"Oblation" implies difficulty and optimism. The difficulty: A supplicant approaches the altar with his best offering in time of trouble. The optimism: He believes in the future.
Understanding Nick Mancini's new five-song "Oblation" was easier for those who heard his 10-piece ensemble perform it at a house concert last Friday. The hilltop space was packed with old friends, as was the bandstand, encouraging discursive ol' Nick to spend more time talking about his journey and his musicians than he did actually leading the band from behind his vibraphone. Not for naught is one of his recordings titled "The Storyteller"; yarns and music were scarcely distinguishable.
We yokked at Mancini's reminiscences of bad gigs and twists of fate, but he himself noted, as he introduced "Sirens and Saws," that it was an uplifting tune about a compound disaster. Its hesitating rhythms felt like the bumps on life's road, such as the huge tree that fell on his car (with his unfortunate instrument inside) -- no insurance, ha-ha, and Danny Janklow's ingeniously sensitive alto-sax fadeout provided the kind of satisfying conclusion that happens only in art.
It's called transcendence, bolstered by the next track on "Oblation," "Redwood." You might think Mancini would never look at another tree, but through his icy vibraphone you can almost feel him shivering and peering up a long, long trunk through a cloud of gnats toward the rays of a distant sun. Bass heartbeats from Cooper Appelt, chimy vibe tears. This kind of quiet awe renders cathedrals obsolete.
The catchy "Synodrome" feels like another Chaplinesque stumble-and-pickup; its appeal derives from the melody's many ingenious recontextualizations, and especially the stairstepping, harmonically daring guitar solo it inspired from Larry Koonse, an ever-creative L.A. mainstay whom no one should take for granted.
A special angle of the Nick Mancini picture came into focus after watching these tunes take shape in the live situation where long-acquainted musicians had a chance to stretch them out. Vibraphone and marimba are percussion instruments, and Mancini LOVES how Peter Korpela and Scott Breadman's percussion accentuates and fills out the soft press of James Yoshizawa's drums, giving the impression of insistent forward motion even behind a lilting melody such as that of "My People." And to see flutist Katisse Buckingham and clarinetist John Tegmeyer not just finishing each other's sentences but cooperating in a sensual harmonic tone palette that can only spring from experience, well . . . bandleaders prefer to write with particular players in mind, if they're lucky.
Yes, despite all life's bumps, Mancini talked again and again about his good fortune. Though he's a delightful mallet soloist (pastel-hued keyboardist Mike Ragonese often acts as his mirror when comping), he thinks of himself more as a composer, with the Collective, his precious inheritance, as his instrument. He concludes "Oblation" with "Standard Protocol," a wry smile filled with shrugs and oh-wells; his vibraphone and Tegmeyer's clarinet trail off together like a couple of friends waving as they head out after a party, one where they've told a few tales of woe. You know they'll be back.
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Listen/buy here.
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PHOTO BY FUZZY BAROQUE.