“Right before we started the set, Bill Evans called me on a pay phone. He said, ‘I’m bringing somebody to hear you.’ I said, ‘It’s not Miles, is it?’” How jazz guitar legend Mike Stern ended up joining Miles Davis’ band – and had a song named after him

Miles Davis, performing with guitarist Mike Stern, at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, California on September 1, 1985.

Over the course of his decorated career, jazz guitar legend Mike Stern has worked with some of the genre’s biggest names, playing alongside the likes of drummer Billy Cobham, bassist Jaco Pastorius and electric guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson.

For a time in the early 1980s, he also joined the band of legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who decided to recruit the guitarist after being introduced to his sound by saxophonist Bill Evans (note: this is a different Bill Evans to the legendary jazz pianist of the same name).