A double CD by Joe Maneri Trio recorded live in 1997 and 1998. Joe Maneri is
on alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet and piano, Mat Maneri is on electric
violins and viola, and Randy Peterson is on drums. There is no doubt the
critics will write extensive notes on these performances. For the moment
sufface it to say that Joe Maneri continues to re-write the history of jazz.
This incarnation of Joe Maneri's music is perhaps the most unadulterated
form ever put on disc. However, the use of a bass player has hardly been a
concession considering the all-star cast of players who have performed that
task, from the now classic forms with John Lockwood or Ed Schuler to more
recently Cecil McBee, Barre Phillips and William Parker. The unique
bass-less trio is perfectly balanced in its own right. The inclusion of
another is just that, adding to a sum that is already complete. The fact
that it is live is more an afterthought in that all of Joe Maneri's
recordings were recorded in one take without any over dubs or alterations.
However, there is much to credit an audience with, as Joe Maneri often
points out, "your love makes it happen!"
Joe Maneri sits on the stage like a Motherwell Elegy: a shroud nearly
covering a canvas in the form of rhythm inspired shapes. Behind this shroud
is an elegy perhaps to the twentieth century for inside Joe Maneri is: a
mother who was born literally at the turn of the
century who sang Puccini arias while hanging laundry outside their cold
water flat, Joe's Pee Wee Russell inspired all reed band in 1942, singing
scat to Is you is or is you ain't my baby in the hotel circuit, studying
under Joseph Schmit in the direct lineage of Arnold Schoenberg, meanwhile
opening his ears to the multitude of folk music echoing on every street of
his native Brooklyn. Indeed, Joe's playing on whatever instrument, blankets
more experience within this past century than any other.
Mat Maneri with his violin seemingly another appendage to his form resembles
Duchamp's fantastic image of the bride, in that, like the way he contrasts
Matt Shipp, Pandelis Karayorgis, or Steven Lantner, weaves with uncanny
almost symbiotic precision through and within Joe's sound; while adding to
it the freshness of a man who wasn't born yet when John Coltrane died, as
opposed to Joe who if Coltrane were still with us would barely be his
junior. Mat's sound filtered through some of Joe's sensibilities is
permeated also by such disparate associations from Bach via his tutelage
with Baroque aficionado and co-founder of the Julliard String Quartet Robert
Koff to Funk era Miles having studied also with Miroslav Vitous. Most of all
I believe it is the attention to a harmonic line like Billie Holiday, that
Mat's music can most succinctly be described. Like Billy, Mat invents
heart-wrenching renderings of Joe's generally freely unfolding songs.
Completing this Trio is Randy Peterson whose head is generally tilted with
effort staring at some empty space in the ceiling adding
to it a unique dialect of mathematics. To call Randy's drumming
colorations is incorrect. In fact he's simply swinging, elongating in linear
fashion the beat with unswerving dedication. The time between beats one and
two can be described as a circle, where in like the face of a clock there
are an infinite amount of segments, when the moments within the space of a
second are considered.
I consider Jasper John's Target in that it is a sign for something different
than it is a symbol for. Though one might be hard pressed at times to
determine Randy's swing, still it is there,
not only that, like Picasso's nudes confirmed representation's continued
place in art, Randy's vision of swing confirms its place in the continuing
legacy of swing in Jazz for the new century.
The two performances represented on these two discs were performances I
happened to attend. I am fortunate to have collaborated in the love
happening in this music. Though some of the essence of being there is
forever lost, the love remains with all
its power for you to be a part of every time you listen to these recordings;
because love happened, love happens, and love is always happening. Abraham
Maneri
