Sarah Mannng

According to famed jazz writer Nat Hentoff, alto saxophonist and composer Sarah Manning “can swing as naturally as she breathes – an enlivening presence in the new generation of jazz makers. Manning plays – and writes – in what is unmistakably her own voice.” Her singular dedication to developing that voice distinguishes her from her peers, and illuminates a path rife with intrigue. Originally from New England and now back on the East Coast, Manning immersed herself in jazz at a young age, playing in the combo at Hartford’s Artist Collective as a high school junior, a school founded by the great saxophonist Jackie McLean. McLean covered his ears in mock horror at her purposely-dissonant arranging debut, but encouraged the teen and she kept writing. A full scholarship at Interlochen Arts Academy for her senior year in high school led to her acceptance into the Jazz Studies Program at William Paterson College, directed by bassist Rufus Reid. In search of an interdisciplinary education, she left William Paterson after two years and got her degree in Women’s Studies from Smith College in Massachusetts. It was in Massachusetts that she was able to study with Dr. Yusef Lateef, whose emphasis on searching for one’s own voice in music gave her the courage to pursue her own path. That path took her to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2002. While living on the West Coast, Manning produced two albums as a composer and bandleader and performed at top venues from Yoshi’s in Oakland to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz. Her first release, House on Eddy Street (2004), is a critically acclaimed album of her compositions with Randy Porter (piano), John Wiitala (bass), and Akira Tana (drums). In April 2005's JazzTimes, David Franklin observed, "Sounding like no one but herself, she possesses a well-focused, slightly edgy tone that suits equally her firmly swinging, uptempo postbop excursions and her highly melodic slow-tempo explorations.” KCSM DJ Michael Burman named it number five in his list of the top ten new releases of 2004. Her second album, Live at Yoshi’s: Two Rooms Same Door, was released on ArtistShare in 2006 and features seven new compositions performed by the same quartet. 2008 found Manning back East and she finally made that inevitable move to NYC on April Fool’s Day, 2009. During her first six month’s in New York, she performed at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in the After Hours series with her band, and was signed to Posi-Tone Records. Her Posi-Tone release Dandelion Clock (May 2010), has had widespread critical success, was the first choice for best albums of 2010 of critic Carlo Wolff, and contributed to Manning placing third for “Best New Artist” in the JazzTimes 2010 Reader’s Poll. She performed at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival on September 3rd, 2011 and debuted her new band, Harmonious Creature, at I-Beam Brooklyn on February 17th, followed by a performance with the same group at Long Island's Jazz on the Vine on February 19th at the Peconic Bay Winery in Cutchogue. The group features new compositions with Aram Bajakian on guitar, Skye Steele on violin, Rene Hart on bass and Jerome Jennings on drums.