Maneri Ensemble - Going to Church
(Aum Fidelity)
After father/son duo Joe and Mat Maneri were able to coax Ornette Coleman collaborator Barre Phillips out of his French castle for the 2000 US tour of the elder Maneri's quartet, the younger asked the services of Matthew Shipp and Roy Campbell in order to make an impromptu recording to take advantage of Phillips' presence. The two pressing questions with regards to Going to Church, the resulting audio document, are as follows: 1. How do the sounds of six men with six strong musical personalities mesh? 2. How the heck did Barre Phillips move into a castle in South France on the money he's earned as a free jazz musician?
The answer to number two may not be anything that's worth researching, but the answer to the first question is the crux of the album. Going to Church is a coming together of a few core men who have plentiful experience playing together, and it's hard to put a dent in the credentials of any of these men, and improvising is all about stretching oneself further, and exploring something new. That said, it's disappointing that Going to Church never brings about the religious fervor that the title implies. It's a disc of passable solo performances that rarely gel as one might hope, especially when the majority of the group plays together almost constantly. The more restrained sections of the disc, when things slow down and become a bit less haphazard, provide adequate chances for two or three of the musicians to build off of each others' sound, but the places in which all six men play at once, the places, therefore, in which Going to Church should really burn and truly shine, are less impressive. Instead of sounding like a group of acclaimed jazz musicians in tune with each other and whatever spirit was running through them that Saturday afternoon, The Maneri Ensemble sound as though they spent much of the session carefully searching each other out and finding ground to build upon. This, of course, is part of an improvisation and surely not an uncommon or irrevocable sin, but in a group like this, it's hard not to expect more.
Heavy on the clutter of each man exploring his own sound, Going to Church does succeed when, say, Mat Maneri's viola lays down a plane of sawing drone for the other players to play off of, or when Shipp's piano and Randy Peterson's drums find accord. Phillips, surprisingly, is the least involved of the troupe, sparsely adding an often-inaudible voice to the proceedings. He's the only member, however, who doesn't at least provide an adequate addition to the album, and, after all, improvisation is a team sport. Going to Church doesn't break down any walls, and falls far short of musical rapture, but it also takes leave of its initial cautious probings long enough to uncover some worthwhile sounds... maybe just not enough.
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