Over the years Michael Mantler has worked with many different musicians (and authors), all contributing to his music in their own particular ways. But examining the whole of his work, one finds certain people that keep reappearing and who obviously have had a very special significance and importance.

An indispensable collaborator and source of inspiration, she has contributed to Mantler's  work for a long period of time not only as "third ear" and as producer of many of his recordings, but also as pianist (appreciated for her originality and her exceptional musicality). On the other hand,  Mantler was also very much involved in her own music and career not only as producer and coordinator of her work, but as performer on many of her recording and touring projects as well. A very long mutual relationship on a musical, business and personal basis

Jack Bruce is one of the two most important and distinctive voices in Mantler's universe. After their original meeting during the production of Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill, they have worked together since 1973 on a number of recordings as well as live performances. He has provided, almost without exception, the voice for Mantler's interpretations of Samuel Beckett's texts. He appears on No Answer, Live, Many Have No Speech (here also interpreting songs with Ernst Meister's texts in German!), Folly Seeing All This, and The School of Understanding.

A world-renowned composer, singer and bassist, Jack Bruce is probably best known as member of the phenomenal '60s band Cream, which sold 35 Million albums and was awarded the first ever platinum disc for Wheels of Fire. Previously he had worked in blues bands with Alexis Korner, Graham Bond, Manfred Mann and John Mayall. After the break-up of Cream he began a solo career, recording and touring with the likes of Larry Coryell, Tony Williams, John McLaughlin, Gary Moore, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and many others. In 1993 he was inducted into the "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame" in Los Angeles, which included a reunion with his Cream partners Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker.

Equally at home in the fields of jazz and rock, his solo albums Songs for a Tailor and Harmony Row remain classics. His interest in World music led to the albums A Question of Time and Somethin Els, which was followed by an interlude of touring and recording a top-ten album with BBM, another power trio with Gary Moore and Ginger Baker. Today Jack Bruce is living quietly with his wife and children in the English country side, concentrating on more intimate music making such as is demonstrated by his most recent release Monkjack, an album of songs accompanied mostly by solo piano and organ duets. His latest public appearences have been with Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band, as well as with his own band Jack Bruce and Friends.

For more (and most recent) information go to the Jack Bruce homepage

As Mantler's second major and unique voice, Robert Wyatt has been inextricably linked with his music. His whimsical interpretations of songs with Edward Gorey's texts on The Hapless Child are classics, on Silence he not only provided vocals but also percussion tracks, on Many Have No Speech he sings Philippe Soupault's texts in French (!), and on The School of Understanding album he contributes one central song (which, despite his refusal to perform live, appears nevertheless during performances in a specially produced music video clip).

Their most recent collaboration is Hide and Seek, an album featuring duets with Susi Hyldgaard, with music composed by Mantler to texts of Paul Auster.

Wyatt was a founding member of the influential English group Soft Machine. Through successive albums, they soon moved toward a more jazz-based fusion with rock music, punctuated by Wyatt's distinctive drumming and vocals, attracting a massive following across Europe. After extensive touring, Wyatt left to pursue a solo career as a singer/composer, which resulted in a number of albums, including the unforgettable and highly acclaimed Rock Bottom and even a hit-single with his version of Neil Diamond's I'm a Believer. His surprisingly diverse career includes a wide range of events, from tours with Jimi Hendrix and recording with Carla Bley and Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, to supporting a variety of political and civil-rights causes, singing John Cage songs and working with Brian Eno. A Robert Wyatt biography/history, Wrong Movements, was published some time ago, and Virgin Records has released Going Back A Bit, a double CD retrospective of Wyatt's career. Among his latest recordings (on Rykodisc) are Shleep and Cuckooland (featuring the voice and compositions of another Mantler, namely Karen, Michael's daughter), and most recently, Comicopera (on Domino Records).

Collaborated with Michael Mantler as synthesist on several recording and performing projects, including Alien (an almost entirely synthesized "orchestral" piece), Live, and (primarily as singer) in The School of Understanding.

He has worked as keyboardist with a great range of musicians, among them Herbie Mann, Elvin Jones, Tommy Flanagan, the Lighthouse All Stars, Emil Richards, Gil Evans, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, John Carter, John Lennon, Leo Sayer and Meredith Monk, and has appeared with the London and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras. For many years he was a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention, appearing on 105 (!) of their recordings. A long-time Los Angeles resident, he has written music for many plays as well as films, including work on Francis Ford Coppola's award-winning Apocalypse Now. Recently he has been featured as lead vocalist with The Grandmothers rock band. His latest solo album release is Hear Me Out on Echograph Records.

Appears on Mantler's Live album as pianist and bassist, and as singer in The School of Understanding.

