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Ray Manzarek is an artist of scope, vision and taste. He’s most famous, of course, as keyboard player in
The Doors, a band whose music knows no borders, incorporating rock, jazz, blues, pre-World War II
German cabaret, beat poetry, cinematic imagery and dynamics, youthful rebellion – you name it. Doors
music was innovative in the 60s; today, though very much of its time, it is also timeless, and it remains
extremely popular and influential.
So, too, does Ray Manzarek. Now age 67, he is still an active, wide-ranging and daring artist, with two
exciting new projects: a novel, Snake Moon (Night Shade Books), which is a Civil War-era ghost story;
and a CD, Atonal Head (PBM Records), a foray into electronica, which he describes as “jazz-based with
computer additives,” and on which he collaborated in Los Angeles with the Polish expatriate jazz
musician known simply as Bal.
“This record couldn’t have been made 15 years ago,” Manzarek marvels with pride and a residue of awe
at what technology enabled him and Bal to accomplish on Atonal Head. “We’ve mixed my compositional
and keyboard capabilities together with Bal’s compositional, trumpet, guitar and production capabilities
on the computer.” Along with making providing cinematic sound effects, the computer enabled Manzarek
to “play everything – violins, flutes – on my keyboard. I’m my own symphony orchestra on my hands!”
Bal had already worked with top-caliber musicians like pianist David Benoit and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta
(Frank Zappa, Sting) on his 1999 jazz CD Sometime Soon, as well as with Ricky Martin (he’s seen
playing trumpet in Martin’s videos for “Livin’ La Vida Loca” and “Shake Your Bon Bon,” as well as in a
Martin-starring Pepsi commercial). So, around Manzarek, he wasn’t so much star-struck as inspired.
Despite a difference of more than 25 years in age and Bal’s occasionally broken English, “we really
understood each other,” he says of his collaborator. “ I came up with some loops or electronic programs,
he would play to them on keyboard, and we went through it ’til we got where we wanted to be. Ray said,
‘It’s not about Bal or Ray, it’s something between.’ That was a quite brilliant comment which describes
perfectly this project.’
Bal had dreamed of one day playing with Ray Manzarek since his teenaged years in Poland, where he
was one of the millions of “next generation” Doors fans worldwide who inspired Rolling Stone’s infamous
cover headline about Jim Morrison: “He’s sexy. He’s hot. And he’s dead!”
“Doors music is a kind of rebellion, (about) opening doors in your own mind and trying to do your own
thing,” Bal explains. “Poland was in a very fragile situation (in the late ’70s/early ’80s) because it was
under a terrible regime of communists. When I was going to music school, they didn’t want us to play jazz
much. Growing up in this kind of regime, it was hard. So, people listened to bands like The Doors and
pink Floyd for messages which communicated freedom.” Even though he didn’t speak English back
then, Bal and his classmates “understood those messages instinctively.”
Bal eventually made his way to Germany, and then, in 1991, to the United States, where he spent time in
Chicago (Manzarek’s hometown) and New York (studying at the Manhattan School of Music, in the same
classroom as one of his idols, Miles Davis). His aforementioned gigs, as well as work scoring obscure
films for the Japanese market and U.S. documentaries, not only earned him a living but also brought him
into contact with one of Manzarek’s acquaintances, to whom he passed along a tape featuring Bal
playing electronic music and muted trumpet.
Manzarek was greatly impressed by Bal’s music. Moreover, hearing it serendipitously coincided with his
own budding interest in electronica, to which his son, Pablo, had introduced him. Ray invited Bal to a
scoring session for Love Her Madly, a feature film Ray had directed; the two hit it off, and Atonal Head
followed.
The record covers a lot of ground, geographically as well as musically. Opener “Shinjuku Nights,” about
a swinging part of Tokyo, would not sound out of place over the opening credits to a caper film.
Manzarek delightedly agrees, suggesting that the record’s cinematic moments are a natural byproduct
of his film school education.
