Joe Maneri Quartet - DAHABENZAPPLE

[Steve Reynolds]

yes - a blast from the past

Joe Maneri - reeds & piano (tenor sax, alto sax & clarinet)
Mat Maneri - violin
Cecil McBee - bass
Randy Peterson - drums

recorded 1993

one of the last hatART's in the old style jewel case

cleaned up a whole bunch of my CD's - I know I thought I had lost this one - really my namesake - see my e-mail I see it the other day - yeah!

put it in on the way to work the other day - as the one's who know know - 3 tracks title track, The Love Your Givinf Us & Dedication neatly split the album into 20 minue (or slightly above) segments

alsbum starts and end with solo saxophone - all the tracks end with Joe doing a little bit of his thing

been so long - along with the same era Coming Down The Mountain, this is really the quartet making something that is easy to despise

I remember the old days where people who don't know hated the drummer - some who do know and like freeish creative, non thematic, non base rhythmic music - hate this drummer - but the quartet even groove a bit at times on this one - hear the second half of Dedication with Mat wailing over an insane driving seeming panic stricken warped time of the one drummer who is utterly outside of any possibilty of critical or commercial acclaim, the *great* Randy Peterson. Hear how Mat is uplifted into one of the times where he is inhuman and innocent doing whatever he does to emote and wail on the violin.

but what is this music many eyars after we all first heard it - seems like people have forgotten -has it aged? was it nothing?

I was doubting it until I turned it up - almost all the bars on my stereo lit - up when the band comes in after Joe is speaking - yeah speaking - maybe no one still never knows....


I had forgotten - is he breathing - does he play?

I know his son and the drummer are playing - I think Monday or Tuesday in Brooklyn - but how is dad doing?

does anyone know he really was my hero?

I am here to say that this mind doubts many things - I am not really like most of you all - some circuits in my head doubt sometimes what I used to hear - I used to hear this music in all kinds of states - many that most of you have never been in -so sometimes I wonder what was real


This shit is real

This album - *this* one - theis the real one - this is the one that *matters*

This is instant composition that makes itself symmetrical in it's beauty. They do not really solo - but they do not just all play at once - maybe there really is something microtonal about this - or maybe it is just Joe - he certainly sounds to someone who doesn't know like the air sometimes just cant get through the horn - but there is no saxophonist who creates tension like this - and the clarinet - maybe some better playing on Coming,,,,Mountain - but the overall effect - only when walls are dropped - is different than any other jazz based music


and this record - this si really his jazz record - no other record - despit many having covers - is in the tradition like this one - the crowd - the roar - how McBee & Peterson are different with Mat, Mat & Joe or Joe - and how it is as organci as Philly Joe & Paul with Miles, Miles & Trane or Trane.


and yeah - the comparison is apt - only thing different is the world is turned upside down musically

makes one sometimes forget what is real




Get Ready To Receive Yourself
When I met him - by the late lamented Tonic - "Hey Mat - theis guy buys our records!!!!"

and then we saw him - "It is great to be here" he looks up "It is AMAZING to be here"

and McBee, Mat & Randy were there - Paul B was there - and Papa Joe was still standing up a bit when playing - it was 1999, I think - he was 72 - "I'm gonna be 73 years old next year"


oh yeah - in the 60's The Big Man called me (Trane, of course) but it wasn't gonna happen

[jazzfiend]

Preach, thanks for the memories, thought I was dreaming. Indeed, a blast of fresh air from a time long gone. Joe's fine, but I thought Evan & Paul were your true heroes. Hey now, don't be a stranger.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

McBee's incredible on this one. Gotta spin this one again, which I think is the most moving of the Maneri recordings. IIRC, the tempos are extremely slow and the mood a little anguished.

[Paul B]

Originally Posted by Steve Reynolds

When I met him - by the late lamented Tonic - "Hey Mat - theis guy buys our records!!!!"

and then we saw him - "It is great to be here" he looks up "It is AMAZING to be here"

and McBee, Mat & Randy were there - Paul B was there - and Papa Joe was still standing up a bit when playing - it was 1999, I think - he was 72 - "I'm gonna be 73 years old next year"


oh yeah - in the 60's The Big Man called me (Trane, of course) but it wasn't gonna happen

I'll never forget that gig, or his 75th birthday show a few years later at Tonic. That was one of the last times, if not the last time, I saw the Round Man, and he was playing like a demon. He's one of the titans, but will always be unsung, I fear, by the majority. No encomiums from Crouch forthcoming, I daresay.