He was born in North Wales and educated at Cambridge University (with a degree in English Literature). During the early days of his career he has been bassist and collaborator with many English "art rock" and jazz bands, including Henry Cow, Fred Frith, Robert Wyatt, Mike Oldfield, Link Wray and National Health. He soon started solo projects including the first notable album Kew Rhone (it was during that production that Greaves and Mantler originally met), a collaboration with Peter Blegvad which continues until today. He then went on to perform and record with The Pedestrians, The Penguin Café Orchestra, The Lodge, Peter Gordon and Michael Nyman. He has lived in France now for some time, mostly working on his own touring and recording projects as pianist - composer - singer.

Has been a part of Mantler's music as early as the the Jazz Composer's Orchestra sessions (where his bass was featured on Communications No.10) and then continued to provide the solid and always inventive rhythmic base for some of Mantler's occasional live performances and recordings. He appears on a number of his earlier albums, including The Hapless Child, Movies, More Movies and Something There.

Perhaps taking up the role of Carla Bley as Mantler's preferred "musical" pianist, Karen participated in the recording of his Folly Seeing All This (where she also contributes a vocal counterpart to Jack Bruce), and was next featured as a singer on the recording and in performances of The School of Understanding.

Daughter of Michael Mantler and Carla Bley, she started performing at a very early age. Her first singing appearance was in 1970 on Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill at the age of four, and again three years later on Tropic Appetites. She then played glockenspiel in the Carla Bley Band and appeared on the album Musique Mecanique. After attending Berklee College of Music in Boston she went on to form her own band which performed in the USA as well as in Europe and recorded two albums for ECM/XtraWATT (My Cat Arnold and Get The Flu). She rejoined the Very Big Carla Bley Band as the organ and harmonica player, touring and recording, and also appeared on recordings by Steve Weisberg, Motohiko Hino, Steve Swallow and Robbie Dupree.

In 1996 she recorded a third album of her own compositions called Farewell, again for ECM/XtraWATT, and she also toured Europe as a Duo with drummer Michael Evans. In 1997 she appeared as a singer and keyboard player in a series of performances of Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill in Cologne, and again for a European tour in 1998.

Another CD of her own compositions called Karen Mantler's Pet Project, was released by Virgin Classics in 2000. Most recently she has collaborated with John Greaves (both recording and with his Dondestan live project) and with Robert Wyatt, contributing songs and appearing on his Cuckooland CD.

Nick Mason, Pink Floyd drummer, who Mantler met first during the production of The Hapless Child, where he provided some engineering work at his Britannia Row studios, continued to be involved on several record productions (Something There, Live) as well as live performances (a radio concert at WDR in Cologne and at the Frankfurt Art-Rock Festival), providing the rock drumming Mantler had become extremely fond of during a certain period in his musical evolvement. In exchange, Mantler became involved as trumpet player (as well as recording engineer) on Mason's solo album Fictitious Sports. Their collaboration was recently revived with Mason appearing as soloist in Mantler's Concertos project at the Berlin JazzFest 2007.

It was also through him that Mantler was introduced to Rick Fenn, the guitarist who was to fulfill  the electric guitar role so important in his music during several of his next projects, such as the Live, Many Have No Speech and Folly Seeing All This albums. Rick Fenn has been a member of 10cc since 1976. He also toured and recorded with many others, including Mike Oldfield, Rick Wakeman, Elkie Brooks, and Cliff Richard. He recorded a solo album (Profiles) with Nick Mason in 1985, and has written music for television and films, including the sound track for White Of The Eye by Donald Cammell.

Samuel Beckett has been of great importance to Michael Mantler. His words have had a very special significance to him ever since he first discovered the novel WATT. Forming a continuous thread throughout his work, they continue to do so until today.

His first use of Beckett texts appears in the album No Answer (segments from the novel How It Is), continuing to Something There, which originally formed the basis for an instrumental piece,  but was later to reappear as a song on Many Have No Speech, which also includes other new texts from Beckett's Mirlitonnades. Several of these songs appear again in other versions on the Live album. And finally, Beckett's last poem, What Is The Word, was recorded on the album Folly Seeing All This, sung, as all of his previous songs with Beckett's words, by Jack Bruce. Another interpretation of that poem is included in and represents the conclusion to Mantler's The School of Understanding.

With Mona Larsen he has found yet another exceptionally interesting voice who has contributed an unparalleled emotional depth to his Cerco Un Paese Innocente album (singing brilliantly in Italian - not her native language...!). She has also been a member of his Chamber Music and Songs Ensemble (Songs and One Symphony) and appears in an important role in The School of Understanding.

