Michael Manring

Michael Manring
Also known as Manthing
Born June 27, 1960
Origin Washington, D.C., United States
Genres Jazz fusion, world music, new-age, experimental
Occupation(s) Musician
Instruments Bass guitar
Years active 1975–present
Labels Windham Hill, Highstreet, Alchemy, Manthing
Website www.manthing.com

Michael Manring (born June 27, 1960 in Annapolis[1]) is an American bass guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area, (Northern California).

Biography

Michael Manring was born as youngest of four children. His family lived in Norfolk, Virginia and moved to the suburbs of Washington, D.C in 1969. The Manrings were a very active family musically, providing a very fertile background for Michael's musical development. He and his brother Doug—a guitarist and drummer, later living a long time in Japan—formed a very active rhythm group still being at high school, venturing through jazz rock and fusion, playing rock classics at beer parties or pop standards in restaurants and at weddings.[2]

Manring was a pupil of bassist Peter Princiotto from Spring Hill area, Virginia. He began to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts in the late 1970s, but canceled his studies in 1979 because of the heavy workload he already had, touring with several different bands like the Prog Rock band However.[3] During his time at Berklee College he used every opportunity to play with very different musicians and bands. In the 1980s he studied and toured with Jaco Pastorius and began to develop his own style.[4]

In addition to a long tenure in the 1980s as house bassist for Windham Hill Records, Manring has recorded with Spastic Ink, Alex Skolnick (in the bands Skol-Patrol and Attention Deficit, also featuring Tim Alexander from Primus), Larry Kassin, Tom Darter, Steve Morse, David Cullen, Alex de Grassi, Will Ackerman and many other noted musicians. He headlined his own band, Montreux, throughout the 1980s. He has been a member of Yo Miles!, Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith's Miles Davis tribute band, since its inception. In 1994 Manring was polled Bassist of the Year by the readers of Bass Player magazine.[5] Manring's name is also tied with that of fingerstyle guitarist Michael Hedges, who was a dear friend and fellow musician. Manring toured extensively with Hedges and played on all Hedges albums except one.[5] Manring is known as a humble and gracious live performer with a gift for improvisation with guest musicians.

Since 2005 Manring is member of the band DeMania with guitarist Alex de Grassi and percussionist Christopher Garcia. Manring remains active, touring the world for performances and clinics. He lives in Oakland, California.[6]

Music and musical influences

Because of his association with the Windham Hill label Manring often was seen as a New Age musician. He doesn't see himself as belonging to a certain style or genre and often jokes about categorising his music. His album Thonk he termed for example "... the first New Age–Death metal–Fusion–album".[3]

Manring has a solid musical knowledge and uses the bass as a solo instrument usually in alternate tunings, with additional possibilities and patterns invoked on the fly with lever-activated de-tuners and bridges, somewhat like a pedal steel guitar. He wants to show that the electric bass can be used in a musically rich and expressive way.[3] Manring occasionally plays on two (or even three or four) basses at the same time during live performances. Manring is also a composer of experimental music, mixing technology and fretless bass with the sounds of kitchen implements and cardboard boxes, evidenced on his "Book of Flame" solo album.

He is a technical virtuoso, generally using his bass in very different ways. Mostly he plays a fretless bass, which gives him ample possibilities to change tone and pitch just like on acoustic bass. Manring is rhythmically very versatile and often uses polyrhythms.[3] He's said to do "... things on the electric bass that haven't been done before, are nearly impossible, and (are) illegal in most states.".[7] A unique technique employed by Manring is utilising Hipshot D tuners to change the tuning of one or more strings over the course of playing a piece.

Equipment

Manring plays a custom bass by Zon Guitars, the so-called Zon Hyperbass, a very flexible instrument, which was developed by Joseph Zon and Manring.[8] Special tuning pegs and a special bridge allow instantaneous tuning change of single strings as well as of all strings simultaneously by the action of several tiny levers, a system like that of the TransTrem guitar. The development of this special model was caused by Manring's use of open tunings. When Manring began changing tunings during pieces by turning the pegs while playing,[3] he soon realised the limitations of this approach. First he tried to overcome these limitations by changing a normal Music Man Sting Ray Bass, but then began to develop the Hyperbass with Zon. The Hyperbass has Bartolini pickups for every string and four Fishman Transducer for the body signals of the instruments.

Apart from the Hyperbass, Manring uses a whole fleet of instruments. A listing at his website gives the following models:[9]

Manring uses Markbass amplifiers and EBow/PlusBow.

Discography

collected from[10][11][12][13] and[14]

Original work

Collaborations

with Michael Hedges
with Danny Heines
with Alex Skolnick
with Montreux
with Jim Stinnett and Grant Stinnett
with John Gorka
with Paolo Giordano
with Turtle String Island Quartet
with Attention Deficit
with Jeff Loomis
with Yo Miles
with Sadhappy
with Norm Stockton
with Scott McGill and Vic Stevens
with Larry Kassin and Tom Darter
with David Cullen
with Human Factor
with Euro Groove Department
with At War With Self
with DeMania
with Jonni Lightfoot
with Jeff Dodd
with Jeff Titus
with Jim Matheos
with Yves Carbonne and Dominique Di Piazza
with Justin King (as King West Manring Vamos)
with Cyril Achard
with Sándor Szabó
with Lukas Ligeti
with Terror Syndrome
with Marco Maggiore

Compilations

Windham Hill compilations
BMG compilations
other label's compilations

DVD, video

References

  1. ↑ Tom Mulhern, Bass Heroes: Styles, Stories & Secrets of 30 Great Bass Players : from the Pages of Guitar Player Magazine, Backbeat Books, 1993, ISBN 0-87930-274-7, p.26
  2. ↑ Doug Manring Bio at Doug Manrings website. Accessed on November 22, 2007.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 MICHAEL MANRING . Beyond genres and niches by Anil Prasad. Accessed on November 22, 2007.
  4. ↑ Alum Profile – Michael Manring '79 at Berklee College. Accessed on November 24, 2007.
  5. 1 2 Michael Manring Interview by Matt Guthrie, April 15, 1994. Accessed on November 21, 2007.
  6. ↑ Michael Manring Contact Info at his website. Accessed on November 22, 2007.
  7. ↑ CD-Baby review of CD Soliloquy. Accessed on November 22, 2007.
  8. ↑ Hyperbass, website of Zon Guitars. Accessed on November 24, 2007.
  9. ↑ Michael Manring's tunings. Accessed on November 22, 2007.
  10. ↑ Michael Manring at Amazon. Search on November 24, 2007.
  11. ↑ Michael Manring's biography by Jorge Pescara (br.). Accessed on November 24, 2007.
  12. ↑ John Gorka, Musicmatch Guide. Accessed on November 24, 2007.
  13. ↑ Michael Manring, Musicmatch Guide. Accessed on November 25, 2007.
  14. ↑ Windham Hill album discography. Accessed on November 24, 2007.
  15. ↑ Carbonne – Di Piazza – Manring. Album recorded in February 2005. Accessed on May 25, 2009.
  16. ↑ "Devin Townsend Band Drummer's Terror Syndrome Project in Mixing Mode" (February 3, 2007). Blabbermouth.net.

External links

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