, riffing with his band mates Ed Lucie on bass and Mike Connors on drums in splendid synchronicity. Opening with "AJ," a track Stein wrote for one of his granddaughters, the arrangement synchronizes puffy rivulets from Stein's guitar perched on the calming knolls of Lucie's bass. The track is followed by the lounging grooves of the jazz standard "Lover Man," brandishing a soft simmering ether that jumps into the bouncy rhythm of "Kai," named after Stein's oldest grandson. Another jazz standard, "Star Eyes," is illuminated in pixilated gui...