Michael Mantler -

Michael Mantler is an Austrian trumpeter, composer, and arranger; active on the international avant-garde jazz/classical scene since the mid-1960s. Between 1973 and 1988, he made ten albums on EMI-subsidiary Watt, a label he co-ran with then-wife Carla Bley.

Background

Michael Mantler was born on August 10, 1943, in Vienna, Austria, where he studied trumpet and musicology at the Academy of Music. After further studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he settled in New York City. His earliest recorded credit, “Sound Piece” (with Japanese alto saxophonist Sadao Watanabe), appeared on the 1965 album A Tribute to Oliver Nelson, released by Berklee Records on their Jazz In the Classroom series.

Jazz Composers Guild

In 1964, Mantler joined the the Jazz Composers Guild, an organization founded by trumpeter Bill Dixon with trombonist Roswell Rudd, saxophonist Archie Shepp, and pianist Cecil Taylor. Oakland-born pianist Carla Bley soon joined and partnered with Mantler.

On April 10, 1965, Mantler performed two originals (“Day (Communications No. 4)” and the 26-minute “Communications No. 5”) at New York’s Contemporary Center as part of the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra with fellow trumpeter Ray Codrington and saxists Bob Carducci and Robin Kenyatta. Both tracks (along with a 12/29/64 Judson Hall performance of Bley’s “Roast”) appear on the 1966 Dutch Fontana release Communication.

Jazz Realities Quintet

Mantler and Bley formed the Jazz Realities Quintet with bassist Kent Carter, drummer Aldo Romano, and soprano saxist Steve Lacy. On January 11, 1966, the quintet cut a session in Baarn, Holland, documented on the Dutch Fontana release Jazz Realities. The album features five Bley compositions, including three (“J.S.,” “Walking Batterie Woman,” “Communications No. 7”) co-written by Mantler.

Jazz Composer’s Orchestra

After the Guild’s demise, Mantler and Bley formed the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra Association (JCOA) with Taylor, Rudd, guitarist Larry Coryell, trumpeter Don Cherry, and tenor saxophonists Pharoah Sanders, Gato Barbieri, and Steve Marcus. Between January 24 and June 21, 1968, the Orchestra held four sessions at RCA Victor’s Studio B, released as a self-titled double album on JCOA Records, the couple’s non-profit label.

Mantler and Bley — along with Gato, Coryell, Lacy, and bassist Steve Swallow — also backed vibraphonist Gary Burton on the 1968 RCA Victor release A Genuine Tong Funeral, billed as the Gary Burton Quartet With Orchestra.

WATT Records

In 1972, Mantler and Bley started WATT Records, which tripled as a record label, recording studio, and music publisher.

No Answer

Michael Mantler released his debut composer/producer album, No Answer, in 1974 on WATT, which co-billed the title to Carla Bley, Don Cherry, and Jack Bruce.

No Answer features words from How It Is, a 1961 novel by Irish author Sam Beckett. In Germany, No Answer appeared on ECM.

Bruce foregrounds multi-tracked vocals and bass lines amid Bley’s fills on piano, clavinet, and organ. Cherry adds short, sharp trumpet passages that break the vocal mass into smaller shapes. The album divides into two Beckett settings, Number Six and Number Twelve, each split into four parts.

A1. “Part One” [Number Six] (4:55)
A2. “Part Two” [Number Six] (4:50)
A3. “Part Three” [Number Six] (5:45)
A4. “Part Four” [Number Six] (2:05)

B1. “Part One” [Number Twelve] (7:35)
B2. “Part Two” [Number Twelve] (4:05)
B3. “Part Three” [Number Twelve] (2:00)
B4. “Part Four” [Number Twelve] (2:55)

Mantler recorded the basic tracks in in February and July 1973 at Blue Rock Studio in New York. Bruce added his parts in November at Island Studios in London. Mantler mixed the album at Blue Rock in March 1974 with co-producer Bley and engineers Eddie Korvin and Frank Owen.

Graphic artist Paul McDonough designed the No Answer gatefold and all subsequent WATT sleeves. The inner-fold displays photographs by Gregory Reeve, Jerry Bauer, and Valerie Wilmer.