She is one of Europe's finest singers and has worked with many musicians and groups including Palle Mikkelborg, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Thomas Clausen, Thad Jones, Clark Terry, the Danish Radio Big Band, the WDR (Cologne) Big Band and the Danish Radio Concert Orchestra. Her rock-oriented Halberg/Larsen Band was one of Denmark's most popular commercial groups for years, also marking her debut as composer/lyricist. She has recorded many albums, including Ships In The Night (with pianist Jørgen Emborg), as well as Freedom Jazz Dance (a collaboration with singer Norma Winstone). She has frequently performed live with Emborg as well as with with her own quintet with Lotte Anker and continues to appear often with Thomas Clausen. A trio project with Kim Kristensen and Fredrik Lundin was released on CD as Erindringens Brønd. Her most recent recordings are Never Let Me Go and Grains of Sand.

For more (and most recent) information go to the Mona Larsen homepage.

Another find from the Danish jazz scene was guitarist Bjarne Roupé, continuing the tradition of electric (and in this case, also acoustic) guitar soloists in Mantler's music as a member of the Chamber Music and Songs Ensemble and participating in the Cerco Un Paese Innocente and School of Understanding recordings and performances. He continued with appearances on Songs and One Symphony and Hide and Seek.

He is a well-known and immensely experienced musician who has performed and recorded with a multitude of musicians and groups, including the Danish Radio Big Band, Palle Mikkelborg and Miles Davis (Aura), the group Ocean Fables with Marilyn Mazur, Bo Stief's Chasing Dreams, as well as his own groups. He also works freelance in the theaters and recording studios and teaches at Copenhagen's Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium.

He was the soloist on Guitar during its premiere performance at the Berlin JazzFest 2007, as well as on its subsequent recording released on Concertos. His latest collaboration with Michael Mantler is For Two, released in 2011.

For more (and most recent) information go to the Bjarne Roupé homepage.

Kim Kristensen, also involved in Mantler's recent live and recording projects (Cerco Un Paese Innocente, School of Understanding and Songs and One Symphony), has led various ensembles of his own as composer and keyboardist, and his group Ildvæverne was featured and recorded during the Jazzpar Prize concerts 1993. He has appeared with many groups live and on records, among them Ocean Fables and Frederik Lundin/Trine-Lise Væring. His compositions have been performed by the Danish Radio Concert Orchestra, Ars Nova, Jazzgroup 90, the New Music Orchestra, the Danish Radio Big Band, the New Danish Saxophonquartet, the Esbjeg Chamber Ensemble and the Copenhagen Art Ensemble. He has also composed music for the theater and collaborated on a project with painter Bjarne Werner Sørensen. Among his recent record releases are Nomads of Tomorrow with Jens Winther, Erindringens Brønd with Mona Larsen, Visible Secrets with his SOUK trio, and Streaming Steps with the Letmark Quartet.

For more (and most recent) information go to the Kim Kristensen homepage.

Susi Hyldgaard first worked with Michael Mantler in the recording and performances of The School of Understanding and their latest collaboration is Hide and Seek, featuring her voice as well as her accordion playing, not only on the recording, but also in its theatrical productions.

She is one of Denmark's most exciting and original multitalented artists (singer, songwriter, instrumentalist). Her debut CD My Female Family, supported by live and TV appearances, produced not only intense media interest in general, but also unanimous critical acclaim. This was followed by Something Special Just  For  You, which was equally well-received, and in 1999 she won a Danish GRAMMY award.

Having been classically trained as pianist and singer, she already won Berlingske Tidendes Musikpris at the age of 16. Her continuing interest in other types of music has also led her to study voice in India, as well as to attending Berklee College in the USA, and even to working for Danmarks Radio's classical music program Bolero as journalist/broadcaster.

She has participated in a variety of recordings and performances with, among others, Go 4, Dalia Faitelson and Marilyn Mazur. She continues record and to tour throughout Europe with her own bands. Her latest solo release is It's Love We Need.

Foe more (and most recent) information go to the Susi Hyldgaard homepage.

Per Jørgensen, who brilliantly appeared in the important role of the "Teacher" in Mantler's recording and live productions of The School of Understanding, has been a major creative force on Norway's jazz scene for many years. Although appearing here as a singer, his main instrument is actually the trumpet.

Played early on with various bands in Norway, among them the African-inspired Tamma E'Olen, reflecting his growing interest in ethnic music. His first band as a leader was Artists Decided, which was also involved in projects with painter and performance artist Kurt Johannesen.

His musical ideas were later continued and developed together with pianist Jon Balke and drummer Audun Kleive, forming the trio Jøkleba. He has toured extensively in Europe, USA, Japan and India, as well as released a number of recordings, the latest one being Jøkleba Live.

He has also worked with many other well-known Scandinavian groups, including Pierre Dørge's New Jungle Orchestra, Marilyn Mazur's Pulse Unit and Jon Balke's Magnetic North Orchestra, and has recently appeared in duo performances with singer Cæcilie Norby. He was awarded the Jossa-Jazz Pris and was elected "Jazz Musician of the Year" by the Norwegian Jazz Musicians Association.

His most recent collaboration with Michael Mantler was during the live performances of Hide and Seek.