Mat Maneri Quotes

I remember going to see Black Flag, stuff like that. I remember also listening to Mahler and getting into a lot of ridiculous techno-kind of stuff. I probably listened the least to jazz in that time period, as a young teenager. But, it was the only thing that I felt was interesting to perform. But I never bought jazz records or did any jazz fan kind of thing. I was always listening to something ridiculous or unrelated at all. But as a performer I always was drawn to the improvisation and studying technique. These things made the most sense to me as a performer.
Mat Maneri 

Now my writing style has gotten very fragmented. With this new record that I am working on—I’m still writing the material as we speak—I’ve gone half way through and it’s using all of those elements, but some of it is very loose and free. And some of it is very strict. But the strictness of it, I don't want it to sound strict, I want it to sound like it’s free. But it’s all written! [laughs] The heads are about a minute long, as we improvise off of them. I take them as just the starting point of the piece, that’s all. Just like any normal jazz head: we play the head and we take off from there. But unlike the old jazz heads, where there’s like a 12-bar form of changes. The head is more almost like a little classical piece, like a little theme that is very complex. Or a little piece where it’s extended over a minute, but there are little bits and pieces throughout the piece as you are improvising.
Mat Maneri

The writing styles definitely change from group to group. Right now I am working on this quintet, which is probably the most written thing I have done. Dave Ballou on cornet, Matt Moran on vibes, Mark Dresser on bass, myself on viola, and Randy Peterson on drums. This is a really nice group.
Mat Maneri