Manuel Mota - Leopardo

[Nate Dorward]

Anyone heard this disc (on Rossbin)? Not a player I've come across before, but I found this very striking & enjoyable. I'm sure comparisons with Derek Bailey will be made--though this is misleading unless you're more specific: it recalls nothing so much as the minimal, ultra-cryptic Bailey of the very first solo guitar album on Incus, which is very different from his later solo work. But Mota's doing something quite different really. You can hear tiny snippets of familiar idiomatic turns of phrase (blues, jazz, rock) but it's all been reduced to tiny choked-off fragments. The proportion of actual notes, plainly articulated, to the surrounding polyphonic cloud of string-noise, overtones, & "ghost" notes, is stunningly small. (I'm no guitarist, but it sounds like often he's simply fretting or tapping the strings without striking them with the other hand--so you get a sense of faint voices in the background which are often more "important" than the more audible but constantly choked-off struck notes.) I suppose you could call it a very austere record--the grey-and-white packaging is ostentatiously so, with the improvisations mostly cryptically brief (about 3-5 minutes) & not given titles. But the more I listen to it the more focussed, the less random, & the more absorbing it seems. One needs to listen to it carefully with a minimum of background ambience because as I said the majority of the "action" takes place on the periphery. I suppose it might appeal to those interested in "minimalist [lowercase] improv" but in many ways it's counter to that aesthetic in its emphasis on fleeting sonic experiences (even though the music itself takes place at an unhurried tempo). It might be thought of as an unexpected solo gloss on John Stevens' use of the metaphor of peripheral vision for group performance.

[Brian Olewnick]

I have this and recently wrote a brief review of it for squidsear.com. I like it well enough, though I'm not quite as high on it as Nate. I confess that my general impression of it could fairly be described as a more melodic, more jazz-referential version of Bailey though that might well be ultimately unfair. There's a section toward the end of the disc where he comes up with some very beautiful ghost notes and taps--I really would've liked to hear more in this area. I can quite understand a guitarist with some roots in Bailey considering returning to melodic forms, but I'd be more drawn to one who really makes the leap with both feet, or at least a foot and a half (I'm thinking of Burkhard Stangl here). I'd still be curious to hear how Mr. Mota develops.

fwiw, I have all the rossbin releases and it's one of my very favorite labels. At least two of their releases are utterly wonderful: 'Aton' (Neumann/Nakamura) and Greg Kelley's solo disc, "If I Never Meet You in this Life, Let Me Feel the Lack".

[Sergio Zamora]

Go Dodgers!

[Jim Sangrey]

An amazing life this guy has had...

[Brian Olewnick]

As I understand it, the guy on Rossbin holds the record for most pinch hit appearances when Bailey couldn't make the gig.

[Jason Bivins]

What a silly sport.

My reactions to the record (based on not too much listening - only a couple times through) are roughly similar to Brian's. I think it's a very pleasing, likeable record; Mota's clearly a player of talent who's thought about his instrument and his approach. But I guess I just don't find the combination of elements terribly head-turning (or perhaps even that original, at this stage of the game). Mind you, I don't really like most guitar players. Nice tapping (you hit the mark there Nate - it's a fun way to generate overtones, and pretty easy too depending on the kind of guitar and strings one uses), interesting chordal daubing, and restrained lyricism. But I don't think it's quite together enough - in terms of distinctness or focus - for a solo recording. I'd very much like to hear him in a group setting (though I've no idea about the kind of players he'd join - eai folks or improv folks?).

My 2 cents.

[Nate Dorward]

Jason/Brian--thanks for the thoughts--yes, caught the review on the Squid's Ear. Yeah, I knew that it was a disc likely to get mixed reactions given its extremely narrow aesthetic bandwidth & the fact that it was entering a crowded field (solo guitar improv): I suppose part of my point is that it does require a certain reorientation of expectations, in that most of the musical detail takes place in the penumbra & it's too easy to simply note the bitten-off melodies perhaps. -- Yes, more "referential" than Bailey typically is though I wouldn't exactly call it melodic! -- I gather that Mota has indeed recorded in a duet album with an electric bass player, Margarida Garcia, with the bizarre title For Your Protection Why Don't You Paint Yourself Real Good Like an Indian. There's a short & quite positive review on the Paris Transatlantic site, Sept 2002 by Dan Warburton. Looking at it I see that he's made the same connection to Bailey's early solo work that I did. -- Anyway, definitely add Mota to the list of interesting improvisors coming from Portugal nowadays.

[BFrank]

Originally posted by Sergio Zamora
Go Dodgers!

Oh, man.....it was really a struggle for me to keep from making a post like this. I'm glad someone did, though.

[Dennis Gonzalez]

Jason, you as a guitar player should never refer to guitar playing as a "silly sport".

Sergio, ¿no traes Mota, güey?

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally posted by Dennis Gonzalez
Sergio, ¿no traes Mota, güey?

Chale, homes. Puro clean livin'.

(pero si tienes, pasatela)

[Brian Olewnick]

Hey, these guys are speaking in some kinda code! Cut it out!

[Jim Sangrey]