Jazz
Recorded: June 1992
Alexander Balanescu violin
Clare Connors violin
Bill Hawkes viola
Jane Fenton cello
Michael Mantler trumpet
Rick Fenn guitar
Wolfgang Puschnig alto flute
Karen Mantler piano, voice
Dave Adams vibraphone, chimes
Jack Bruce voice
* Dieter Rehm - Design
* Gary Thomas - Engineer
* John Calder - Publishing
* Manfred Eicher - Executive Producer
* Nick White - Photography
* Samuel Beckett - Poetry
Folly Seeing All This is third stream jazz, Northern European style: brooding, dark, understated, often very beautiful. Over a rhythm section comprised of the Balanescu String Quartet, Michael Mantler sets the stage for half a dozen talented soloists, guitarist Rick Fenn and pianist Karen Mantler notable among them. As in the work of third stream pioneers the Modern Jazz Quartet, improvisations here are tightly structured and closely integrated with the rhythm section. The album's two lengthy instrumental tracks are quite haunting, as is the concluding work, a setting for a text by Samuel Beckett called "What Is The Word," sung as a duet between Karen Mantler and British rock star Jack Bruce. At once melodic and challenging, Folly Seeing All This is experimental chamber jazz at its most enjoyable.
---Peter Nappi, All Music Guide
Michael Mantler
Active Decades: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Aug 10, 1943 in Vienna, Austria
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Avant-Garde, Avant-Garde Jazz
Never a major trumpeter, Michael Mantler was most important as an organizer of projects and for his work behind the scenes, most notably for the WATT label. After studying at the Vienna Academy of Music and University, he emigrated to the U.S. so as to attend Berklee in 1962. Mantler, who moved to New York two years later, played trumpet for a time with Cecil Taylor and in the mid-'60s, he helped with the formation of the Jazz Composer's Guild. He co-led a big band with Carla Bley, toured Europe in 1965-1966 with the Jazz Realities group (a quintet including Bley and Steve Lacy), and formed the Jazz Composers' Orchestra Association (JCOA), a non-profit organization that performed and recorded new music. Mantler, who married Carla Bley (their daughter is keyboardist Karen Mantler), recorded with Gary Burton (A Genuine Tong Funeral) and the JCOA (most notably Communications). He was also a part of Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra. Mantler worked with Bley on her large projects, formed the New Music Distribution Service in 1972, and then the following year founded the label WATT Works with Bley. He has since recorded on an irregular basis for WATT (usually ambitious and somewhat dry works), led an occasional orchestra, and continued running the label.
---Scott Yanow, All Music Guide |
