Died On This Date (August 24, 2009) Joe Maneri / Jazz Saxophonist
themusicsover Joe Maneri
February 9, 1927 – August 24, 2009
Joe Maneri was jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who came to some prominence during the ’90s. He specialized in taking traditional ethnic folk elements and embellishing them with his own avant garde free-form jazz. He has been compared to Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra. Thanks to composer John Zorn, a 1963 unreleased album found a home on his Avant Records in the late ’90s, exposing him to new fans than ever before. Maneri went on to record several more albums throughout the late ’90s and 2000s. Fan and comic writer, Harvey Pekar used Maneri’s music in his 2003 film, American Splendor. Joe Maneri passed away at a Boston hospital due to complications from heart surgery. He was 82.
What You Should Own
Harvey Pekar is best remembered as an underground comic book writer whose autobiographical American Splendor series inspired the critically acclaimed film of the same name. Paul Giamatti portrayed Pekar in the movie. But Pekar was also a jazz music lover and critic whose essays appeared in some of the most respected periodicals in North America and were often read on NPR radio. He primarily focused on jazz’s golden age, but also found room to highlight some of the music’s more experimental artists like Fred Frith and