Rudresh Mahanthappa Quartet - RM (alto saxophone), Vijay Iyer (piano), François Moutin (bass), Dan Weiss (drums). Mother Tongue and Codebook CDs available on Pi Recordings.
Dakshina Ensemble - RM (alto saxophone), Kadri Gopalnath (alto saxophone), Kanya Kumari (violin), Rez Abbasi (guitars), Carlo de Rosa (bass), Poovalur Sriji (mridangam), Royal Hartigan (drums). CD "Kinsmen" on Pi Recordings available now! Get it from Amazon, iTunes, from Pi Recordings, or your favorite CD store.
Kinsmen featured on NPR's All Things Considered.
Here an interview with Rudresh about the alubm on WNYC's Soundcheck:
Indo-Pak Coaltion - RM (alto saxophone), Rez Abbasi (guitars), Dan Weiss (tabla). CD "Apti" on Innova released in November 2008!
Indo-Pak CD release show at Le Poisson Rouge reviewed in the New York Times.
Apti featured on PRI's The World.
Mauger - RM (alto saxophone), Mark Dresser (bass), Gerry Hemingway (drums)
CD on Clean Feed available now!
Get it from iTunes or directly from Clean Feed
See the Mauger myspace page for more tracks.
MSG - RM (alto saxophone), Ronan Guilfoyle (bass), Chander Sardjoe (drums).
CD coming in 2009.
From a recent gig in Dublin:
Dual Identity - RM (alto saxophone), Steve Lehman (alto saxophone), Liberty Ellman (guitar), Matt Brewer (bass), Damion Reid (drums)
CD on Clean Feed coming Fall 2009!
To learn more about Rudresh, hear more music from all of these groups, and find out how to order CDs, please visit rudreshm.com
Influences
John Coltrane, Bismillah Khan, Charlie Parker, Bela Bartok, YES, Parveen Sultana, Webern, blah, blah, blah.
Guggenheim fellow Rudresh Mahanthappa is one of the most innovative young musicians and composers in jazz today. Floating near the top of the Downbeat International Critics Poll “Rising Star-Alto Saxophone” category for the past six years, 2 in 2008, Rudresh has incorporated the culture of his Indian ancestry and has fused myriad influences to create a truly groundbreaking artistic vision. As a performer, he leads/co-leads seven groups to critical acclaim. His most recent release for Pi Recordings Kinsmen featuring Carnatic saxophone legend Kadri Gopalnath (September 25, 2008) has been named one of the Top Jazz CDs of 2008 by numerous news sources including the New York Times, NPR, BBC, Boston Globe, slate.com, and JazzTimes to name just a few. This album has topped the jazz radio charts in the US and Canada. His previous quartet release for Pi release Codebook (September 26, 2006) was named one of the Top Jazz Albums of 2006 by The Village Voice, Jazztimes, and The Denver Post and received rave reviews from Downbeat, wired.com and Science Magazine. In Europe, Codebook received the esteemed “CHOC DE L'ANNÉE” (album of the year) for 2007 in France’s Jazzman, 4 stars in the UK’s Jazzwise, and received the “Bollino di Marzo” from Italy’s Musica Jazz in addtion to reaching 7 on US jazz radio charts and 1 on Canadian jazz radio charts. As a saxophonist, Mahanthappa has achieved international recognition performing regularly at jazz festivals and clubs worldwide. As a composer, Rudresh has received commission grants from the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, American Composers Forum, Chamber Music America, and the New York State Council on the Arts to develop new work. Mahanthappa holds a Bachelors of Music Degree in jazz performance from Berklee College of Music and a Masters of Music degree in jazz composition from Chicago's DePaul University. He now teaches at The New School University. Rudresh Mahanthappa currently lives in New York where he is clearly regarded as an important and influential voice in the jazz world. Rudresh uses Vandoren reeds exclusively. Mahanthappa is also a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow.
It was a real pleasure having this interview with you at the Montréal Jazz Festival. It was too brief and wish it could have been longer. Your performance was brilliant and your musicians amazing. I wish you all the best ! Myreille
On-line Community Forum for Jazz Festival 55 is now live. Check it out and post comments on Rudresh's upcoming performance or on other Festival artists. http://jazzfestival55.com/forum/
