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From influences including Aretha Franklin, Sun Ra, Tim Buckley, Billie Holiday and Mervyn Peake, Henry Manetta has forged a unique and improvisatory vocal synthesis of Jazz, Blues and Soul. He first stepped onto the stage as vocalist with Precious Memories, the legendary Adelaide avant-garde Blues band that included Clare Moore (of The Royal Dave Graney Show) and guitarist Patrick O’Grady. Precious Memories were the house band for Bijou, a series of underground concert extravaganzas that ran for some years. After moving to Melbourne Henry sang with such notable groups as Jump The Gun, Zulu Din, The Immortals and Steam and has shared bills with Kate Ceberano, Stephen Cummings, Paul Kelly and Joe Camilleri amongst others. His debut album ‘Shiver’ was recorded with a line up that included Australian Jazz legends Bob Sedergreen and Geoff Kluke. In the wake of this CD, Henry put together his own band, Henry Manetta and the Trip, an oblique Soul/Jazz combo that regularly headlined at Dizzy’s Jazz Club in Richmond, Melbourne, and has supported Renee Geyer. Other highlights have been vocal performances with the Steve Sedergreen Trio, a duet with Blues icon Wendy Saddington, performances with Harry Angus, Axle Whitehead and Pete Mitchell. Mark Matthews of Sexion plays with the Trip when they grace Sydney zones. Henry and the Trip played a sold out show dedicated to Nina Simone at Fortyfive Downstairs, produced successful shows for The Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe Festivals, and launched their album ‘Bijou Box’ to a packed house at Dizzy’s, and at The Governor Hindmarsh in Adelaide and Soup Plus In Sydney. One of the last Trip performances at Dizzy’s before its untimely closure was “Brainville”, an evening dedicated to the music of Sun Ra. Henry and the Trip also work with the new spoken word movement in shows such as “Erosophy.” Henry also sings with Anna Gilkison in Adam Rudegeair’s funk juggernaut Rhymes with Donkey and Adam Rudegeair’s One Hat Band. A live performance and interview from the ABC studios can be found on the DIG internet radio website. ‘Henry’s music is very individual and very spaced out and very physical and very OUT THERE’…. A brilliant jazz soul singer who was playing gigs in Adelaide when Tim Buckley was still kicking so its kind of silly for me to say that that is the direction he’s coming from. Mad, mixed up free jazz and soul like no-one else would think of doing…..Dave Graney. ‘Henry occupies a unique space within the diverse musical soundscape that is Melbourne’….Martin Lesley, Jazz Rivers, 3MBS FM. ‘Manetta’s vocal improvisations have to be heard to be believed’…Beat Magazine. ‘Every tune on this recording explores rhythmic variations that are definitely ‘outside the square’….The sensuous treat, ‘Misterioso’, composed by Thelonious Monk, is a highlight worthy of immediately pressing the repeat button, while Cole Porter’s ‘I Love Paris’ is a riot. After decades spent worrying about vocalists who take no chances, playing it straight between very narrow parameters, this is a breath of fresh air…..Alternately manic, hilarious and ultra-cool, this is good, good, good.’….from a review of ‘Bijou Box’ by Ron Spain, Jazz Scene. ‘Henry bends the syllables and harmonies until they surrender or snap.’…John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald. ‘Jazz is, or should be, every anarchists favourite kind of music, and this band are up there with the most exalted potentates of the form this particular anarchist has ever seen.’….Tony Mc Mahon, Inpress. ‘Henry Manetta’s voice is complexly, not simply, jazz as body language. Together, the postmodern lovers, Rudegeair and Manetta, showed us what the art of jazz is becoming’…Helen Milte Bastow, Inpress. ‘Manetta’s singing style is strongly jazz flavoured, bending and extending notes and phrases in unusual ways, his slight figure moving like an electric eel.’…John McBeath, The Advertiser.
Henry met his main man on piano, Adam Rudegeair, on stage at Dizzy’s, they improvised an extended piece on the spot, and then introduced themselves later. A musical marriage was born, and they have been performing and writing together ever since. Adam, as musical director for the Trip, has traipsed around Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide with Henry as well as conceiving and executing the all original funk orchestra, Rhymes with Donkey, and his One Hat Band. He ran the twice weekly Dizzy’s jam sessions for two years and comes from an illustrious pedigree of tutelage by Steve and Bob Sedergreen amongst others, and an insatiable love of Monk, Prince, Medeski Martin and Wood and Betty Davis. Adam released his first CD ‘Transmogrify’ in 2005, which featured all original compositions and a startling appearance by Henry on the ecstatic funk workout “Argyle Girl.” | Top of page |
Born in the Czech Republic, Adam transported to Australia with his family at the age of three. After high school he ensconced himself at NMIT and completed a two year advanced Diploma in Music Performance. He is currently busy attaining his Music Improvisation Degree at the Victorian College of the Arts and has already performed with many noted Melbourne Jazz musicians. As well as being the permanent bassist of choice in Henry Manetta and the Trip, he is also a member of the Jack Pantasis Quartet. He is beginning to learn indispensable Trip lessons regarding the value of nocturnalism, not to mention gaining a great deal of educative reassurance from Henry regarding the brilliance of Absinthe, Pernod and other exotic lifestyle items at the bars of various Trip performance venues such as the Blue Diamond. | Top of page |
The mysterious Mr. Hay has been tutored by some of the most respected
teachers in Melbourne. He rides the snow caps of rhythm section waves
necessary to the eternal reinvention of Trip songs with a glamorous
sense of seeming effortlessness. | Top of page |
The Trip re- unites Clare and Henry many worlds after their initial Precious Memories musical forays. After providing a choir of harmonic layers to Henry’s albums ‘Shiver’ and ‘Bijou Box’ Clare has become a regular feature of the Trip live Shows, contributing harmonies, bells, bongos and related percussionistic lace. She is the drummer for Dave Graney and The Lurid Yellow Mist and has played in their bands The Moodists, The Coral Snakes and The Dave Graney Show since 1978. In 2001, Clare released her debut solo CD The Third Woman, on which she wrote, sang and played nearly everything. In 2002 – 2003 Clare and Dave co-wrote the score for the Tony Martin film Bad Eggs. Hashish and Liquor, a luxurious double Dave Graney and Clare Moore album was released in 2006 and then in 2007, the beautiful vibes piano and acoustic guitar set ‘Keepin’ it Unreal.’
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Ron Romero first picked up the Saxophone at age 16 and hasn’t put it down since. Playing his way through his high school and college years in California, Ron was soon working professionally, often doubling on saxes, clarinet and flute. After orchestrally accompanying countless stage productions across the state, Ron then took to the sea, and survived 5 contracts for Princess Cruises, as a member of the cruiseship’s stageband. Ron is currently completing his Bachelor of Music at Monash University in Melbourne under the watchful eye of Jamie Oehlers, and can be seen in any and every live music venue in town that plays jazz. | Top of page | |
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