Michael Manring
Soliloquy

Service announcement for those who know him: Michael Manring has finally decided to compose an album as God intended, because despite Manring being one of the best bassists currently in circulation (from a technical/performance point of view), due to his disproportionately immense ego, in my opinion, he had never managed to release a truly exalted quality album, whether due to sounds that were at one moment too new age or at another too close to metal, the fact remains that he had never impressed me much.

So, we last saw him in 1998 with the decent "The Book Of Flame", an album that in some ways was a bit subdued and too inconcrete, followed by a full 7 years of silence before returning to the market in 2005 with this "Soliloquy", an album that finally more concretely marks the personality and style of a man who too often got lost in unnecessary frivolities. But what does this "Soliloquy" offer? The answer is simple, because during the scarcely 30 minutes of listening, divided into nine songs, there is a marked inclination towards a particularly edgy jazz, influenced by rock and more rarely by a few more metallic moments, which in this case does not ruin the final result.

The reference points from which the bassist draws are easily traceable to people of the caliber of James Jamerson and Jaco Pastorius, remaining, however, more distant from the decidedly jazzy standards of the two masters and preferring a path made more of street music, lived and visceral; thus, moments at the brink of funky tainted with jazz alternate, as in the opening song "Helios", an extremely rhythmic piece in which the bass, the only instrument present, dictates both the rhythmic and melodic session with a truly remarkable final result. Then, we also encounter episodes clearly inspired by Pastorius's work, as can be noticed in "I Left America", the saddest song on the entire album. As mentioned before, Manring also enjoys composing pieces influenced by metal, and here we have in the last track, "Selene", a break, towards the end, of this rock that seems almost more suited to bands like Apocalyptica than to a bassist of Michael's caliber.

Even though the album is not entirely free from criticism, an example being the senseless "Makes Perfect Sense To Me", we can safely say that we are faced with a fairly good work, which is pleasant to listen to, but requires a long listening period before it can be appreciated. Hoping that this young 48-year-old continues to persevere on the path he has taken in this "Soliloquy", I can only recommend listening to this small work, which will not remain in the history of music but remains far more than decent.