New Album: 3Below, Live in Mérida

3Below “Live in Mérida” Featuring Michael Manring (Jaco Pastorius), Trey Gunn (King Crimson), Alonso Arreola Releases November 8, 2024

3Below features three extended range instruments played by Michael Manring (Jaco Pastorius alumni, creator of the Hyperbass), Trey Gunn (Warr Guitarist with King Crimson), Alonso Arreola (Mexican bassist, writer and poet).

Their latest release, “Live in Mérida”, was recorded on November 5, 2023 at the Palacio del La Música de Mérida in the Yucatan in Mexico. During this performance, they were joined by special guest Emmanuel Pina on the oud.

3Below began in a small but significant way when Arreola and Gunn, along with Gunn’s daughter Harper, traveled across Mali and The Dogon in West Africa in 2012. They took their baritone ukuleles with them hoping to touch base with local musicians. Mali is known for its deep musical traditions and by the third day they had found their way in: go into each small village and ask for lessons from the local master drummer or ngoni player (African string instrument). This led to a string of lessons and playing sessions with a variety of musicians from Bamako, Séguo, Mopti, Djenne and throughout the Dogon where they ended up participating in a late-night festival and jam session with the king and queen of Begnemato.

These experiences and the musical languages they learned in Mali set the groundwork for 3Below. This exploded further with bringing in bass legend Michael Manring. Manring is most known for his jaw-dropping solo performances, but he is also a brilliant ensemble player.

3Below first began with live shows in Mexico about one year after their return from Mali. Combining roots from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe, the first part of a 3Below live show is acoustic-based with Arreola and Gunn on ukulele and acoustic bass. The second half of the show is full-on electric, with the addition of solo pieces by Gunn and Manring.

Time Out Magazine calls them “Musicians with enormous talent and giant careers.”

“3Below was the triumph of the Alterna Jazz Season.” – The Chronicle on their Centro Cultural Roberto Cantoral, Mexico City performance.

Credits
Alonso Arreola: Percussive Electroacoustic & Electric Basses
Trey Gunn: Warr Guitar, Baritone Ukulele
Michael Manring: Fretless Basses, Caxixi Shaker
Emmanuel Pina: Oud

Live Sound: Nelson Sánchez
Mixed by Trey Gunn at 7d Studios

Track List:
1. Relamparia (Arreola)
2. Mamadou’s Mercedes (Arreola)
3. Versos (Arreola)
4. Hard Winds (Gunn)
5. Forest Floor (Gunn, Arreola)
6. Big Fungus (Manring)
7. Lake of Ice (Gunn)
8. Lake of Fire (Gunn)
9. The World Is Everything That Is The Case (Manring)
10. Monkey Businessman (Manring)
11. Culpa (Arreola)
12. Area (arr. Arreola, Pina)

Alonso Arreola – Percussive Electroacoustic & Electric Basses
Joined as time went by on a Saturday afternoon. It was Day of the Dead in Mexico City, November the 2nd. The year: 1974. There were clouds in the sky. When he could believe in something, he chose the movement that animates music and words. With seven albums to his name and as many in collaboration or as a producer, he has created and staged numerous stage projects in more than fifteen countries. He has also written thousands of articles, interviews, reviews, chronicles, poems or stories in magazines and newspapers about music, cinema or gastronomy from four continents, as well as a book about letters from his paternal grandfather (Juan José Arreola). He has done stage shows with authors such as Michel Houellebecq and Agustín Fernández Mallo. He is the author of “Relamparia,” a collection of poems, voices and entertainment published by Attica. For twenty years he has had a bass laboratory with dozens of disciples (LabA), and for twenty-five years he has had a musical column in the cultural supplement of the newspaper La Jornada. He launched the Curandera guitar alongside the Spanish artist Alejandro Sanz and the luthier Antonio Álvarez Bernal. He aspires to be a son of art and become a lightning rod. His favorite animal is the water buffalo.

Trey Gunn – Warr Guitar, Baritone Ukulele
A native Texan who resides in New Mexico, Gunn is known for the unusual 10-string touch guitar that he plays. From the blistering live recordings at the Royal Albert Hall in London with David Sylvian and Robert Fripp (“Damage”, Virgin Records) to ten years recording and touring with King Crimson – a group many contend as the most aggressively, adventurous rock band of all time – Gunn is associated with a constant stream of cutting edges projects.

In addition to the powerful performances and recordings of his groups Tu-Ner, TU, KTU, 3Below, The Security Projectand the multi-mediators Quodia, Gunn has toured and/or recorded with John Paul Jones, Brian Eno, Maynard J. Keenan’s “Puscifer”, Vernon Reid, Azam Ali, David Hykes of the Harmonic Choir and Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree.

When not on the road, Gunn continues his work scoring for tv/film, runs his own media label (7d Media) and coaches musicians in the creative process.

Michael Manring – Fretless Basses, Caxixi Shaker
Hailed by many as the world’s leading solo bassist, Michael Manring has been pushing back the boundaries of what’s possible on the bass guitar for decades. A student of bass legend Jaco Pastorius, Michael has honed his skills on hundreds of recordings and thousands of live shows around the world, working with a diverse collection of artists including the late guitar genius Michael Hedges, New Age keyboardist Suzanne Ciani, Avant-improv guitar innovator Henry Kaiser, celebrated folk troubadour John Gorka, experimental post-metal rockers Tim Alexander (Primus) and Alex Skolnick (Testament) and electro-pop pioneer Thomas Dolby. He has earned three gold records, Grammy and Bammie nominations, a Berklee School of Music Distinguished Alumni Award, two Just Plain Folks Awards and numerous Bass Player Magazine Readers’ Poll awards including 1994 Bassist of the Year. His YouTube videos have garnered millions of views displaying the expressive skills that have led The San Jose Mercury News to call him “…a virtuoso electric bassist who’s almost single-handedly re-defined the outer limits of the instrument” and The Philadelphia Inquirer to refer to him as simply “…the hottest bassist today.”

Emmanuel Pina – Oud
Biologist, Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences and multi-instrumentalist musician. Throughout his scientific career, he has been involved in several research projects with international publications in fields such as virology, breast cancer and the development of drugs for the treatment of lymphoma, diabetes, and parasitic diseases. As a self-taught musician, he started playing drums and guitar. Currently specializes in the study and performance of ancient string instruments such as the oud, tar, setar and baglama, as well as modern instruments such as the electric bass and the Chapman Stick. He has been part of various bands and shared the stage with several musicians, including Human, Luz de Riada, Alfonso André, Markus Reuter, and Alonso Arreola in projects such as Rosetta and LabAcústica, which eventually led to his inclusion in 3Below.

To purchase: 3belowband.com/live/
For more information: 3belowband.com

from https://bassmusicianmagazine.com