Nice post Mr. Reynolds—keep them coming.

Swing High, baby.

[Mike Schwartz]

from another board:




Steve Reynolds
September 11th, 2004, 09:25 AM
only for those who don't know - an asie is that Joe Maneri is probably my all-time hero -and over the years he has developed a pretty avid and sometimes fanatical following - he as many recordings available - and besides a demo done in the early 60's - all have been recorded after his 65th birthday - as he was born in Brooklyn in 1927.

recorded May 4th, 1993 @ Jordan Hall, Boston, Massachusetts - recording by Rob Trombino & Mat Maneri - CD-master by Peter Pfister

hatART 6188

Joe Maneri - tenor, alto, clarinet & piano
Mat Maneri - violin
Cecil McBee - bass
Randy Peterson - drums


sixty-six minutes and twenty seconds of improvised bliss from the classic quartet - with the added bonus that McBee is on the bass

played when even us fanatics had no idea that a man like this even existed - Joe was 67 at the time and just atrting to make his way to what has become over the years a relative phenomenon.

most know that I regard Papa Joe in ways that can probably be described as something leaning towards idolization.

besides the last appearance in NYC of the Brotz tentet, the first witnessing of the above quartet on a friday night on Norfolk street in the company of two good friends took in a performance that will resonate in ways that cannot be put to words until the day we die.

the recording can almost do the same to those with an open heart and a open spirit

maybe the hardest hitting of all the quartet recordings - but what is it?

it is jazz - yeah - not like my father's jazz


this one was always easierl on the ears but still packed and packs a mighty wallop

probably way out of print - but I had to make a mention of one of the great albums ever made

[Steve Reynolds]

thanks for finding that one, Mike

written ~ 4 days after my life was changed forever,,,I met guys named Jimmy The Tooth, Friendly Phil, Scoop and Johnny Shirts

and I celebrate that day 11/7 within a month - thanks whatever that I have not chosen to give up that priceless gift - because I even lost the music because of my problem

that day means something in a way that only people like me understand

It's *amazing* to have my spirit back - and it is amazing that somehow one of the first records I listened to coming out of a fog was this record


still,,,







Coming Down the Mountain, baby

[Jon Abbey]

Reynolds, you know about this one? either recently out or out soon, not sure which:

http://www.atavistic.com/albums.php?id=468

[Steve Reynolds]

no - and I sure would like to hear what sounded like in 1964

[Rob Damen]

One this board ... he will always be known as ...

Buttertub Joey.

Where's DEEP when you need him.



Cheers,

Rob

[scotpgot]

Didn't I review this album once upon a time? I wonder where that went...

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

It's in the archives, Scot. Unfortunately, the archives are accessible only on odd numbered Thursdays in years divisible by both 6 & 7.

[Brooklyn Conservatory]

"I had forgotten - is he breathing - does he play?

I know his son and the drummer are playing - I think Monday or Tuesday in Brooklyn - but how is dad doing?"



yes Joe is still breathing. He no longer plays out but still has students at home.

He is enjoying life and retirement. As his daughter in law I have to say he remains to be a wonderful force of untamed energy.

[Gary Sisco]

I'm glad I got to hear him when I did.

[Steve Reynolds]

Nice to hear the great man is doing well.

I am blessed to have seen him in all his glory.

I think I have seen him with Cecil McBee, John Lockwood and William Parker on bass with the quartet.

Once with a trio - and the last time with the extended band that appears on Going to Church - an explosive show @ Tonic sometime ~ 2001 - 2002.


and once after he played whatver magnificence he played, his head goes to the side - seeming to rest and then the band finished up - and he spoke


"Duke Ellington just called - and asked me to play Sophisticated Lady"


and he took out the clarinet and he sure did,,,,




Let The Horse Go