Mann, Manfred

The early years

Michael Lubovitz (later Manfred Lubovitz) ^{[3] [4]} was born in Johannesburg ( Highlands North ), into a wealthy family of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania . ^{[5] [6]} Mother is the pianist Alma Cohen ^[7] . His father is David Lubovitz, whose publisher Michael worked for some time after graduation. ^[8] He then studied classical music at the University of Witwatersrand , and performed as a jazz pianist in many clubs in Johannesburg . Between 1959 and 1961, he recorded two albums with The Vikings with his childhood friend Harry Miller .

In 1961, being a staunch opponent of apartheid in South Africa ^[1] , Manfred left first for New York, then for England. Around the same time, he began writing for Jazz News under the pseudonym Manfred Manne (also M. Manne, by the name of drummer Shelley Mann ) ^[9] , which was soon shortened to Mann. ^{[10] [11]}

Manfred Mann

The following year, he met drummer and keyboard player Mike Hagg at the Butlins Holiday Camp in Cleckton-on-Sea , and together they form a jazz-blues quintet called Mann Hugg Blues Brothers . In March 1963, the group signed a contract with HMV Records , at the suggestion of the label the name was changed to Manfred Mann . The work of this group was a mixture of rhythm and blues and pop music, and most of the material was occupied with processing works by other authors. The most successful songs were “ Do Wah Diddy Diddy ”, “Sha La La”, “Pretty Flamingo”, “ Mighty Quinn ” ^[12] .

Manfred Mann Chapter Three

The band Manfred Mann broke up in 1969, but Mann immediately forms another project with Mike Hagg called Manfred Mann Chapter Three - an experimental jazz-rock band. The group did not last long, and after the release of two albums was disbanded. In the same year, Mann starred in a cameo in the film Venus in Furs , to which he also wrote music.

Manfred Mann's Earth Band

After the collapse of Manfred Mann Chapter Three, the unstoppable Mann formed in 1971 a new band called Manfred Mann's Earth Band (short for MMEB), with which he achieved worldwide fame. Subsequently, the composition of the group changed repeatedly, its main participants were Manfred Mann and singing guitarist Mick Rogers ^[13] .

The debut album of the new collective was released in early 1972, and in the period 1972-1974 the group released five albums, the style of which was a mixture of progressive rock , symphonic rock and hard rock . Music critics praised these works, noting, in particular, Mann’s virtuoso keyboard playing. In a review of the band’s third album , critic Bruce Eder wrote: “ ... Mann invades the territory of Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson , while in general the sound of the group gets closer to Deep Purple ... The overall style of the album is somewhere in between art rock and heavy metal , with elements of folk , and all these genres are organically combined with each other ” ^[14] . The fourth album of Solar Fire became the “classic” album of the early MMEB, and the first hit of the band “ Joybringer ” (# 9, UK) ^[15] came out - a rock variation on the theme of Gustav Holst 's symphonic suite “Planets” (the theme of the fourth part of the suite was used under the name "Jupiter - the carrier of fun").

MMEB's greatest success was in the second half of the 1970s. The first hit album was the sixth album Nightingales and Bombers (1975). Its name is inspired by the recording of nightingale singing, made during the Second World War by an English naturalist during the passage of German bombers who were going to bomb Britain (a fragment of this entry sounds on the album).

The next album, The Roaring Silence (1976), climbed to # 10 on the Billboard 200 and is the most commercially successful of the band's existence. The most famous work of this album is the first track, “ Blinded by the Light, ” which is an adaptation of the song of the same name by American musician Bruce Springsteen from the debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ (1973). In 1977, it was reissued as a single, which rose to first place on the Billboard Hot 100 and entered the charts in many countries around the world.

The eighth Watch album (1978) rose to # 83 on the Billboard 200 and brought two new hits: “Davy's On The Road Again” and “ Mighty Quinn ”, which were also released as a separate single and were repeatedly performed at concerts. The second composition - processing of the famous Bob Dylan song of the same name - was already performed by Mann ten years earlier as part of Manfred Mann .

For the entire time of its existence (from 1971 to the present), the MMEB group has recorded about one and a half dozen albums, changed its composition several times and still exists.

Other

In 1971 he performed keyboard solo in Uriah Heep 's song “ July Morning ”.

In 1991, after the temporary dissolution of MMEB, Mann released a solo album called Manfred Mann's Plain Music , based on the folk music of the Great Plains of North America ^[16] . After some time, Manfred Mann's Earth Band was reassembled.

Manfred Mann has used various keyboards in his career, but he is especially known for his solos on the Minimoog synthesizer . In concert performances of MMEB, he often plays long improvisations, as well as organizes comic "competitions" between him and the guitarist.

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