Mat Maneri - Ed Schuller - Randy Peterson

[Steve Reynolds]

Thursday, Apr 25 - 8:30PM
MAT MANERI TRIO
Mat Maneri, viola; Ed Schuller, bass; Randy Peterson, drums This concert will be the 20 year anniversary of this contrapuntal trio who will be playing a collection of music from their past 3 recordings as well as new material. The trio have worked together over the years to try and push the boundaries of what a jazz trio can be, incorporating fresh ways of interpreting modern classical, swing and other forms of music.

Edited April 22, 2013 by Steve Reynolds

[7/4]

Where?

[sgcim]

Here's an interesting story about Joe Maneri:

My uncle used to be buddies with him back in the old days in Bushwick, when he played clarinet and sax at Greek weddings, where he specialized in compound time signatures. He remembered one time he had to pick him up in the middle of the night after one of his gigs, because his car broke down.

Anyway, my uncle collaborated with him on writing "pop tunes" of that time (maybe the late 40s?) with my unk writing the lyrics, and JM writing the music. I wish I could say I have some of those tunes, but my unk never seems to know where they are now...

[Steve Reynolds]

Cornelia Street Cafe, NYC

my favorite spot

Here's an interesting story about Joe Maneri:

My uncle used to be buddies with him back in the old days in Bushwick, when he played clarinet and sax at Greek weddings, where he specialized in compound time signatures. He remembered one time he had to pick him up in the middle of the night after one of his gigs, because his car broke down.

Anyway, my uncle collaborated with him on writing "pop tunes" of that time (maybe the late 40s?) with my unk writing the lyrics, and JM writing the music. I wish I could say I have some of those tunes, but my unk never seems to know where they are now...

you *have* to find them.....

well Joe was born in 1927 so maybe a bit later but maybe the late 40's.

I have a few Papa Joe stories as well....

[sgcim]

My unk was born in 1928, so it was probably late 40s to early 50s. I don't know if they ever got someone to sing them; my aunt used to sing my dad's tunes, but after they all got married, they stopped doing music.

Imagine crazy Papa Joe writing pop tunes...; - )

[Steve Reynolds]

3 hours!

cannot wait, out of work in 15 minutes

home to GW bridge - west side hwy - 9th avenue south - to bleeker - find a spot

to about 8 feet from the bass drum of the undefinable, irreconcilable, and certainly indescribable might and anti-groove groove of the *great* Randy Peterson.

[Steve Reynolds]

no words yet besides that I can tell you that my wife, my pal Travis and myself experienced two 40 minute sets from a few feet away

trying to put my thoughts, feelings, emotions and even my physical and primal reactions to whet I heard and saw last night into something that might give someone who wasn't there an idea of what this music that I still call Maneri music is all about.

[CraigP]

Let us know!

[Steve Reynolds]

my wife says to me after the first set, she is not sure if she likes the bassist - what is his name Ray Schuller? I said it's *ED* Schuller and I told her he used to play with a guy named Mal Waldron in the 80's and 90's and I told her that guy Mal Waldron was a legend.

my wife says something to the effect, well he's a bit dishelved and I don't think I like him......and honestly he was playing the house bass and it was a bit beaten and cracked, and what he played during the first set was pretty OK - but then again, with Mat and Randy in the band, hard road to hoe, I suppose

BUT

after the second set, she is asking me who else he plays with and I respond that he doesn't seem to play too much these days - and she wonders that it could *only* because he's a bit disheveled....

because for about 5 minutes his singing and humming with his gorgeous somewhat simple lines during a break from the below tune made it just alright to be alive to hear the man who Mal once referred to as the *great* Ed Schuller - something I don't think Mr. Waldron was known to say too often.

ok - well GREAT to be alive and hear the masters of their universe....

and that was after the below.....

well - about half way through what seemed like would be simply a typically very fine second set the second tune which started out as a somewhat typical slowish dirge with a kinda coolish bass vamp going on, that second tune morphed into a Randy Peterson inspired (as I believe Randy is the one who truly inspires Mat to do things with that little viola that are really not of this world) cataclysm of unexplainable brilliance.

