May 1997

Mat Maneri
Fever Bed
Leo Records

By Chuck Berg

This galvanizing date by violinist Mat Maneri's trio is generated from an approach in which "inside" and "outside" collapse to become one. Even with "conventional" tunes such as Miles Davis's "Blue Seven" and Wayne Shorter's "Iris," the instinctual interactions between Maneri's plaintive violin, Ed Schuller's probing bass and Randy Peterson jabbing drums unreel in compellingly eccentric ways. That the music succeeds so well is a tribute to the group's musicianship and to a kind of improvisation that requires body and soul-and ears!