The Manhattan Project (album)
Encyclopedia
The Manhattan Project is a jazz fusion
album, the only recording to be made by a band of the same name comprising Wayne Shorter
, Michel Petrucciani
, Stanley Clarke
, Lenny White
, Gil Goldstein
and Pete Levin. The arrangements were written by Lenny White and Gil Goldstein, and the album was recorded live before an audience at Chelsea Studios
, New York, with Alec Head engineering. Executive producers were Michael Cuscuna
and Stephen Reed.
The project was the brainchild of White, who proposed transforming traditional jazz standards based on saxophone/piano arrangements with multiple synthesizers. The musicians invited for the project ranged from jazz traditionalist Petrucciani to longtime fusion experimenter Clarke. The project was also just one of many collaborations between White and Clarke. The musicians experimented with blues and funk arrangements of the standard jazz songs, and used bothe electric and acoustic instruments.
The 1989 album has since been augmented by a DVD featuring a performance filmed the same year and released in 2005. The performance included a seven-song set by Shorter, Petrucciani, Clarke, and White.
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
album, the only recording to be made by a band of the same name comprising Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
, Michel Petrucciani
Michel Petrucciani
Michel Petrucciani was a French jazz pianist.-Biography:...
, Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
, Lenny White
Lenny White
Leonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...
, Gil Goldstein
Gil Goldstein
Gil Goldstein is American jazz pianist and synthesizer player who started on the accordion.He began studying accordion at age 5, but later moved on to cello and piano. He studied at the Berklee College of Music and by 1973 was working with Pat Martino, Lee Konitz, and others. He started with the...
and Pete Levin. The arrangements were written by Lenny White and Gil Goldstein, and the album was recorded live before an audience at Chelsea Studios
Chelsea Studios
Chelsea Studios is a television studio and sound stage at 221 West 26th Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City.-History:The building was originally an armory that was home to Ninth Mounted Calvary which moved to 14th Street in 1914....
, New York, with Alec Head engineering. Executive producers were Michael Cuscuna
Michael Cuscuna
Michael Cuscuna is an American jazz record producer and writer. He is a leading discographer of Blue Note Records....
and Stephen Reed.
The project was the brainchild of White, who proposed transforming traditional jazz standards based on saxophone/piano arrangements with multiple synthesizers. The musicians invited for the project ranged from jazz traditionalist Petrucciani to longtime fusion experimenter Clarke. The project was also just one of many collaborations between White and Clarke. The musicians experimented with blues and funk arrangements of the standard jazz songs, and used bothe electric and acoustic instruments.
The 1989 album has since been augmented by a DVD featuring a performance filmed the same year and released in 2005. The performance included a seven-song set by Shorter, Petrucciani, Clarke, and White.
Track listing
- "Old Wine, New Bottles" (Lenny WhiteLenny WhiteLeonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...
) – 6:54 - "Dania" (Jaco Pastorious)– 7:38
- "Michel's Waltz" (Michel PetruccianiMichel PetruccianiMichel Petrucciani was a French jazz pianist.-Biography:...
) – 4:40 - "Stella by StarlightStella By Starlight"Stella by Starlight" is a jazz standard written by Victor Young and featured in The Uninvited, a 1944 film released by Paramount Pictures. Originally played in the film as an instrumental theme song without lyrics, it was turned over to Ned Washington, who wrote the lyrics for it in 1946...
" (Ned WashingtonNed WashingtonNed Washington was an American lyricist.-Biography:Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962...
/ Victor YoungVictor YoungVictor Young was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.-Biography:...
) – 8:45 - "Goodbye Pork Pie HatGoodbye Pork Pie Hat"Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a jazz standard composed by Charles Mingus originally recorded by his sextet in 1959 as listed below, and released on his album Mingus Ah Um. Mingus wrote it as an elegy for saxophonist Lester Young, who had died two months prior to the recording session...
" (Charles MingusCharles MingusCharles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
) - 9:28 - "Virgo Rising" (Wayne ShorterWayne ShorterWayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
) - 5:41 - "Nefertiti" (Wayne ShorterWayne ShorterWayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
) - 8:54 - "SummertimeSummertime (song)"Summertime" is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, although the song is also co-credited to Ira Gershwin by ASCAP....
" (George GershwinGeorge GershwinGeorge Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
/ Ira GershwinIra GershwinIra Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
/ DuBose HeywardDuBose HeywardEdwin DuBose Heyward was a white American author best known for his 1925 novel Porgy. This novel was the basis for the play by the same name and, in turn, the opera Porgy and Bess with music by George Gershwin.-Life and career:Heyward was born in 1885 in Charleston, South Carolina and was a...
) - 8:54
Personnel
- Wayne ShorterWayne ShorterWayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
- Tenor and Soprano Saxophone - Michel PetruccianiMichel PetruccianiMichel Petrucciani was a French jazz pianist.-Biography:...
- Piano - Stanley ClarkeStanley ClarkeStanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
- Acoustic and Electric Bass - Lenny WhiteLenny WhiteLeonard White III, better known as Lenny White is an American jazz fusion drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:...
- Drums - Gil GoldsteinGil GoldsteinGil Goldstein is American jazz pianist and synthesizer player who started on the accordion.He began studying accordion at age 5, but later moved on to cello and piano. He studied at the Berklee College of Music and by 1973 was working with Pat Martino, Lee Konitz, and others. He started with the...
- Keyboards - Pete Levin - Keyboards