Bio
Bradley Stern is a saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, and music instructor with over 40 years of experience. In addition to saxophone, he also plays flute, clarinet, and bass clarinet.
While his first love is jazz, he is equally comfortable playing blues, funk, R&B, rock, and world beat. Classically trained by esteemed saxophonist and pedagogue Donald Sinta, Bradley received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan. He has also studied with Eric Alexander, Steve Coleman, Bennie Maupin, Charles McPherson, and Ernie Watts.
In the years since, he has played in a variety of settings, from cruise ships to concert halls, festivals, galleries, nightclubs, theaters and universities. Additionally, Bradley has done extensive pit orchestra work for community theater.
Bradley has performed at the premier clubs in the Detroit jazz scene, including Baker's Keyboard Lounge, Bert's Marketplace, Cliff Bells, as well as the MGM, Motor City, and Greektown Casinos and the Peacock Cafe in Toledo, OH. He has also performed at Michigan music festivals such as Arts, Beats & Eats, the East Tawas Blues Festival, and the Michigan Jazz Festival.
Bradley has recorded and/or performed with a host of local bands in and around the metro-Detroit/Windsor area, including The Electric Six, Larval, The Nashional Debt, Outer Drive '65, The Pop Project, The Sights, Six and the Sevens, The Spitting Nickels, The White Ravens, and The Witches, as well as international recording artists Crime & The City Solution. More recently, Bradley has performed with the Ben's Friends Orchestra, Brass Roots, the Brass Roots Big Band, the Craig Strain Orchestra, Dr. Pocket, the Gary Greenfelder Orchestra, the Monday Milkmen, the Oakland Community College Jazz Band, OrchestrAction, the Real Deal Big Band, the Rhythm Society Orchestra, the Stardusters Big Band, and the Tom Allport Big Band. With the funk cover band Smart Alec he backed up singer Little Carl Carlton. With the Steve Somers Band he was featured on the Mitch Albom Show on radio station WJR. For several years Bradley played in a musical partnership with bassist Jon Reynolds as the Vagabond Duo.
More recently, Bradley has shifted his focus to the trio setting of the Detroit Jazz Collective, with a focus on standards and tunes from the Great American Songbook, as well as pop and R&B tunes reimagined into a jazz context.