Rudresh Mahanthappa to perform ....

Rudresh Mahanthappa to perform 'Bird Calls' selections tonight - The Dartmouth https://t.co/MSy7kaGOGA

— Jazz music view (@Jazzmusicview) 27 de janeiro de 2017

Rudresh Mahanthappa

Princeton Names Rudresh Mahanthappa Director of Jazz - News https://t.co/dW3yypaflh via @JazzTime #jazz

— The Jazz Spotlight (@JazzSpotlight) June 20, 2016

Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa Reframes Charlie Parker

Rudresh Mahanthappa brings his Quintet to Firehouse 12 in New Haven on June 5. (Jimmy Katz / June 4, 2015)

MICHAEL HAMAD

12:51 p.m. EDT, June 2, 2015
For much of his career, alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa has explored the various inroads between jazz and non-Western musical traditions.

After winning a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship, Mahanthappa studied Carnatic music in India; "Samdhi," his subsequent album from 2011, fused those teachings with exhilarating, electric guitar-driven grooves and laptop textures. "Gamak," his follow-up with Screaming Headless Torsos guitarist David Fiuczynski, detoured slightly into harmonically expansive, largely acoustic small-band jazz that progressed along a similar world-jazz arc.

Mahanthappa's latest album, "Bird Calls," however, finds inspiration a little closer to home: the musical language of bebop pioneer Charlie Parker, who was one of Mahanthappa's earliest influences. On Friday, June 5, he'll bring his quintet — trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, pianist Matt Mitchell, acoustic bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Jordan Perlson, who'll sub for Rudy Royston — to Firehouse 12 in New Haven for two sets of music from the album.

"['Bird Calls'] was such a great divergence from all this work I've been doing with non-Western music and South Asian music," Mahanthappa said. "It was to remind myself and everybody else that I am a jazz player at heart, and Charlie Parker was what made me want to play before I'd ever heard any Indian music. It was nice for me to get back into that space and to share it with others with this album."

"Bird Calls" collects eight original compositions, and each extrapolates some musical element of a Parker tune: "On the DL" is based on "Donna Lee," "Chillin'" flows from "Relaxin' at the Camarillo," and so on. Some pieces, like "On the DL," recontextualize Parker's musical language — infamous for its frantic chord changes, substitutions and superimpositions — into harmonically static, rhythmically charged environments. "Harmonically, in terms of that sort of content, it's probably more like my other albums," Mahanthappa said.


"Chillin'," meanwhile, like "Relaxin' at Camarillo," maintains the structure of the blues, but Mahanthappa widens the spaces between each of its three four-bar sections, requiring a soloist to play a cue (taken directly from Parker's fourth, eighth and 12th bars) to usher in the next four-bar chunk.

read more: http://www.ctnow.com/entertainment/music/hc-rudresh-mahanthappa-at-firehouse-12-in-new-haven-0604-20150604,0,7756130.story

Balancing Influences: Saxophonist Mahanthappa Blends Styles

Jimmy Katz / Courtesy of the artist

When a single review compares an artist's work to both Mahavishnu Orchestra andThe Stooges, hardcore rock music fans sit up and take notice.

That's the high praise the Los Angeles Times bestowed upon saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

You'll find the Indian-American's work filed under jazz, but it's hard to find a style he doesn't touch. Elements of hip-hop, country, metal and soul fuse with traditional sounds from India, Africa and Indonesia.

And he makes it rock.

Mahanthappa, whose latest album is called Gamak, talks to Arun Rath, host of weekends on All Things Considered, about his influences, Indian rhythms and "embracing" confusion.

Interview Highlights

On Mahanthappa's recent rock leanings:

"You know, I'm a child of the '80s, so I grew up with a lot of great rock. I mean, '80s wasn't the best, but ... I still had access to '70s rock. And a lot of progressive rock stuff has been very influential: Yes and Gentle Giant and Rush and Genesis. So I wanted to bring that element to more of a forefront with this particular band."

On working with Western musicians on Indian rhythms:

"In Indian music, you talk about cycles of seven beats or 13 beats or 21 beats. And those are constructs that I really relate to. And the best thing is when you feel free within those structures. ... Everyone in the band developed a sort of rhythmic vocabulary. They can deal with these structures, and they can internalize them very quickly. Some people think of the beat cycles - the Indian talas - as being difficult, but if you find a way to internalize it, you hear it as if you're hearing blues, as if you're hearing 'Mary Had a Little Lamb.'"

Read more: http://keranews.org/post/balancing-influences-saxophonist-mahanthappa-blends-styles

First Listen: Rudresh Mahanthappa, 'Gamak'

by PATRICK JARENWATTANANON, January 20, 201310:29 PM

When alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa was considered a "rising star" among jazz bookers and critics, and not quite a full-blown headliner, he led a very good quartet. It featured pianist Vijay Iyer before he, too, found himself on magazine covers; its engine was propelled by a classic combination of double bass and drums.

Since the last quartet record in 2006, Mahanthappa has toured with a lot of different bands: They have names like the Dakshina Ensemble, and the Indo-Pak Coalition, and Samdhi, and Apex, and the Jack DeJohnette Group. All of those experiences seem to be stuffed into his new quartet album, Gamak.

It's a somewhat different quartet. Filling the piano chair is guitarist Dave Fiuczynski, a colleague from Jack DeJohnette's band who's also done deep studies of non-Western systems; he once founded a band called Screaming Headless Torsos, if that tells you anything.

