Michael Schell interviews Mat Maneri, violist, composer and bandleader, prior to his October 30, 2023 appearance at Seattle’s Earshot Jazz Festival. Topics include Mat’s new Ash album, how he chose the viola as his primary improvisational vehicle, how the themes of loss and the distortions of memory drive the music of his Ash quartet, and the unusual Oedipe Redux project he’s just released with Lucian Ban, which channels George Enescu’s operatic setting of Sophocles’s trilogy.
Excerpted from Flotation Device, October 29, 2023 (KBCS-FM Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma).
Flotation Device showcases creative and improvised music from the Northwest and around the world, live Sunday nights, 10pm to Midnight Pacific Time on 91.3 KBCS HD1, and then in podcast format at www.mixcloud.com/FlotationDevice. Find us on Facebook and Instagram by Googling "Flotation Device KBCS".
Interview © 2023 Michael Schell
Visit tinyurl.com/FD0123 to hear the entire program, including complete musical selections