Steps Ahead

Steps Ahead (originally known as Steps) is a jazz fusion group and the brainchild of vibraphonist Mike Mainieri. According to the liner notes of the group's 1983 debut album (for worldwide release), entitled Steps Ahead, "Steps began as a part-time venture in 1979 at Seventh Avenue South, a New York City nightclub." The group began releasing recordings in Japan as far back as 1980.

The first line up of Steps in the period 1979-1981, as can be read on the live album Smokin' in the Pit, consisted of Michael Brecker (tenor sax), Steve Gadd (drums), Eddie Gomez (bass), Don Grolnick (piano), Mike Mainieri (vibraphone), and special guest Kazumi Watanabe (guitar). This double live album was recorded on the 15th and 16th of December 1979 at The Pitt Inn Tokyo. A second studio recording was made on the 17th December 1979, called Step by Step. Smokin' in the Pit was released in 1980 and awarded a gold record and is considered their best album. The studio album Step by Step was released shortly after, followed by another live recording in the summer of 1980 called Paradox. These three albums (see Mike Manieri's notes in the booklet of the 1999 cd release of Smokin' in the Pit) were the only albums released by the group under the name of Steps. In 1982 they learned that the name Steps had been trademarked by a band in North Carolina, and therefore changed their name to Steps Ahead.

The line-up for the Steps Ahead album consisted of Mainieri, Michael Brecker (tenor sax), Eliane Elias (piano), Peter Erskine (drums), and Eddie Gomez (bass).

The group's members has also included Dennis Chambers, Steve Gadd, Warren Bernhardt, Rachel Z, Chuck Loeb, Victor Bailey, Tony Levin, Bob Berg, Darryl Jones, Mike Stern, Richard Bona, and many others.

Brecker and Mainieri are featured on the Dire Straits album Brothers in Arms. For rock listeners, the albums Steps Ahead and Modern Times (1984, with Bernhardt replacing Elias in the main line-up, and other guest musicians appearing in limited roles) are a great bridge into a kind of jazz that is energetic and powerful. Reflecting the cooperative, ensemble nature of the band, the Modern Times album included compositions by Mainieri, Brecker, Erskine, and Bernhardt.

According to the website NYC Records, which include's Mainieri's biographical sketch and touring schedule with Steps Ahead, the 2007 instantiation of Steps Ahead includes: Mainieri (vibes), Bill Evans (sax; not to be confused with the jazz pianist also named Bill Evans), Bryan Baker (guitar), Anthony Jackson (bass), and Steve Smith (drums), a former member of the rock group Journey. On some stops of the tour, Etienne Mbappe is listed as filling in for Jackson.

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