But it also returns Francois Moutin (acoustic bass) and Dan Weiss (drums) from the previous band, and as dynamic as they get, the foundations and sonorities they generate are of anchoring comfort, especially in music as complex as this. The sum effect is of surfing on an information overload without drowning in it.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/2013/01/20/169520467/first-listen-rudresh-mahanthappa-gamak?ft=3&f=126134671&sc=nl&cc=jn-20130127

Rudresh Mahanthappa: Tiny Desk Concert

Rudresh Mahanthappa - Samdhi (Act, 2011)

Alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa has become an important force on the modern jazz scene, leading his own groups and touring with legends like drummer Jack DeJohnette. This is Mathanthappa's most experimental recording to date, combining music from the Indian sub-continent, jazz and fusion to create a potent and heady brew. Accompanying him are David Gilmore on guitar, Rich Brown on bass, Damion Reid on drums and “Anand" Anantha Krishnan on percussion.

There are also electronics and loops that add to the musical texture. After the slow opening incantation of “Parakram #1," the group really hits the ground running with the aptly named “Killer." Swirling pinched sounding alto saxophone along with strong drums and bass lead to the great vibrancy of the music.

Saxophone and electric guitar trade and chase in an extraordinarily fast and dexterous manner over hammering electric bass and drums, making for a highlight of the recording, shining with incandescent luminosity. There are short breaks scattered amongst the longer improvisations, but “Playing With Stones," a longer tune, in which saxophone and electric bass build in strong and tart. Gilmore's guitar shadows Mahanthappa's saxophone over and excellent electric bass foundation. They then make way for a dynamic open section featuring bass and drums augmented by guitar accents.

“Breakfastlunchanddinner" takes a funky route with saxophone and guitar trading phrases in an up-tempo bouncy fashion that recalls Ornette Coleman's great fusion albums Body Meta and Dancing in Your Head. Powerful saxophone leads to a scalding electric guitar solo, Gilmore really lays it on the line here, with a great rock tinged performance.

Rich Brown is really the beating heart of the band and he is given a sterling bubbling solo backed by drums and guitar accents before the full band comes together for a strong conclusion. “Parakram #2" goes in an entirely different direction, developing smeared abstractions of sounds with echoing drums and saxophone rising above the cacophony. Electronics and synths along with copious overdubbing make for a strangely otherworldly impact, with sharp blasts of saxophone cutting through.

“Ahhh" digs even deeper with bass and drums probing the depths while saxophone and guitar slither in at a medium tempo. Hand percussion simmers while guitar and saxophone intertwine like DNA. Mathanthappa breaks out for longer tones of yearning saxophone before turning the reigns over to Gilmore who creates his own electromagnetic field on guitar. The pace picks up to overdrive with dubbed saxophone wildly baying. Funky drums and electric bass return for “Still-Gas" before the full band kicks in hard.

Long tones of saxophone with guitar accents usher in a loud/fast vs. soft/abstract notion that develops the kinetic energy which powers the performance. There is also a sterling section of electric guitar over bubbling bass and urgent drumming, before the full band reunites for a complex conclusion. Samdhi looks forward to new vistas in Mathanhappa's all-encompassing musical vision. Combining multi-cultural music and looking at jazz in a fresh direction, he has created a unique synergy of music that is fresh and exciting.

View the original article...

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=89216

Rudresh Mahanthappa & Steve Lehman - Dual Identity (Clean Feed, 2010) ****

A double alto sax front line is quite exceptional, and even more so when both musicians are known for their compositional intricacy and technical mastership ... and find each other organically despite their quite different angle of approach to music.The two altos are Rudresh Mahanthappa, whose Indian background is omnipresent in his compositions and improvisations, and Steve Lehman, whose skills can be an asset, but are sometimes also a burden, and quite well illustrated by his two latest albums.

This is not Lehman's first exposure to more Indian influence, actually, his work with pianist Vijay Iyer in Fieldwork, quite well mirrored the many albums that Mahanthappa and Iyer released together. Now both saxes have found each other in the great company of three musicians of equal skills : Liberty Ellman on guitar, Matt Brewer on bass, and Damion Reid on drums.

The composition of the pieces is almost evenly divided among the two saxophonists, with one by Ellman, and it's interesting to hear how they move towards each other, despite the easy recognition of the Mahanthappa tracks. In any case, the tunes are lively, complex but not too much, keeping their human directness and warmth, with great soloing from all musicians. Although I wish they could have been more explosive and daring at times, the delivery is full of soul and emotional depth.

The album is was recorded live at the Braga Jazz Festival, Portugal in 2009. The live audience gives the music even more depth, although for some tracks the applause is mixed out (why? why? have you ever heard a mute audience?). And these five guys have skills you can only dream of. Brewer and Reid are possibly the less known members of the band, but what a rhythm section! Recommended.
http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/2010/05/rudresh-mahanthappa-steve-lehman-dual.html

Rudresh Mahanthappa Presents Samdhi Unplugged at the Painted Bride Art Center....

Rudresh Mahanthappa Presents
Samdhi Unplugged
7pm and 9pm
Jazz on Vine
Saturday, December 6
$25/$12.50 for members

Painted Bride Art Center
230 Vine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Phone: 215.925.9914

Samdhi is a Sanskrit word meaning that which combines or unites or the interval between day and night. In Hindu terms, it refers to the period between the end of one age (or yuga) and the dawn of another. Past Guggenheim fellow and Rockefeller Foundation honoree, Rudresh Mahanthappa returns to the Bride stage with his new quintet project, a culmination of research and inspiration, representing the next stage of development in his unique voice as a modern jazz composer and alto saxophonist. --rudreshm.com

“Rudresh has a significant role to play in jazz, not only as a composer, but as an articulator of the form." --AllAboutJazz.com
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=26377