R.I.P. Joe Maneri

[Hoover]

Busy month for the Grim Reaper, what with Les Paul and now Ted Kennedy...

But I just heard about Joe Maneri passing on Monday, and since I studied composition with Joe back when I was in graduate school, and played with his son Mat on several occasions, this loss hits me the hardest.

Joe was an icon of the improvised music scene in Boston, and also a respected educator and composer...but most of all, he was a fascinatingly sincere individual. He not only was able to divine the beauty in everything, he was able to succinctly identify, analyze, and deconstruct what constituted that beauty...without detracting from the heartfelt appreciation.

He also made some mind-frying music. A bona fide genius. I will miss him.


http://darkforcesswing.blogspot.com/...oe-maneri.html
http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog...rip-joe-maneri
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=41573
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Maneri

[Frank Tuesday]

I first heard Joe Maneri in the movie American Splendor. I was so taken with the track Paniots Nine, that I went searching for it the next day. What an incredible album. It was only later that I learned more about his story. Had the cards fallen slightly differently, the jazz world may have placed him in the upper echelon of greats alongside Miles, Coltrane, Bird, etc. Instead, the world had to wait 35 years for his for his album to be realeased.