“Kundolini Rising” provides a taste of India, while “Feijoada” travels to Brazil on the wings of Bal’s
classical guitar playing, which is influenced by players like Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Perhaps inspired by Jim Morrison, Ray, along with friend Rita Richardson, recites his own poetry, a dark
but romantic piece called “Brazilian Green.” Morrison the poet himself appears, courtesy of an excerpt
borrowed from the album An American Prayer, on an update of the Doors’ classic “Riders on the Storm,”
which, along with an update of Ray’s trademark shimmering electronic piano part, now features him
grooving on jazz organ a la Jimmy Smith, with the main melody provided by Bal’s muted trumpet.
Ray and Bal also provide one of the sexiest covers ever of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan.” And in the great
Doors tradition of album-ending epics, they conclude with the totally atonal 22-minute title piece, a free-
form composition that Manzarek describes as “totally insane.”
Manzarek is also excited about the recent publication of his second novel, Snake Moon, which he
describes as “a story of the supernatural, forbidden love set in the Civil War, which sweeps two young
men into a state of madness.” Adapted from a film script he co-wrote with Rick Valentine, with whom he
previously wrote the screenplay for Love Her Madly, “Snake Moon [the novel] is written like scenes in a
movie – each chapter is no more than three or four pages long.”
Manzarek has a long list of future projects. Due in November is an updated Doors box set, featuring
new, state-of-the-art sound mixes, videos, previously unreleased alternate takes and demos, and other
rarities. He and Doors guitarist Robby Krieger plan to record a studio album of new songs in the spirit of
the Doors with singer Ian Astbury, with whom they periodically tour, currently under the name Riders of
the Storm. Ray will collaborate with his son Pablo on a digital remix of his 1983 classically themed solo
album, Carmina Burana, co-produced by Philip Glass, and on an album of their own material, The
Bamboo Jungle.
And if time and budget allow, Bal hope to take Atonal Head on the road with Manzarek, because “No one
else has Ray’s touch!”
The Doors, a band whose music knows no borders, incorporating rock, jazz, blues, pre-World War II
German cabaret, beat poetry, cinematic imagery and dynamics, youthful rebellion – you name it. Doors
music was innovative in the 60s; today, though very much of its time, it is also timeless, and it remains
extremely popular and influential.
So, too, does Ray Manzarek. Now age 67, he is still an active, wide-ranging and daring artist, with two
exciting new projects: a novel, Snake Moon (Night Shade Books), which is a Civil War-era ghost story;
and a CD, Atonal Head (PBM Records), a foray into electronica, which he describes as “jazz-based with
computer additives,” and on which he collaborated in Los Angeles with the Polish expatriate jazz
musician known simply as Bal.
“This record couldn’t have been made 15 years ago,” Manzarek marvels with pride and a residue of awe
at what technology enabled him and Bal to accomplish on Atonal Head. “We’ve mixed my compositional
and keyboard capabilities together with Bal’s compositional, trumpet, guitar and production capabilities
on the computer.” Along with making providing cinematic sound effects, the computer enabled Manzarek
to “play everything – violins, flutes – on my keyboard. I’m my own symphony orchestra on my hands!”
Bal had already worked with top-caliber musicians like pianist David Benoit and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta
(Frank Zappa, Sting) on his 1999 jazz CD Sometime Soon, as well as with Ricky Martin (he’s seen
playing trumpet in Martin’s videos for “Livin’ La Vida Loca” and “Shake Your Bon Bon,” as well as in a
Martin-starring Pepsi commercial). So, around Manzarek, he wasn’t so much star-struck as inspired.
Despite a difference of more than 25 years in age and Bal’s occasionally broken English, “we really
understood each other,” he says of his collaborator. “ I came up with some loops or electronic programs,
he would play to them on keyboard, and we went through it ’til we got where we wanted to be. Ray said,
‘It’s not about Bal or Ray, it’s something between.’ That was a quite brilliant comment which describes
perfectly this project.’
Bal had dreamed of one day playing with Ray Manzarek since his teenaged years in Poland, where he
was one of the millions of “next generation” Doors fans worldwide who inspired Rolling Stone’s infamous
cover headline about Jim Morrison: “He’s sexy. He’s hot. And he’s dead!”
