Michael Manring
Michael Manring is an American bass guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Biography
Michael Manring was born in Annapolis, Maryland, as the 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 while in high school, venturing through jazz rock and fusion, playing rock classics at beer parties or pop standards in restaurants and at weddings.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. 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.
In addition to a long tenure in the 1980s as house bassist for Windham Hill Records, Manring has recorded with Spastic Ink, Alex Skolnick, 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. 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. 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.
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".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. Manring occasionally plays on two 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. He's said to do "... things on the electric bass that haven't been done before, are nearly impossible, and illegal in most states.". 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. 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, 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 transducers 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:
- Zon Legacy Elite Special fretless, aka "Bub"
- Homemade Jazz Bass-style fretless
- Zon Michael Manring Hyperbass
- Zon Custom Fretless, aka "Junior" or "Son of Bub"
- Larrivee 5-string fretless acoustic bass guitar
- MusicMan Stingray fretless
- Paroutaud Music Laboratories 5-string fretless Infinite Sustain prototype
- PRS fretless
- Riverhead Unicorn fretless
- Riverhead Unicorn fretted bass
- Zon prototype headless fretted bass, aka "Vinny"
- Zon Legacy Elite 6-string fretless
- Zon prototype Legacy 10-string bass.
Discography
Solo
- 1986 Unusual Weather
- 1989 Toward the Center of the Night
- 1991 Drastic Measures
- 1994 Thonk
- 1995 Up Close 21
- 1998 The Book of Flame
- 2005 Soliloquy
- 2020 Small Moments
Collaborations
- 1981 Breakfast in the Field
- 1984 Aerial Boundaries
- 1986 Watching My Life Go By
- 1987 Live on the Double Planet
- 1990 Taproot
- 1996 Oracle
- 1999 Torched
- 2000 Michael Hedges – The Best of Michael Hedges
- 2001 Beyond Boundaries – Guitar Solos
- 2003 Platinum & Gold Collection
- 2006 Pure Michael Hedges
- 2016 Farewell
- 2001 What Worlds They Bring
- 1997 The Skol-Patrol
- 1985 Chiaroscuro
- 1987 Sign Language
- 1989 Let Them Say
- 2008 Project M
- 2009 Dance of the Bottom Feeders
- 2011 Welcome to Our Clef
- 2012 Convergencia
- 1991 Jack's Crows
- 1992 Temporary Road
- 1994 Out of the Valley
- 1996 Between Five and Seven
- 1998 After Yesterday
- 2001 Company You Keep
- 2006 Writing in the Margins
- 1994 Paolo Giordano
- 2000 Kid in a Toy Shop
- 1995 By the Fireside
- 1998 Attention Deficit
- 2001 The Idiot King
- 2008 Zero Order Phase
- 1998 Yo Miles!
- 2004 Sky Garden
- 2005 Upriver
- 1998 Good Day Bad Dream
- 2005 Outerspaces
- 2009 Tea in the Typhoon
- 2001 Addition by Subtraction
- 2003 Controlled by Radar
- 2006 What We Do
- 2001 Scatter
- 2001 Equilibré
- 2002 Human Factor
- 2005 Optical Illusion
- 2005 Torn Between Dimensions
- 2006 DeMania
- 2006 "BLU"
- 2007 Falling Awake
- 2007 Wood Dragon
- 2011 What We Don't Know
- 2013 Restive Nocture
- 1999 Away with Words
- 2005 Carbonne – Di Piazza – Manring
- 2008 I-XII
- 2008 A Place in Time
- 2010 Inner Smile
- 2011 Pattern Time
- 2008 Terror Syndrome
- 2013 "In Winter"
- 2010 "Sacred Love"
- 2016 "Soothe"
- 2014 PassWords
- 2015 Heart and Spirit
- 2016 Lifelike Boy Android nds
Compilations
- 1982 An Evening with Windham Hill Live
- 1985 Windham Hill – Winter
- 1985 Windham Hill Sampler '86
- 1985 Windham Hill Sampler '85
- 1986 A Winter's Solstice II
- 1989 Windham Hill Radio Sampler I
- 1990 Windham Hill – The First Ten Years
- 1990 A Winter's Solstice III
- 1990 Restore the Shore
- 1991 Windham Hill Sampler '92
- 1991 Windham Hill Guitar Sampler II
- 1993 A Winter's Solstice IV
- 1995 Heal the Bay
- 1996 Sanctuary – 20 Years of Windham Hill
- 1996 Redbook Relaxers – Daybreak
- 1996 Redbook Relaxers – Dreamscape
- 1996 Carols of Christmas
- 1997 Summer Solstice – A Windham Hill Collection
- 1997 Redbook Relaxers – Lullabies
- 1997 Redbook Relaxers – Dinner Party
- 1997 Redbook Relaxers – Between Friends
- 1997 Redbook Relaxers – After Hours
- 1997 Redbook Relaxers – Piano Reflections
- 1998 Thanksgiving – A Windham Hill Collection
- 1998 Yoga Zone – Music for Yoga Practice
- 1998 Conversations with God II
- 1999 Sun Dance – Summer Solstice III
- 2000 Windham Hill Classics – Morning
- 2000 Windham Hill Classics – Journeys
- 2000 Windham Hill Classics – Harvest
- 2000 Windham Hill Classics – Angels
- 2000 The Mozart Variations
- 2002 Spirit of Life
- 2003 Windham Hill Chill II
- 2003 Prayer – A Windham Hill Collection
- 2003 Adagio – A Windham Hill Collection
- 2003 A Winter's Solstice V
- 2003 A Windham Hill Wedding Album
- 2004 Winter Wonderland – A Windham Hill Collection
- 2004 Lullaby – A Windham Hill Collection
- 2005 A Quiet Revolution – 30 Years of Windham Hill
- 2005 Essential Winter's Solstice
- 1997 Twilight Jazz
- 1997 Meditation – Revive
- 1997 Candlelight Moments – Romantic Moments
- 1997 Candlelight Moments – Meditative Moments
- 1998 Moonlight Reflections
- 1998 Quiet Moods – Romantic Reflections
- 1998 Quiet Moods – Meditative Moments
- 2000 New Age Christmas
- 2000 Awake
- 2000 Yoga – Energy
- 2000 Yoga – Balance Energy and Strength
- 2001 Meditation – Relax Restore and Revive
- 2002 Meditation – Renew
- 2002 Meditation – Relax
- 1994 We Sing to Open Ears
- 1996 Different Mozart
- 1997 Heritage
- 1997 A Very Green Christmas
- 1999 Moonlight Moments
- 1999 Soundscape – New Age Reflections
- 1999 Bass Talk, Vol. 6
- 1999 Bass Day '98
- 2000 Dreamscape
- 2003 Guitar Harvest I
- 2004 Healing Garden – The Art of Relaxation
- 2005 Brazil Duets
- 2006 Woodsongs: An Acoustic Guitar Collection
- 2010 The Quantum Activist Soundtrack
Video
- 1996 Bass Essentials
- 1998 The Artist’s Profile: Michael Manring
- 1998 Bass Day '98
- 2000 Michael Manring: Instructional Bass
- 2008 Michael Manring: Resonances
- 2009 The Quantum Activist Documentary Soundtrack