13 & 3/4

Michael Mantler and Carla Bley released a collaborative album, 13 & 3/4, in 1975 on WATT (US), Virgin (UK, France), and ECM (Germany). It features two side-long orchestral pieces; one side each conducted by Mantler (“13”) and Bley (“3/4”).

Mantler scored “13” for piano and two orchestras, placing Bley’s piano inside overdubbed masses of winds, brass, and strings. The piece advances through slow accumulations, with piano figures exposed against thick brass and string blocks before the ensemble closes around them. “13” uses one orchestra of three flutes, twelve saxophones, and nine brass, plus a second orchestra of four flutes, ten woodwinds, fourteen brass, and forty-two strings.

Bley answered with “3/4,” a smaller orchestral piece under her own baton. It turns on repeated piano cells between her and Ursula Oppens. Mantler’s trumpet collides with tuba player Bob Stewart and multi-percussionist David Samuels, who juggles marimba, vibraphone, and glockenspiel. “3/4” melds winds, brass, percussion, and strings into dense clusters with variable open space for solo lines.

A. “13” (22:00) — Mantler
B. “3/4” (23:45) — Bley

Mantler and Bley recorded 13 & 3/4 in August 1975 at Grog Kill Studio in Willow, New York, then mixed it in September at Scorpio Sound in London with engineer Dennis Weinreich and assistant John Hunt. The Ford Foundation’s 1975 Recording-Publication Program supported the project, and Watt Works offered the score and parts.

The back cover features sepia ensemble photographs by Li Tjiong.

The Hapless Child

Michael Mantler released his third composer/producer album, The Hapless Child and Other Inscrutable Stories, in 1976 on WATT, which co-billed the title to (in order) Robert Wyatt, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Jack DeJohnette, and Terje Rypdal.

Wyatt carries these pieces with high, tense lines over piano, keyboards, hard drum punctuation, and Terje Rypdal’s scorched guitar. “The Sinking Spell” starts with speech and piano, then lets Wyatt and Rypdal trade short bursts while the guitar cuts across the keyboard haze. “The Object Lesson” sets a near-monotone vocal over piano and drums, then opens brief gaps for odd keyboard figures before the ensemble presses into harsher dissonance.

“The Insect God” runs on clipped urgency, with Wyatt pushing the text in fast speech-song and Rypdal firing back with flaring lines and dark sustain. “The Doubtful Guest” leans on piano and packs the arrangement with tight overlap, quick detail, and vocal phrasing full of sharp turns. “The Remembered Visit” brings Wyatt to the front while piano and broad keyboard swells gather around the vocal. “The Hapless Child” opens in slow shadow with piano, guitar, and trumpet, tightens the pace near the middle as Wyatt quickens his phrasing over an instrumental surge, then returns to piano and ensemble weight.

The Hapless Child features words by American author/illustrator Edward Gorey (1925–2000), whose artwork graces the front cover (back cover on German ECM copies). Gorey wrote short, dark tales about children, accidents, disappearances, and private dread; filtered through dry humor and deliberate ambiguity. His illustration style rests on pen-and-ink precision, close crosshatching, Edwardian costume, and rigid interior space, which lets menace sit inside an orderly visual world.

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason adds narration along with Alfreda Benge (Wyatt’s wife) and one Albert Caulder.

A1. “The Sinking Spell” (5:10)
A2. “The Object-Lesson” (5:00)
A3. “The Insect God” (4:58)

B1. “The Doubtful Guest” (4:47)
B2. “The Remembered Visit” (6:27)
B3. “The Hapless Child” (7:02)

Sessions spanned July 1975 through January 1976 at Grog Kill, where Bley produced and Mantler co-engineered Hapless Child with Mason, Alan Perkins, and Dennis Weinreich. Additional work occurred in England with Virgin’s Mobile Manor at Britannia Row (London) and Delfina’s Farm, the Wyatt/Benge house in Little Bedwin, Wiltshire.

Silence

Michael Mantler released his fourth composer/producer album, Silence, in 1977 on WATT/ECM, which co-billed the title to (in order) Carla Bley, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Coyne, Chris Spedding, and Ron McClure. Silence is a musical adaptation of the namesake 1969 one-act play by British playwright Harold Pinter.