“Doors music is a kind of rebellion, (about) opening doors in your own mind and trying to do your own
thing,” Bal explains. “Poland was in a very fragile situation (in the late ’70s/early ’80s) because it was
under a terrible regime of communists. When I was going to music school, they didn’t want us to play jazz
much. Growing up in this kind of regime, it was hard. So, people listened to bands like The Doors and
pink Floyd for messages which communicated freedom.” Even though he didn’t speak English back
then, Bal and his classmates “understood those messages instinctively.”
Bal eventually made his way to Germany, and then, in 1991, to the United States, where he spent time in
Chicago (Manzarek’s hometown) and New York (studying at the Manhattan School of Music, in the same
classroom as one of his idols, Miles Davis). His aforementioned gigs, as well as work scoring obscure
films for the Japanese market and U.S. documentaries, not only earned him a living but also brought him
into contact with one of Manzarek’s acquaintances, to whom he passed along a tape featuring Bal
playing electronic music and muted trumpet.
Manzarek was greatly impressed by Bal’s music. Moreover, hearing it serendipitously coincided with his
own budding interest in electronica, to which his son, Pablo, had introduced him. Ray invited Bal to a
scoring session for Love Her Madly, a feature film Ray had directed; the two hit it off, and Atonal Head
followed.
The record covers a lot of ground, geographically as well as musically. Opener “Shinjuku Nights,” about
a swinging part of Tokyo, would not sound out of place over the opening credits to a caper film.
Manzarek delightedly agrees, suggesting that the record’s cinematic moments are a natural byproduct
of his film school education.
“Kundolini Rising” provides a taste of India, while “Feijoada” travels to Brazil on the wings of Bal’s
classical guitar playing, which is influenced by players like Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Perhaps inspired by Jim Morrison, Ray, along with friend Rita Richardson, recites his own poetry, a dark
but romantic piece called “Brazilian Green.” Morrison the poet himself appears, courtesy of an excerpt
borrowed from the album An American Prayer, on an update of the Doors’ classic “Riders on the Storm,”
which, along with an update of Ray’s trademark shimmering electronic piano part, now features him
grooving on jazz organ a la Jimmy Smith, with the main melody provided by Bal’s muted trumpet.
Ray and Bal also provide one of the sexiest covers ever of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan.” And in the great
Doors tradition of album-ending epics, they conclude with the totally atonal 22-minute title piece, a free-
form composition that Manzarek describes as “totally insane.”
Manzarek is also excited about the recent publication of his second novel, Snake Moon, which he
describes as “a story of the supernatural, forbidden love set in the Civil War, which sweeps two young
men into a state of madness.” Adapted from a film script he co-wrote with Rick Valentine, with whom he
previously wrote the screenplay for Love Her Madly, “Snake Moon [the novel] is written like scenes in a
movie – each chapter is no more than three or four pages long.”
Manzarek has a long list of future projects. Due in November is an updated Doors box set, featuring
new, state-of-the-art sound mixes, videos, previously unreleased alternate takes and demos, and other
rarities. He and Doors guitarist Robby Krieger plan to record a studio album of new songs in the spirit of
the Doors with singer Ian Astbury, with whom they periodically tour, currently under the name Riders of
the Storm. Ray will collaborate with his son Pablo on a digital remix of his 1983 classically themed solo
album, Carmina Burana, co-produced by Philip Glass, and on an album of their own material, The
Bamboo Jungle.
And if time and budget allow, Bal hope to take Atonal Head on the road with Manzarek, because “No one
else has Ray’s touch!”
Doors Keyboardist Ray Manzarek and “Next Generation” Doors Fan
Bal Collaborate on Electronica Album, Atonal Head
By Barry Gutman
Bal Collaborate on Electronica Album, Atonal Head
By Barry Gutman
For more information contact:
Jane Ayer
at
Jane Ayer Public Relations
email: jane@janeayerpr.com
phone: 310 581-1330 x101
Jane Ayer
at
Jane Ayer Public Relations
email: jane@janeayerpr.com
phone: 310 581-1330 x101