Mat Maneri Quartet | ASH
3 June 2024, Multicultural Centre of Transilvania University
Mat Maneri | viola
Randy Peterson | drums
Brad Jones | double bass
Lucian Ban | piano
The last event within the 2023-2024 season of Chamber Jazz @ Transilvania University features ASH quartet and their album of the same title released on Sunnyside Records, last year, the second of a trilogy opened by DUST.
The concert will be followed by the launch of the book CHAMBER JAZZ: WHAT IS THIS MUSIC? which is the latest editorial project of the Multicultural Centre. The book, edited by Adrian Lăcătuș, Lucian Ban and Maria Ghiurțu, will appear under the Publishing House of Transilvania University of Brașov, in an exceptional graphic format, in two editions – Romanian and English. The book Chamber Jazz: What Is This Music? consists of 24 conversations with musicians such as Abraham Burton, Evan Parker, Mircea Tiberian, John Surman, Albrecht Maurer, Alex Harding, Mat Maneri, George Dumitriu, Amina Claudine Myers, and more, complemented with four essays signed by the curator of the series, Lucian Ban, the American violist Mat Maneri, and the writer Adrian Lăcătuș, Director of the Multicultural Centre.
Mat Maneri’s music draws upon masters of improvisation such as Paul Bley and Paul Motian (with whom Mat Maneri has collaborated), but with a clearly marked personal style cultivated over the years. The new album explores how the most diverse sources - a viola sonata by Brahms, a motif taken from an improvisation by Joe Maneri, or a Sicilian lullaby - can be passed through a microtonal approach. Silence and memories alike can become sources of musical improvisation, restyled by a poetic imagination and an impressive sense of narrative composition.
Along his career spanning over 25 years, the American violist Mat Maneri has changed “the way in which the world of jazz listens to violin and viola” (All About Jazz). Today, he has a reputation as one of the most original artists of his generation, with an expressiveness that The Wire magazine has described as “perpetually fascinating”. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with iconic representatives of 20th century improvised music, including his father, Joe Maneri, Cecil Taylor, Tim Berne, William Parker, Craig Taborn, and many others.