Attention to all fans, for the reunion concert of the legendary super group Steps Ahead is going to be an extraordinary event. Band leader Mike Mainieri will present the original line up of the eighties/nineties. Just like in the old days Bill Evans, Mike Stern and Steve Smith join hands to revive the original sound, with Richard Bona as an extra treat.
The New York based vibraphone player, producer, arranger and composer Mike Mainieri is the moving force behind Steps Ahead. He founded the group, named Steps back then, in 1979. Steps was a musical workshop full of experiments involving divergent musical styles. Because of the ever changing line-ups, the formation's musical character changed as well. Mainieri has been working intensively in the music business for almost five decades. He played with Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins and Wes Montgomery. Rock fans know him because of his collaborations with Aerosmith, Dire Straits and Paul Simon.
Bill Evans is one of the most in demand musicians of the day. In his post-Steps Ahead days, a period that started the 90s, he recorded 14 albums as a leader and has he played an average of a hundred concerts a year worldwide. Moreover he was featured as guest soloist on CD's of Mick Jagger, Lee Ritenour, Dave Grusin and Herbie Hancock. Like all great musicians Bill Evans started his career in the band of Miles Davis. Later he became a member of the famous Mahavishnu Orchestra, the band of John McLaughlin. Recently Evans embarked on an adventure in which he mixes jazz, soul and country music - a style he calls 'soulgrass'.
Meanwhile the names of Billy Cobham, Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius, The Brecker Brothers and many others have earned a place in the CV of string wizard Mike Stern. His American debut album Upside Downside (´86) struck like lightning: with his angular rhythms, jumpy melodies and often almost hysterically inspired solos, Stern, as a true Pied Piper of the guitar, managed to enchant a whole crowd of fans.
Steve Smith initially became known mainly as a rock and pop drummer with a.o. Mariah Carey, Bryan Adams, Zucchero and Savage Garden. When he himself formed his own fusion group, his career turned more and more in the direction of jazz. Thus Ahmad Jamal, Stanley Clarke and Randy Brecker hired this modern drummer who masters all styles. From 1986 until 1993 Smith was drummer in Steps Ahead, which can be considered as their most active period.
Multi instrumentalist Richard Bona, who grew up in a musical family, used to make his own instruments. Through the music of Jaco Pastorius and Weather Report, Bona ended up in traditional jazz. Years later, Bona would also tour as a bassist with Joe Zawinul. Subsequently he was a.o. musical director for Harry Belafonte, he played with the Brecker Brothers and played the bass in Buckshot Lefonque, the band of Frank McComb and Branford Marsalis. Luckily the most wanted sideman in the jazz/fusion scene, still finds the time to record his own music.
