Leni Stern has been recognized more for her compositions than her playing of the guitar, and she has done so despite being married with Mike Stern, a guitarist who could be a dominant influence. When she was six years old, she began lessons in classical piano. She was inspired to learn jazz when she found a guitar in her attic. Stern spent her early years in Germany as an actress, and was featured on a national television program. She took a year off to enroll at Berklee in 1977, but she never went back to acting. Stern was born in Boston, lived there until 1980, then moved to New York. She has been working in clubs since then, recording for Passport, Enja and Lipstick. In the past she was primarily an instrumentalist. With 1997’s Black Guitar, she showed her vocal talent and released a series that combined jazz, pop and rock under her LSR imprint. Allmusic
