MICHAEL MANTLER BIOGRAPHY

Michael Mantler was born in 1943 in Vienna, Austria, where he studied trumpet and musicology

at the Academy of Music and Vienna University. In 1962 he went to the USA to continue his

studies at the Berklee School of Music in Boston.Communication.JazzQuintet, featuring Steve Lacy and Carla Bley. He then established the Jazz

He moved to New York in 1964 and started playing trumpet with Cecil Taylor and others. During

that period he was also involved in the formation of the Jazz Composer's Guild, a collective of

musicians and composers, struggling for better working conditions and opportunities to present

their new music without compromise. Together with Carla Bley he formed a large jazz orchestra

to perform new compositions, resulting in their first recording

After the Guild discontinued its activities, he toured Europe twice during 1965/66 with the

Realities

Composer's Orchestra Association, a non-profit organization to commission, perform, and record

new compositions for jazz orchestra.

He recorded a double album of his musicduring 1968 with the Jazz Composer's Orchestra and
soloists Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Larry Coryell, and Gato
Barbieri. Some of this music was also performed during the "Long Concerts" at the Electric
Circus in 1969.
He appeared as trumpet player on Carla Bley's A Genuine Tong Funeral, recorded by Gary
Burton, and also on Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra album (1969).
He co-ordinated and participated in the Jazz Composer's Orchestra's next recording project,
Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill (1968-71).
The problems of independently distributing the orchestra's record label led him to form the New
Music Distribution Service in 1972, an organization which was to serve many independent labels
for almost 20 years.
In 1973 he started WATT WORKS, a new record label devoted to the presentation of his and
Carla Bley's music exclusively. He recorded No Answer, featuring Jack Bruce, for which he
wrote music to the words of Samuel Beckett.

The following year he built a recording studio near Woodstock, N.Y. to escape the pressures of
commercial recording studios. He received composition grants from the Creative Artists Program
Service and the National Endowment for the Arts, and with the aid of a Ford Foundation grant he
was able to undertake the recording of his 13 for two orchestras and piano (1975).
He wrote and recorded several more albums for WATT: The Hapless Child, with words by
Edward Gorey, featuring Robert Wyatt (1976), Silence, based on the Harold Pinter play, again
with Robert Wyatt (1976), Movies, with Larry Coryell and Tony Williams (1977), and More
Movies, with Philippe Catherine (1980). During that period he also appeared on albums by John
Greaves (Kew Rhone) and Nick Mason (Fictitious Sports), and then toured briefly with his own
small groupIn 1982 he recorded Something There with Mike Stern, Nick Mason, and the strings of the
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Gibbs. Later that year he participated in a
European tour and a recording (Ballad Of The Fallen) with a new edition of Charlie Haden's
Liberation Music Orchestra.
Several newly commissioned compositions were performed in Cologne by the Orchestra of the
West German Radio (WDR) in 1984, and the following year he composed and recorded Alien,
featuring Don Preston.
From 1977 until 1985 he was also a member of the Carla Bley Band, touring extensively
throughout Europe, the USA, and Japan, as well as appearing on all of the Band's recordings.
His orchestral suite Slow Orchestra Pieces was premiered by the Orchestra of the Opera de Lille
in France during March 1986, and the Danish Radio Concert Orchestra commissioned a new
work from him for a radio production in May 1987 in Copenhagen.
He was asked to participate in the International Art-Rock Festival in Frankfurt during February
1987, for which he formed a group with Nick Mason, Jack Bruce, Rick Fenn, Don Preston, and
John Greaves. Material from this concert was later released on his Live album. The following
summer he briefly toured Europe with a similar band featuring Jack Bruce and Anton Fier.