Mantler sets Pinter’s three-voice text across a narrow ensemble with the characters voiced by Bley (Ellen), Coyne (Rumsey), and Wyatt (Bates). Bassist McClure and guitarist Spedding sound-shape with cellist Clare Maher and Bley herself, whose piano and organ runs enmesh the spoken-sung exchanges. Side A holds four longer scenes; Side B breaks the drama into shorter episodes and a final extended close.

“I Walk With My Girl” and “I Watch the Clouds” open in long stretches of suspended harmony and measured speech. “When I Run” and “A Long Way” pass in short, sharp fragments. “Sometimes I See People” gives the album one of its clearest open spaces while “She Was Looking Down” brings Spedding’s guitar into harder relief. “After My Work Each Day” isolates Bley’s voice and keyboards before “On Good Evenings” closes the sequence.

A1. “I Walk With My Girl” (9:41)
A2. “I Watch the Clouds” (9:23)
A3. “It Is Curiously Hot” (4:42)
A4. “When I Run” (2:04)

B1. “Sometimes I See People” (4:10)
B2. “Around Me Sits the Night” (4:15)
B3. “She Was Looking Down” (3:24)
B4. “For Instance” (2:55)
B5. “A Long Way” (1:51)
B6. “After My Work Each Day” (2:44)
B7. “On Good Evenings” (7:10)

Mantler recorded Bley and McClure in January 1976 at Grog Kill. Wyatt and Spedding added their parts in February with the Manor Mobile at Delfina’s Farm. Coyne taped in April with the Virgin Mobile at the Gong Farm in Whitney, Oxfordshire. In November, Mantler added strings at mixed the album at Grog Killm, where Bley produced the album. Mantler engineered the New York dates, while Alan Perkins and Steve Cox handled the English mobile sessions.

The back cover features color profile pics by Laurie Lewis, whose photography graces contemporary sleeves for Hawkwind, Hatfield, and later titles by Madness and Zerra One.

Movies

Michael Mantler released his fifth album, Movies, in 1978 on WATT/ECM, which co-billed the title to (in order) Larry Coryell, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, and Tony Williams.

Mantler casts Movies for a trumpet-laden rock lineup. Guitarist Coryell cuts fast diagonal lines through Bley’s piano, synthesizer, and tenor saxophone figures. Swallow and Williams lock the rhythmic floor beneath Mantler’s horn. Their five-player symbiosis conveys orchestral weight and contrast.

“Movie Four” throws Coryell into ricochet patterns against a harder keyboard bed. “Movie Five” brings Swallow nearer the surface, while “Movie Two” concentrates the album’s hardest attack. “Movie Seven” opens more fretboard space before “Movie Eight” closes the record with a longer final span.

A1. “Movie One” (3:36)
A2. “Movie Two” (5:25)
A3. “Movie Three” (3:45)
A4. “Movie Four” (5:55)

B1. “Movie Five” (3:16)
B2. “Movie Six” (3:40)
B3. “Movie Seven” (5:52)
B4. “Movie Eight” (5:52)

Bley produced Movies in March 1977 at Grog Kill, where Mantler engineered the album and handled the late-autumn mix-down. Sessions ran in sequence with Bley’s 1977 solo WATT release, Dinner Music.

Freelance fashion photographer Sonia Moskowitz caputured the back-cover image, which shows the bold-letter name of each performer on the marquee of New York’s Beacon Theatre.

More Movies

Michael Mantler released his sixth album, More Movies, in 1980 on WATT/ECM. This was Mantler’s first release (barring WATT issues of Hapless Child) on which no additional performers receive front-cover co-billing. The back cover lists Mantler second among six performers: Philip Catherine, Gary Windo, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, and D Sharpe.

Mantler retains trumpet, keyboards, and bass at the core, but recasts the group with drummer Sharpe, tenor saxist Windo, and guitarist Catherine, who brings a drier attack than Coryell. The result carries a tighter ensemble surface and a darker reed color.

“The Sinking Spell” opens the program with a compressed rhythmic charge under tense piano accents. “Will We Meet Tonight?” gives Windo prominence, while “The Doubtful Guest” clears room for Catherine. “Movie Fourteen” stretches to the album’s largest form. “Movie Twelve” closes the record in a more open frame.

