Artist Biography by Bradley Torreano
The Pacific Jazz Institute at Dimitriou's Jazz welcomes Downbeat Poll winner and Guggenheim Fellow saxophinist Rudresh Mahanthappa with his new trio including Eric Revis (bass) and Dave King (The Bad Plus). Show times 7:30pm. Doors open at 6:00pm. Apti, the groundbreaking debut album of Indian-American alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition, clearly blazes new trails into the future of jazz in the 21st Century. Synthesizing jazz with the astutely improvised musical forms of South Asia, this trio with guitar virtuoso Rez Abbasi and tabla star Dan Weiss is turning heads internationally in both the jazz and world music scenes. Rudresh Mahanthappa discography and songs: Music profile for Rudresh Mahanthappa, born 4 May 1971. Genres: Avant-Garde Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Post-Bop. Jonathan Widran of Allmusic wrote 'For the first time, they distill their otherworldly, closely entwined musical language into a 13-track recording on Raw Materials - the first 12 of which are from the suite 'Sangha: Collaborative Fables,' which was commissioned by the Jazz Gallery with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund. They're a brilliantly talented, visionary but unusual pair whose debut will appeal mostly to jazz and classical fans with open minds'.
Alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa arrived in New York City in 1997 from Boulder, Colorado, and immediately began to integrate himself into the jazz scene as a sideman. His distinctive sound is matched only by his ambitious manner of melding the modernist jazz tradition with South Indian music and electronic sounds -- all depending on which ensemble he heads. After his birth in Trieste, Italy, his family moved to Boulder and he spent his early years growing up in Colorado, taking up the saxophone as a teen. He later studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston and DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.
In New York, work as a sideman was steady, but his true passion was to become a bandleader, something he attempted on his debut album, Yatra. Although the album was received well, the limited distribution kept Mahanthappa's name from wide recognition and he stayed in the area to continue performing. More side work and a teaching gig kept him busy, but in 2002 he came back to the studio and laid down Black Water for Red Giant Records, and his fortunes began to change as his reputation grew. In 2004, Mahanthappa began a tenure with Pi Recordings, issuing Mother Tongue with his trio that included pianist Vijay Iyer and drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee. Two years later he and Iyer issued the duet offering Raw Materials, followed a few months later by Codebook, a quartet with the pianist, bassist François Moutin, and drummer Dan Weiss. The latter disc was named among the finest jazz releases of the year by numerous publications. In 2007 he won a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition. One of Mahanthappa's most acclaimed recordings, Kinsmen with Kadri Gopalnath and the Dakshina Ensemble (which included guitarist Rez Abbasi), was a fusion of electric jazz and Carnatic music and proved to be one of his most influential recordings of 2008. Abbasi and Weiss became part of Mahanthappa's widely celebrated Indo-Pak Coalition, issuing Apti just before the year ended. The band toured clubs and festivals all across the globe. Mahanthappa also joined Jack DeJohnette's band for a time and finished his own tenure with Pi in 2010 with Apex, a co-headlining date with Bunky Green that featured DeJohnette, pianist Jason Moran, and drummer Damion Reid. Another co-led set, Dual Identity with Steve Lehman, was issued by Clean Feed that year and also featured Reid. Mahanthappa signed with ACT in 2011 and released Samdhi, an energetic electro-acoustic quintet date with the leader on laptop as well as alto saxophone, guitarist David Gilmore, electric bassist Rich Brown, drummer Reid, and 'Anand' Anatha Krishman on mridangam and kanjira. Two years later he released Gamak, with Weiss, Moutin, and guitarist David Fiuczynski. The album was described by Jazz Times as 'a landmark convergence of styles that didn't lend itself to easy analysis...new music of this caliber hasn't been attempted before.' It was the culmination of a period of grand achievement for Mahanthappa. Not only had he won a Guggenheim Fellowship, but also a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, Chamber Music America, and the American Composers Forum. He was named alto saxophonist of the year three years running in Down Beat's International Critics Poll (2011-2013) and five years running by the Jazz Journalists Association (2009-2013). In April 2013, he received a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. With the exception of Moutin, Mahanthappa changed the lineup of his entire band for 2015's Bird Calls, utilizing an acoustic quintet featuring pianist Matt Mitchell, trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, and drummer Rudy Royston. That same year he was part of the oddly named ten-piece all-saxophone group PRISM Quartet for Heritage/Evolution, Vol. 1 on Innova Recordings. Mahanthappa spent much of the rest of the year touring with his own bands and composing. He emerged in the fall of 2017 with the self-released second Indo-Pak Coalition (again with Abbasi and Weiss) album, Agrima, on vinyl and digital only. The recording was featured as an NPR First Listen. Mahanthappa is also chairman of the jazz department at Princeton University. Rudresh Mahanthappa Tour
Tragicomic | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 22, 2008 | |||
Recorded | September 30 & October 1, 2007 | |||
Studio | Bedford Studios, Brooklyn | |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Length | 60:33 | |||
Label | Sunnyside | |||
Producer | Vijay Iyer | |||
Vijay Iyer chronology | ||||
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Tragicomic is an album by American jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, which was recorded in 2007 and released on the Sunnyside label. The follow-up to Reimagining, the record features ten Iyer's compositions for his quartet with Rudresh Mahanthappa on alto sax, Stephan Crump on bass and Marcus Gilmore on drums, and two covers: a dub version of Bud Powell's 'Comin' Up' and a solo piano interpretation of the standard 'I'm All Smiles'.[1]
Reception[edit]
Professional ratings | |
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Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
In his review for AllMusic, Ken Dryden states 'Vijay Iyer and alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa blend their Indian heritage with the influence of their New York jazz experience in this striking session.'[2]
The JazzTimes review by Steve Greenlee says 'The music is a marriage of intellect and power, of brains and brawn. Iyer has absorbed Andrew Hill, McCoy Tyner, Matthew Shipp and others, and that fact comes through whether he plays a burner or a ballad.'[3]
The All About Jazz review by Troy Collins states 'A stunning achievement, Tragicomic is one of the year's best albums.'[4]
Track listing[edit]
![Recordings Recordings](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126189792/181373886.jpg)
Kadri Gopalnath
![Mahanthappa Mahanthappa](/uploads/1/2/6/1/126189792/739515670.jpg)
All compositions by Vijay Iyer except where noted.
- 'The Weight of Things' – 2:17
- 'Macaca Please' – 4:54
- 'Aftermath' – 6:20
- 'Comin' Up' (Bud Powell) – 4:26
- 'Without Lions' – 2:54
- 'Mehndi' – 6:50
- 'Age of Everything' – 5:23
- 'Window Text' – 5:41
- 'I'm All Smiles' (Michael Leonard) – 4:44
- 'Machine Days' – 7:26
- 'Threnody' – 6:02
- 'Becoming' – 3:36
Personnel[edit]
- Vijay Iyer – piano
- Rudresh Mahanthappa – alto saxophone
- Stefan Crump – bass
- Marcus Gilmore – drums
References[edit]
Rudresh Mahanthappa Allmusic
- ^Tragicomic on Vijay Iyer
- ^ abDryden, Ken. Vijay Iyer – Tragicomic: Review at AllMusic. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
- ^Greenlee, Steve. Tragicomic review at JazzTimes
- ^Collins, Troy. Tragicomic review at All About Jazz
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