KAREN MANTLER

Karen Mantler (born 1966, New York City) is an American jazz musician (piano, organ, chromatic harmonica), singer and composer. She is the daughter of Carla Bley and Michael Mantler. Her musical debut consisted of contributing vocals on Carla Bley’s albums Escalator Over the Hill (1971) and Tropic Appetites (1972). She then continued performing and recording on glockenspiel, organ and chromatic harmonica in many of Carla Bley’s ensembles and projects from 1977 on to the present. She studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston on a scholarship from 1985-87. She moved back to New York City in 1987 where she formed her own ensemble to record her first two albums for the XtraWATT record label (distributed by ECM Records), My Cat Arnold (1989) and Get The Flu (1990). The band toured Europe several times and also appeared at venues in New York, on Dave Sanborn's NBC Night Music television show, and read more...