A1. “Movie Nine” (2:57)
A2. “The Sinking Spell” (4:16)
A3. “Movie Eleven” (4:49)
A4. “Will We Meet Tonight?” (3:18)
A5. “Movie Thirteen” (4:44)

B1. “The Doubtful Guest” (3:18)
B2. “Movie Fifteen” (4:32)
B3. “Movie Fourteen” (6:26)
B4. “Movie Ten” (2:04)
B5. “Movie Twelve” (4:12)

Bley produced More Movies between August 1979 and March 1980 at Grog Kill, where Mantler co-engineered the album with Tom Mark. Moskowitz again supplied sleeve photography. Sessions ran in sequence with Fictitious Sports, a Bley-dominated mix of post-punk and jazz-rock recorded with Movies, Silence, and Hapless Child personnel and released in 1981 under Nick Mason’s name.

Something There

Michael Mantler released his seventh album, Something There, in 1983 on WATT/ECM. Michael Gibbs arranged and conducted the music, which features strings by the London Symphony Orchestra and jazz-rock musicianship by Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Nick Mason, and guitarist Mike Stern.

Mantler sets the small group against scored strings in balanced cohesion. Stern cuts hard, bright lines across Bley’s piano, while Swallow and Mason hold a firm rhythmic bed under Mantler’s late trumpet entries. Gibbs’s orchestration overlays dense string blocks and short suspensions that complement the band’s sharper edges.

“Twenty” opens the album with a lean statement that holds the ensemble in reserve before Mantler enters. “Twenty One” pushes Stern nearer the front, “Nineteen” runs on a tighter recurring figure, and “Seventeen” throws angled lines across bright cymbal work. “Eighteen” drops into a slower pulse before the title piece closes the record in a shorter, more distilled form.

A1. “Twenty” (5:23)
A2. “Twenty One” (4:44)
A3. “Nineteen” (8:26)

B1. “Seventeen” (6:51)
B2. “Eighteen” (7:20)
B3. “Something There” (3:14)

Mantler and Hark co-engineerd Something There between February and June 1982 at Grog Kill, where Bley produced the album. The London Symphony Orchestra performed their parts in July 1982 at Britannia Row with engineer Nick Griffiths and assistant Michael Johnson.

Something There appeared in a monochrome sleeve with Mantler’s horizontal profile by Starship photographer Roger Ressmeyer. Samuel Beckett wrote the album’s sleeve notes.

Alien

Michael Mantler collaborated with electronics programmer Don Preston on Alien, released in November 1985 on WATT/ECM.

Mantler replaces the earlier ensemble model with a dual electronic setting. Preston sound-paves with Yamaha DX7, Alpha Syntauri, Korg Poly-61, Poly-800, DW-6000, and Linn Drum, while Mantler’s trumpet cuts through as the lone acoustic voice. The four-part structure engages in long spans of variable pressure and density.

Part 1 opens in a dark, slow-blooming mass. Part 2 tightens the rhythmic code with a surface-level programmed pulse. Part 3 lures trumpet into the electronic field. Part 4 closes the work with a more exposed sense of drift and aftermath.

A1. “Part 1” (11:17)
A2. “Part 2” (6:58)
B1. “Part 3” (9:12)
B2. “Part 4” (8:14)

Mantler self-produced Alien between March and July 1985 at Grog Kill, where Carla Bley played the role of “Third Ear.”

Live

In September 1987, Watt/ECM issued Live, a document of Michael Mantler’s February 8 performance at the 1st International Art Rock Festival at the Kongresshalle in Frankfurt.

Live is co-billed to Don Preston, bassist John Greaves (ex-Henry Cow), and prior collaborators Jack Bruce and Nick Mason, who roped in recent partner Rick Fenn, the erstwhile 10cc guitarist.

Mantler recasts earlier text settings and orchestral fragments for the six-piece concert band with Bruce’s voice across the Fenn/Preston harmonic field and Greaves/Mason undercurrents. Mantler’s trumpet enters as a cutting lead inside a stripped stage format of sharp literary renditions.

“Preview / No Answer” opens the set with Beckett material from the first text album. “For Instance” with “When I Run” returns to the Pinter cycle. Side two turns to Edward Gorey settings, where “The Remembered Visit” stretches into the longest span before “The Hapless Child” and “The Doubtful Guest” close the program. Between those vocal pieces, Mantler places three short orchestral interludes.