by that point, the table in back with the lady we all know was getting loud which inspired the leader to say something to the effect of "we can hear you too", then Mat announced they would play something called "Crazyology", to which Mr. Schuller said, he didn't think he was - or yet,,,,

sound like a Charile Parker tune or something, I thought and then...

so as they begin, it sounds a little boppish (and I remember maybe they played it or something like it last year with the Quintet), but this time, I almost throught Randy was going to pull an Art Blakey, and then from a zone outside of bebop or bop, he starts droppin his nuclear fucking explosion within the groove and Schuller is playing basically a PC/Sam Jones type of up-tempo bass line - and then...and Mat is simply inventing within a structure improvisations that no human can describe - I'd LOVE to hear a trained scholarly musician type try to describe it - so surely I cannot - no one to compare him to - and it's not just the instrument - can't compare him the Django and Mark Feldman or whoever else plays the vioin or viola...beyond comparison - in a certain sorta way, he is rock star without the star - he plays riffs that could be played over only once, and they might come back once more, but then always gone, always some other avenue that he goes down.

it goes beyond that and by the time they cut the meltdown, off, Ed Schuller is humming and singing as I mentioned above.

and they end the crazy tune, my friend and I are screaming a bit as it was worth screaming about - and yet that table was still yelling.

as an aside. by this point over only a total of about 70 minutes - 40 minutes, Randy Peterson has taken 3 drums solos, the first with 10 minutes of the opening of the first set (the audacity - I don't know I have ever heard that) - and within 2 or 3 monutes in to that FIRST solo, Mat was into it, I was fucking gone AGAIN totally into it - and it wasn't an ego thing - it's just that Peterson is so damn exciting, he generates more tension with whatever the ehll he is doing, he does it with more aggression, more intensity - and the sound and the volume when the little kit explodes is beyond what you could ever hear on any recording of him - even the great Joe Maneri quartet records on hat.

so Mat says let's do a 5 minute free piece, it ends up maybe 10 minutes, it's more incredible than even Crazyology, the end, I'm dying, Mat bids everyone a good night, not too short, I want more, more isn't coming, loud lady gives Ed a hug, he might be running away - Mat keeps his cool - he took what was happening and directed something that raised even his level of brilliance in short (15 minute?!?) spurts to the highest level of jazz based improvised music that my ears know to exist - and my wife - no jazz fan, said it was good as ICP - qwhich was the best ever except for Hamid...so she still thinks it would work on TV - even though there were probably 30 of us listening hard last night.

on the way home, my wife again asks, how does he get that sound out of that little viola - he's like the greatest guitarist in the world - and indeed he is, he just plays the viola....

and on my birthday, it just brings it ALL back, one see his dad in his smile and in his eyes and his beard, but where he is as far the music is on a different plane that when he played with his dad.

This is Mat's music now, it is more beautiful and yet more ascerbic and gritty at the same time today - and as much as I liek the band with a saxophone and/or a piano or vibes, seeing the trio only is the purest way to hear Mat's voice as inspired by the great long time drummerpartner of the Maneri's along with a voice on the bass that just makes it work like it should.

Let The Horse Go

Edited April 26, 2013 by Steve Reynolds

[CraigP]

Sounds like a great night - I need to listen to some of his work again.

[Steve Reynolds]

Even though it does inlude Joe, I think Going to Church is a good one to re-visit.

[CraigP]

Yes, and I like all the ECM releases as well.

[Steve Reynolds]

and the hatology Maneri discs Dahabenzapple, Coming Down the Mountain and Tenderly are all much better than the ECM or the Leo quartet recordings.

the three of them are all of a piece all recorded in 1993 and feature the quartet in great sound and in stunning early performances

as I have lived with these recordings over the past almost 15 years, I have to come to believe that these three recordings to my ears are among the greatest free jazz/improvisation recordings made over the past 40 years. Stunningly original, tension filled and still fresh as paint.

the 2 CD Leo Trio set recorded in 1998 with Joe, Mat and Randy is another one to look for.

I'll be getting the duo set with Mat & Randy on no business - Light Trigger - Mat says it's a good one.

[7/4]

Thanks for the review. I wish I could have made it.