Michael Manring

Michael Manring ‎- Thoṅk - 1994 - High Street Records

Inspired by his teacher Jaco Pastorius, Manring has taken the electric bass into new territory. A native of the Washington, DC, area, he played classical bass in high school chamber groups and orchestra while also working in local Top 40 bands. From 1979 to 1982, he honed his chops in the DC fusion group Natural Bridge and also started performing with guitarist Michael Hedges. Manring played on Hedges's Windham Hill debut Breakfast in the Fields. Since then, the bassist has become the Windham Hill session man, recording on albums by Will Ackerman, Ira Stein, and Russel Walder in addition to his frequent tours with Hedges. Manring is a also a key member in the label's all-star band, Montreux. © Linda Kohanov © 2014 AllMusic, a division of All Media Network, LLC. | All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/artist/michael-manring-mn0000390790/biography

Who said fusion was dead? With Thonk, Michael Manring has managed to create an exciting, humorous, and technically amazing body of work. His quirky approach to the bass and hyperbass have a style and sound that is truly unique and can be heard throughout the many different journeys the listener is taken on. "Big Fungus" is a romping number that finds Manring sounding like a fusion guitar player on the hyperbass. Former Primus drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander proves to be a perfect partner for Manring by adding his own complexities and individual style to the mix. Alex Skolnick, Steve Morse, and Steve Smith also lend excellent support. "Monkey Businessman" is a breathtaking solo performed on the hyperbass, which makes a case for calling Manring the Tuck Andress of the bass. However, it is not just the Manring's playing (which would have been enough) and his stellar sidemen that separate this session from its colleagues; rather, it is his fresh approach to composition. This is a brilliant recording by a brilliant musician and should be documented as one of the most important fusion recordings of the '90s. © Robert Taylor © 2014 AllMusic, a division of All Media Network, LLC. | All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/album/thonk-mw0000622623

Exceptional heavy jazz rock fusion by the great and underrated bassist, Michael Manring. Michael’s playing is reminiscent of the great Jaco Pastorius and the compositions are generally composed around a two-handed tap and slap style, similar to players like Stuart Hamm. Two of the world’s greatest guitarists, Steve Morse and Alex Skolnick play on two tracks each and arguably the album would have been improved by more guitar. Having said that, some of the greatest fusion albums are not guitar based. However, if you are a bass freak you won’t be disappointed, as Michael Manring’s playing is outstanding throughout the album. The album is HR by A.O.O.F.C. Listen to Michael’s brilliant “Drastic Measures” album [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 110 Mb]

TRACKS

1 Big Fungus 3:36
2 Snakes Got Legs 4:59
3 Monkey Businessman 3:47
4 Disturbed 3:04
5 On A Day Of Many Angels 3:42
6 My Three Moons 4:04
7 Cruel And Unusual 4:33
8 Bad Hair Day 3:11
9 Adhan 2:38
10 You Offered Only Parabolas 6:12
11 The Enormous Room 4:07

All tracks composed by Michael Manring

MUSICIANS

Steve Morse - Guitar on Tracks 2, 10
Alex Skolnick - Guitar on Tracks 4, 7
Michael Manring - Bass, Hyperbass, Keyboards, Percussion
Phil Aaberg - Piano on Track 5
Tim "Herb" Alexander - Drums on Tracks 1, 4, 8
Steve Smith - Drums on Tracks 2, 5, 7, 10
John Cuniberti - Tambourine on Tracks 5, 10

BIO

Widely considered to be one of the most innovative and talented living bassists, Michael Manring has been performing for over 20 years and covering a wide variety of styles. Born in 1960 in Virginia, Manring was brought up in a musical family. He studied under bassist Peter Princiotto before attending Berklee College of music in the late 1970s. He left the school in 1979 due to a heavy workload with various bands, but while attending he had plenty of opportunities to play a wide variety of music. In the early 1980s, Manring toured and studied with the legendary Jaco Pastorius, and it was during this period that he really began to develop his own sound on bass. Also in the 1980s, Manring was house bassist for the Windham Hill record label, and has played with many groups and artists, including Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith's Yo Miles! group, Montreux, and collaboration on almost every Michael Hedges album. He has also played with Spastic Ink, Attention Deficit, At War With Self, and in the trio McGill/Manring/Stevens. To this day, Manring continues to play with various groups, along with maintaining a steady solo career of bass clinics and touring. Manring's music is characterized by strong bass playing in all periods. He plays quite often with alternate tunings, unusual basses, and experimental styles of music. Manring regularly utilizes a wide variety of basses, though his main bass is the Hyperbass, which was created in association with Joseph Zon of Zon Guitars. The bass is designed specifically to allow Manring to change the tuning of one or all of his strings in an instant, through a unique bridge with levers for each string/all four and through D-tuner pegs on each of the tuning pegs of the bass. It's also unusual because of its triple octave fretless neck. He has been known to play as many as four basses simultaneously in his compositions. Manring's solo material has evolved over the years, with his earliest albums displaying a new age sound. His third album, Drastic Measures, displays him starting to moving away from this style, and by his next, Thonk, he had moved onto a sound entirely his own. Manring has stated that Thonk was ...the first New Age/Death metal/Fusion album. After Thonk, he released The Book of Flame in 1998 and Soliloquy in 2005. Book of Flame moved even farther away from his new age roots, and Soliloquy is a solo bass album with no overdubs or multitracking. Many of the tracks don't sound like bass at first listen, but he used prepared basses and a wide variety of unusual tunings throughout to give the album a unique sound. Manring's music should appeal to different people depending on which album/era is being discussed. His first three albums would most likely appeal to fans of laid back, new age/new age-influenced jazz music. Thonk and Book of Flame each display a wide variety of material, though they're both heavily jazz/fusion oriented and have some metal influence as well. Soliloquy is recommended to bassists and lovers of bass especially, but also to anyone interested in jazz/experimental music performed exclusively on bass. Fans of Jaco Pastorius' bass playing will most likely enjoy the bass playing on Manring's albums. - Biography written by & © Jon Hilty (SaltyJon) © Prog Archives, All rights reserved http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6044