A1. “Preview / No Answer” (5:16) — Mantler, Beckett
A2. “Slow Orchestra Piece #3 (Prisonniers)” (3:51) — Mantler
A3. “For Instance” (2:11) — Mantler, Pinter
A4. “Slow Orchestra Piece #8 (A L’Abattoir)” (3:00) — Mantler
A5. “When I Run” (2:12) — Mantler, Pinter

B1. “The Remembered Visit” (7:35) — Mantler, Gorey
B2. “Slow Orchestra Piece #6” (3:05) — Mantler
B3. “The Hapless Child” (7:40) — Mantler, Gorey
B4. “The Doubtful Guest” (5:10) — Mantler, Gorey

Hessischer Rundfunk handled the Kongresshalle location recording with engineer Wolfgang Packeiser. Mantler later mixed the album at Grog Kill.

Many Have No Speech

Michael Mantler released his ninth studio album, Many Have No Speech, in 1988 on WATT/ECM, which gave front-cover co-billing to Jack Bruce, Marianne Faithfull, and Robert Wyatt.

Mantler wrote for trumpet, guitar, and orchestra under Peder Kragerup’s direction. Three voices (Bruce, Faithfull, Wyatt) deliver brief settings of Samuel Beckett, Ernst Meister, and Philippe Soupault, while Rick Fenn’s guitar cuts through the Danish Concert Radio Orchestra in short, tense figures. No Speech works through compact forms with pieces that end without orchestral resolution.

The program unfolds in aphoristic fragments with wide outeliers. “Something There” holds the longest Beckett setting. “Comrade” gives side two its broadest early statement, and “A L’Abattoir” with “Prisonniers” place Wyatt inside darker orchestration. “Imagine” and “En Cadence” tighten around voice, guitar, and string pressure.

A1. “Introduction” (0:40) — Mantler
A2. “Just as Someone” (0:46) — Mantler, Meister
A3. “Ce Qu’a De Pis” (0:48) — Mantler, Beckett
A4. “Alles Scheint Rand” (0:59) — Mantler, Meister
A5. “Imagine” (1:36) — Mantler, Beckett
A6. “In the End” (0:44) — Mantler, Meister
A7. “Vieil Aller” (0:20) — Mantler, Beckett
A8. “Rien Nul” (0:20) — Mantler, Beckett
A9. “Tant de Temps” (2:16) — Mantler, Soupault
A10. “En Face” (0:20) — Mantler, Beckett
A11. “Chaque Jour” (0:20) — Mantler, Beckett
A12. “PSS” (1:44) — Mantler, Beckett
A13. “En Cadence” (1:59) — Mantler, Soupault
A14. “Something There” (3:29) — Mantler, Beckett

B1. “Comrade” (4:19) — Mantler, Soupault
B2. “Den Atem Ausgetauscht” (1:11) — Mantler, Meister
B3. “A L’Abattoir” (2:43) — Mantler, Soupault
B4. “And What” (0:57) — Mantler, Meister
B5. “D’Où La Voix” (0:19) — Mantler, Beckett
B6. “Fous Qui Disiez” (0:19) — Mantler, Beckett
B7. “Merk, Jetzt” (1:01) — Mantler, Meister
B8. “Son Ombre” (0:20) — Mantler, Beckett
B9. “Rêve” (0:21) — Mantler, Beckett
B10. “Life Connects” (0:47) — Mantler, Meister
B11. “Prisonniers” (2:39) — Mantler, Soupault
B12. “Silence” (1:03) — Mantler, Beckett
B13. “Viele Haben Keine Sprache” (1:57) — Mantler, Meister

Mantler recorded the orchestra at Danish Radio in Copenhagen in May 1987 with engineers Ole Hviid and Jorn Jacobsen under producer Andy Sundstrom. He recorded the remaining material between May and December 1987 at studios in London (West 3), New York (Grog Kill), and Boston (Newbury Sound) with engineers John McGowan, Michael Mantler, and Paul Arnold.

The booklet draws on photographs by Tod Papageorge, Isolde Ohlbaum, Jerry Bauer, M. Laure de Decker, and John McGowan.

Discography: