Mike Mantler: Live (Watt)
Purchased at Jerry's Records
In my previous posting, I noted I had been traveling, had returned, and not to base the rhythm of postings here to assume I'm traveling again.
That's because I went to Portland this past week. My parents and three sisters all migrated there over the years, leaving me the oddball out in western Pennsylvania.
None of this has to do with the record in hand. I bought a couple of things while out there, some of which I may mention here in the future.
This particular record popped up at Jerry's before my travels, and it wasn't a huge surprise that it was still on the shelf when I returned. Not to harp on the price, at $16 I didn't immediately think "Must have." I've bought so many cheap Duquesne University LPs that I'm trying to be more selective regardless of price.
So what stood out about this issue compared to other Mike Mantler records? The front cover has three elements: text that reads MIKE MANTLER LIVE, a picture (for a distance) of him on stage playing, and finally a listing of the lineup.
Well...
Mike Mantler on trumpet of course, husband to Carla Bley at the time and co-founder of Watt Records; Jack Bruce, bassist and singer for Cream on vocals; Don Preston of the original Mothers of Invention on synths; John Greaves of Henry Cow on bass and occasional piano; and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd on drums. (Plus a guitarist, Rick Fenn, whose name I don't otherwise recall.) Jack had sung on Carla's Escalator Over the Hill in 1971, so he wasn't so foreign to projects like this as it might seem. John Graves' name is more unusual; I think it turns up, but I know him mostly from Cow. Nick Mason? There's a record I am casually seeking, Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports, which is essentially a Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt album fronted by Nick.
It's also easy to forget how much music he's recorded since his days with the Mothers (a band he came in and out of a few times over years). Film scores, touring with the Grandmothers (who I saw and were great), appearing on albums by Gil Evans, Peter Erskine, Jefferson Airplane; hell, he's responsible for the synthesized wind sounds on The Residents' Eskimo.
So what is this? There's a big clue on the back cover: "Words by Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Gorey".
There are some instrumental works, "Slow Orchestral Piece" #s 3, 8, 6. But mostly, this is song settings of those writers' texts. In this respect, the entire project takes on a lieder-like quality, albeit with a modern instrumentation. Weill comes closer to this than Schubert, but even that's a stretch. At times Henry Cow's music with Dagmar Krause comes to mind, appropriately enough. There's very little improvising happening, either as a forward soloist or even as a background voice. Rick gets to cut loose more on the final piece, a setting of Edward Gorey's "The Doubtful Guest."
Don's keyboards dominate. They not only fill the most space musically, but they're rather forward in the mix. Instruments are credited: "DSS-1 and DW-8000 synthesizers courtesy Korg USA/Musik Meyer." This performance is from 1987, and the keyboards definitely place is in a particular time. It doesn't sound as dated as the DX-7 style FM synthesized piano, a sound I don't particularly like. The DSS I've read is a polyphonic sampling synth, the DW a digital/analog hybrid. Seems right.
And what of Jack Bruce? He's not exactly a classical voice, and doesn't deliver Mike's melodies as a Schubert interpreter would. That's good. He delivers much of the time, sometimes I'm not so sold. Maybe I wanted to hear more of the ensemble, what they'd do with music such as this when they cut loose a little more.
But I must remind myself, this is the project he put together, not the project I wanted it to be. The aforementioned final work on the LP is the most satisfying, with not only guitar rock-outs, but more of a drive to the instrumental parts. It's a good project, maybe played a little tentatively in the first minutes but otherwise well done. I might have to look up more of Mike's music.
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