Chicago mandolinist to play final Jazz in June concert

Good thing Don Stiernberg's mandolin pick isn't corked -- is it?

Well, the affable Chicagoan is a bona fide mandolin player, nonetheless (not to mention, in his own words, "an incurable, hopeless Cubs fan").

"If I'm not playing (the mandolin), I'm watching the game," Stiernberg said in a phone interview.

And as for Sammy Sosa, well, Stiernberg had these thoughts:

"There's a thousands things you could say," pausing thoughtfully before he added, "you could say it wasn't Sammy's greatest moment, but he'll be able to recover from that.

"Pennant fever is blowing over Chicago, and I'm thinking he's going to do what he's really made of ... another 40 home runs or so."

Instead of shattering baseball stats and sluggers, Stiernberg himself is tearing it up with his own brand of swing jazz.

Deemed "one of Chicago's busiest musicians," he lends himself to recording sessions and performances to play mandolin, guitar, tenor banjo, fiddle, or even to sing.

And when he's not on stage, he's writing columns for Mandolin Magazine or teaching workshops to the next generation of jazz mandolin players.

Stiernberg learned as a teen-ager the craft from jazz mandolin pioneer Jethro Burns in the early 1970s.

His mother had heard a radio advertisement for mandolin lessons by Burns, and since the 15-year-old had already been tinkering with an neighbor's A-50, she put the two together.

However, Stiernberg felt "geeky." But those $10 sessions "turned out to be one of the greatest things that has happened."

"I might have some twisted sense because I'm still crazy about the mandolin after all these years," he said. "It makes sense to me."

According to www.encarta.com, the mandolin originated in the 18th century and is related to the lute.

The mandolin has four pairs of steel strings that are played with a pick, or plectrum. It is a popular instrument in Italian folk and American bluegrass music.

It's this pigeonhole from which Stiernberg and others, like Josh Williams and Chris Thile, are trying to retrieve it.

Ward Jacobson, morning show host with KFOR radio station in Lincoln, said the mere concept of a jazz mandolin was something so bizarre -- but that's the cool part.

"I've always been a big bluegrass fan," Jacobson said.

"And, of course, the mandolin is such a dominant instrument in that genre. But when you throw it into the jazz world, well, it doesn't seem like it would make a lot of sense. But Don really makes it work ... it's remarkable."

Instead, this guitar-meets-violin hybrid deserves some musical variety: Celtic, charro, classical and, of course, jazz.

Said Stiernberg: "If you consider that the mandolin has the same pitch as a violin, but you play it with a pick, and it's fretted like a guitar, and jazz is played on both those instruments, it's not such a surprising thing at all."

Perhaps then, what is pleasantly refreshing for listeners is the manner that Stiernberg can command his instrument to wail one moment, then laugh the next.

His latest album, "Unseasonably Cool," was classified in the April 2003 issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine as "a lush sonic landscape full of warmth and intimacy ... the sort of album that makes folks who don't like jazz want to listen."

Stiernberg himself is listening. To stay fresh after a three-decade-long romance with the mandolin, he says he flirts with new styles, (at the moment, it's Brazilian) and checks out the up-and-coming jazz mandolin musicians.

"Chicago has a really diverse music scene," he said, "and my work is fairly diverse, I try to play ... bluegrass, different types of jazz, Latin and other ethnic music. It's not that challenging to stay inspired in Chicago.

"But if we can communicate with the audience -- whether it's large or small is of no lesser consequence to me -- as long as there are people that we can connect with, that's what I look forward to."

He's not the only one. Jacobson, too, is turned on by the feel-good tunes of Stiernberg's style, something he has termed "jazzgrass."

"If you're really into it, you can tell there is some incredible musicianship happening there," Jacobson said.

"But yet he pulls it off to the point where you don't really think about that. I've always felt that was the sign of a great musician. Making very difficult music sound like it's the easiest thing in the world to play. Not many people can do that ... but Don does."

Looks like another hit.