Most of 1987 was spent working on an album of songs in English, German, and French, based
on the poetry of Samuel Beckett, Ernst Meister and Philippe Soupault, with Jack Bruce,
Marianne Faithfull, Robert Wyatt, and the Danish Radio Concert Orchestra (Many Have No
Speech). Music from this album was also performed at a concert produced by the West German
Radio in Bielefeld during April 1989.
At the beginning of 1991 he left the United States, discontinuing his work with WATT, and
moved back to Europe, where he now lives and works, dividing his time between Denmark and
France.
A new orchestral piece was commissioned by the Austrian Donau Festival, and was premiered
near Vienna in June 1991 by the Nö.Tonkünstlerorchester, conducted by Michael Gibbs, with
Andy Sheppard as soloist. New compositions were also commissioned by the Danish Radio Big
Band and the North German Radio Big Band in Hamburg.
His album Folly Seeing All This was recorded during June 1992 in London, and released by
ECM Records in 1993. It features the Balanescu String Quartet plus other instrumentalists, and
it includes new instrumental music and a setting of Samuel Beckett's last poem, written shortly
before his death (What Is The Word), featuring the voice of Jack Bruce.
In 1993 he formed the ensemble "Chamber Music and Songs", featuring his trumpet plus Mona
Larsen (voice), Bjarne Roupé (guitar), Kim Kristensen (keyboards), and a string quartet. Its
premiere took place at the Copenhagen Jazzhouse in September, followed by a studio
production at Danmarks Radio. Some of this material was eventually to appear on the Songs
and One Symphony album.
His Cerco Un Paese Innocente, a Suite of Songs and Interludes for Voice, Untypical Big Band
and Chamber Ensemble, with words by the Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, had its premiere in
concert at the Danish Radio January 1994. Featured were the voice of Mona Larsen, Mantler's
Ensemble, and the Danish Radio Big Band, conducted by Ole Kock Hansen. The work was
subsequently recorded in the studio and released by ECM Records in 1995. Another
performance of the work took place in Palermo, Sicily, during April 1996.

His "sort-of-an-opera" The School of Languages, had its premiere August 1996 at Arken, the
new Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen. Participants included singers Jack Bruce, Mona
Larsen, Susi Hyldgaard, John Greaves, Don Preston, Karen Mantler, Per Jørgensen, and Robert
Wyatt. Its recording was released as a double-CD by ECM Records in the Fall of 1997 under its
new title The School of Understanding. The work was again presented during November 1997
at the Hebbel Theater in Berlin.
A large orchestral piece, One Symphony, commissioned by the Hessischer Rundfunk, was
premiered November 1998 by the Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, conducted by Peter
Rundel. Its recording was released by ECM in early 2000 together with previously recorded
material featuring Mona Larsen and the "Chamber Music and Songs" Ensemble (Songs and
One Symphony) interpreting songs set to texts by Ernst Meister.
Hide And Seek, an album of songs with words by Paul Auster (from his play by the same name),
for chamber orchestra and the voices of Robert Wyatt and Susi Hyldgaard, has been released
by ECM Records March 2001. Theatrical productions of the work, in collaboration with Rolf Heim
(who has previously worked with Mantler on The School of Understanding performances), were
created in the Spring of 2002 in Copenhagen and Berlin.
His Concerto for Marimba and Vibraphone (originally commissioned by Portuguese
percussionist Pedro Carneiro in 2001), was premiered at the Hessischer Rundfunk in March
2005 with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Frankfurt, conducted by Pascal Rophé.
During September 2006 Porgy & Bess in Vienna presented a series of retrospective portrait
concerts with his "Chamber Music and Songs" ensemble
In recognition of his life's work he received several Austrian awards: the State Prize for
Improvised Music, the Prandtauer Prize of the City of St.Pölten (where he spent his early youth),
and the Music Prize of the City of Vienna.
Released November 2006, the anthology Review (recordings 1968 - 2000), traced his unique
musical path during more than 30 years of recordings for JCOA, WATT and ECM.
He appeared at the JazzFest Berlin in November 2007 with his Concertos project, featuring the
Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin under the direction of Roland Kluttig. A studio recording of
Concertos with soloists Bjarne Roupé (guitar), Bob Rockwell (tenor saxophone), Roswell Rudd
(trombone), Pedro Carneiro (marimba and vibraphone), Majella Stockhausen (piano), Nick
Mason (percussion), and Mantler on trumpet, was released by ECM during November 2008.
His latest CD (For Two), a series of duets for guitar (Bjarne Roupé) and piano (Per Salo), was
released by ECM during June 2011.