All broken down by the side of the road
I’s never more alive or alone
I’ve worn the faces off all the cards
I’m gonna take it with me when I go
– Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan
First things first. The persuasively conveyed tearjerker of a title track on this all-instrumentals quartet album is a Tom Waits Mule Variations song that’s been covered in different genres and by lots of jazz artists – the likes of English jazz singers Liane Carroll & Jo Harrop and by American pianist Lynne Arriale.
The leader Joe Manis is a tenor saxophone player who hails from Dexter in Oregon. But the album was recorded far from home – in a New York studio in just a day.
There is a link to an earlier collaborator of Manis’ in the presence of pianist George Colligan, notable this year on All in Motion, an album by Irish bassist Dave Redmond. Colligan has appeared on earlier albums of the saxist’s.
Swinging Dr Seuss inspired Colligan tune ‘Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz’ is one of the most ear catching renditions on this interesting album – the other players who complete the sound are bassist Vicente Archer – known for his work with Robert Glasper – and drummer Bill Stewart, whose attractive Live at the Village Vanguard came out earlier this year.
‘Zizzer Zazzer Zuzz’ is a contrafact of Cole Porter’s chord changes from ‘What Is This Thing Called Love?’
Manis appeared on another version of the piece on Colligan project Theoretical Planets’ Long Term Goals issued in 2021.
Not everything grabs me about Take It With Me, however. I’m much less keen on the reading of the Brian Wilson ‘God Only Knows’ classic much as I love the song. And the band collaborations ‘The Love Bug’ and ‘Dimensions and Inventions’ also strike me as more filler than killer.
However, patience dear heart. And dig deeper and there are one or two unusual delights such as a reading of Jack Bruce 1970s Harmony Row classic ‘There’s a Forest’ which is very more-ish. The Manis sound is not at all prolix and can be agreeably muddy and characterful.
Archer contributes a strong beat to the treatment of music from the tense 1970s David Shire score for The Taking of Pelham One Two Three which is a film about a bunch of criminals who hijack a New York subway car and terrifyingly hold the passengers to ransom.
With the best will in the world the album doesn’t totally kidnap the ears throughout. But where it does hold the attention as in the highlights mentioned above it does hook you in enough to be further intrigued for return listens and a note to self to watch out for future Manis releases.
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MM Jazz Studies 2007, Performance, with Academic Honor, New England Conservatory of Music
