Jazz Articles about Manuel Mengis

LE POT: Hera

by Glenn Astarita
September 25, 2016

This Swiss ensemble maximizes the pristine sonic qualities of a church --St. Romain in Raron --that combines a pure, organic soundstage with the complexities of highly expressive jazz and improvisational overtures, including impressionistic interpretations of choice works by famed British classical composer Benjamin Britten. There are occasions when the ensemble projects a thought-provoking ideology of an avant-garde spin on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew jazz fusion era, which of course was groundbreaking yet quite unconventional for its time. Every ...

Le Pot: Hera

by Vincenzo Roggero
November 20, 2015

Secondo capitolo di una trilogia iniziata con She e che si concluderà con l'episodio intitolato Zede, Hera ci presenta un quartetto svizzero molto interessante per visione musicale e approccio interpretativo. Registrata presso la Burgkirche St. Romanus nel villaggio svizzero di Raron, la musica interagisce con la severa architettura della cinquecentesca chiesa. Ne assorbe semplicità, purezza di forme e spiritualità rimandandole all'ascoltatore attraverso un fitto intreccio di richiami a musiche altre (e a Benjamin Britten in modo particolare), di invenzioni melodiche, ...

Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6: Dulcet Crush

by AAJ Italy Staff
July 26, 2010

Potremmo soffermarci a discutere a lungo sul fatto che Dulcet Crush non contenga sostanziali elementi di novità. Che oltre quarant'anni fa Miles Davis aveva aperto la porta della contaminazione tra jazz e rock in maniera praticamente insuperabile. Che anni dopo un personaggio come Kip Hanrahan abbia rimescolato le carte introducendo sofisticate strategie produttive e vette assolute nell'arte dell'arrangiamento. Che sempre in quegli anche in Europa il gusto della contaminazione abbia trovato terreno fertile e notevoli livelli artistici con formazioni come ...

Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6: Dulcet Crush

by Glenn Astarita
January 2, 2010

With his third group-led album for hatOLOGY, trumpeter Manuel Mengis projects multiple vistas within a progressive-jazz framework, spanning fusion, jazz-rock and experimental aspirations. Yet the key aspect lies with his ability to design a distinct band-centric stylization, as each subsequent release yields an extension of previously exercised routes. Mengis also abides by a polytonal outlook, resplendent with assertively orchestrated guitar, horns and rhythmic contrasts.

There's a lot going on under the proverbial hood, where Mengis and the dual ...

Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6: Dulcet Crush

by Mark Corroto
December 1, 2009

Experiencing the music of trumpeter Manuel Mengis, a standard list of musicians and musical styles heard in his music comes to mind. This is a disservice, because his methodology is quite original.

Still the temptation to explain his third disc for hatOLOGY following The Pond (2008) and Into the Barn (2005) in terms of others sounds, persists. His band has had a small change in personnel, Reto Suhner steps into the alto saxophone and clarinet seat, but the core remains ...

Manuel Mengis: Freedom First, History Later

by Frederick Bernas
November 24, 2008

Jazz is insurmountable. Hundreds of CDs are reviewed by All About Jazz every year, but how many names are recognized? It is endlessly fascinating, yet frustrating--while reveling in the evidence that such a high quantity of music exists, the realization dawns that there aren't enough hours in the day to hear it all. Each name represents an artistic vision, a creative statement, a person or group with something to say, communicating with and through jazz. It's impossible for ...

Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6: The Pond

by Chris May
April 25, 2008

Listening to Swiss trumpeter Manuel Mengis' cross-genre Gruppe 6 is to hear an intoxicating melange of musics, from bop and free-bop to skronk and groove, in which the spirit of bassist/bandleader Charles Mingus' jazz workshop lives again, recalibrated by geography and history.

Mengis' music is less intense in its passions--less tortured and confrontational--than Mingus,' and more discursive and elliptical, but the same little-big band aesthetic, with its fractured through-arrangements, rooted in the past but nudging at the future, ...