Performing, writing and teaching jazz mandolin for nearly five decades, Don Stiernberg said he owes much of his success to his brother, John Stiernberg, and his teacher, Jethro Burns.
Don Stiernberg, who grew up in Wauconda, also added his mother to that list. She had the foresight to send him to mandolin lessons with the top player of the time, Burns, part of the country music duo Homer and Jethro.
Stiernberg brings his trio, with Jim Cox on bass and Joel Paterson on guitar, to perform Nov. 21 for the Lake County Folk Club in Grayslake. Paterson is filling in for Andy Brown, who has performed with the trio for years live and on albums. The trio has performed in the U.S. as well as at jazz festivals in Germany and Brazil.
Stiernberg is not too shabby on jazz and classical mandolin, having played the instrument with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra when it presented Verdi’s ‘Otello” at Carnegie Hall in 2011.
Stiernberg said he learned mandolin when he saw his brother, John, having a lot of fun playing guitar and banjo. “I wanted to be like him,” he said.
His mother, a folk music enthusiast, suggested Stiernberg take lessons from Burns after she heard him perform on WTTW Radio one night.
“From the minute I walked in and encountered Jethro, he was the coolest person I had ever met, maybe even to this day,” Stiernberg recalled. “He encouraged me right from the get-go. He said, ‘Donny, play me something so I can tell how to help you.’ I played some horrible thing, a fiddle tune I had tried to work out and it was filled with stops and starts and I held the pick wrong.”
Burns’ response: “Wow, Donny, you’ve got all the tools.”
“It was only about eight or 10 years after Jethro passed away, I finally realized what he meant. He meant, I had a mandolin and a pick,” Stiernberg said.
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“But he also took me seriously. He looked me directly in the eye, and he might have been the first grown up that did that. I was a geeky teenager. He just seemed to be the coolest and the warmest and the most inspiring person.” When in college, Stiernberg joined his brother in a bluegrass band that lasted for about a decade. He also performed with Burns on a weekly open stage night in Palatine, as well as other gigs, such as a show at the Adler Center in Libertyville.
Stiernberg said he gets asked a lot why he plays jazz on mandolin.
“It’s kind of a perfect improviser’s instrument because it’s tuned to the same pitch as a violin, but you operate the mandolin with a pick like a guitarist does,” he said. “So mandolin is a mash up of violin and guitar, both with deep traditions of improvising jazz. To me, it makes perfect sense.”
He went on to become a respected jazz musician, performing as a soloist, with other bands, in a quarter, and in the trio. Cox performs with the trio and has likely played on every album Stiernberg has produced.
“I’m a real fan of Jim’s sound,” Stiernberg said. “He presents really clear notes. You need something to balance the bright and tinny sound of a mandolin. You really want to have the low end pronounced with clarity.”
The other thing he looks for when playing jazz music with others is that everyone hears rhythm the same way. “That’s one of the things I’ve counted on with Jim for all these years,” he said.
Of his fill-in guitarist Paterson, he said, “he fits right in. He’s a master, a virtuoso, and there are no challenges presented. He jumps in there and takes care of business.”
Stiernberg and his trio likely will perform “Swing That Music,” a Louis Armstrong original, which will include some vocals.
“I’m much more likely to sing more than one tune at the Lake County Folk Club because that meets them stylistically. Also, through the years, I’ve enjoyed singing more and more,” Stiernberg said.
One popular request is for them to perform “Bix in Rio,” a song Stiernberg wrote for his “Mandoboppin!” album. Bix refers to Bix Beiderbecke, a famous jazz pianist in the early 20th century.
Stiernberg admits that jazz mandolin is not a mainstream musical genre, so he took Burns’ advice to learn more than one instrument and be prepared to play with anyone who needs you.
“Most importantly, I pass that advice on to my students. I tell them if you’re remotely thinking about being in music for a living, you have to be ready to play with anybody. It’s good to speak the language of music.”
The Don Stiernberg Trio
When: 7 p.m. Nov. 21
Where: Grayslake Village Hall, 10 Seymour Ave.
Tickets: $13-$18
Information: 847-602-8882, thelakecountyfolkclub.org
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.