Jazz Articles about Sarah Manning

Sarah Manning: Harmonious Creatures

by Dan Bilawsky
January 10, 2014

In order to create the music for Harmonious Creatures, saxophonist Sarah Manning had to put the hustle and bustle behind her. She picked herself up and took to the woods, composing and communing with nature at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire where she was living out her time as a MacDowell fellow in October of 2012. The time she spent at that artist's refuge gave her a chance to reflect, bridge worlds, and blur lines in her compositions. The ...

Sarah Manning: Shattering The Glass Ceiling

by David A. Orthmann
June 14, 2010

Listening to Sarah Manning speak at length is nearly as absorbing as her music. She's intelligent, direct, witty, and serious-minded. As Manning waxes eloquent on topics ranging from the impact of three special mentors, to the benefits of being a well-rounded person, to issues surrounding woman's empowerment, you realize that she relishes every aspect of her life. The alto saxophonist and composer is the leader of the New York City-based band Shatter the Glass. Both on and off the bandstand, ...

Sarah Manning: Dandelion Clock

by Raul d'Gama Rose
June 7, 2010

It takes a long time for the delightful shock of first hearing Sarah Manning's emphatic, almost blasé, voice--rich, tunefully accented and almost bronzed, as full as a sudden blast of sunshine. The first sounds of her alto saxophone are so indelibly burned in the memory that virtually everything else becomes a blur except undulating glissandos of her melodic outbursts that often end in shy tremolos. The brilliant alto saxophonist waxes eloquent in a forthright, exacting voice, with fluid and bright ...

Sarah Manning: Dandelion Clock

by Woodrow Wilkins
May 25, 2010

It may take years of listening before a music enthusiast can identify the sound of a musician, distinct and separate from others who play the same instrument. David Sanborn, Bob Mintzer and Jay Beckenstein are just a few examples of saxophonists whose voices are easily distinguished. Sarah Manning hopes to join their ranks. Manning began playing jazz during junior high school, where her dissonant arrangements caught the attention of the school's founder, Jackie McLean. She later entered the ...

Sarah Manning: Dandelion Clock

by Bruce Lindsay
May 12, 2010

The cover of Dandelion Clock, Sarah Manning's third album as leader, shows the saxophonist in soft focus, lying on a bed of fallen autumn leaves and lightly cradling her alto. It's standard smooth jazz cover art--but appearances can be deceptive, for Manning is one of the hardest-blowing and intense of musicians while her talents as a composer result in some fine original tunes. Manning's distinctively hard-edged, even aggressive, tone dominates this album from the opening bars of ...

Sarah Manning: Dandelion Clock

by Dan Bilawsky
May 4, 2010

Abstraction and accessibility isn't an easy match, but alto saxophonist Sarah Manning weds the two with fine results on Dandelion Clock. Manning's desire to create “a working, stable group that through rehearsals and philosophy lives and breathes on stage as a musical unit," is largely achieved with this quartet, featuring bassist Linda Oh, pianist Art Hirahara and drummer Kyle Struve.

These players aren't content to just play time or deliver, bland cliché-ridden music. While Manning bookends the album with two ...

Sarah Manning: Dandelion Clock

by John Barron
May 3, 2010

In the midst of the college-bred blandness of saxophonists posturing for position on the jazz stage with technique to spare and a full store of generic ideas, stand a few risk takers who don't seem to be the least bit concerned with tired jam session worthiness. Such an artist is alto saxophonist Sarah Manning whose third release as a leader, Dandelion Clock, is a contemplative set of compositional depth and flexible ensemble interplay. Manning, a Brooklyn resident who ...