One of the era’s definitive saxophonists, Rudresh Mahanthappa has topped numerous jazz critics polls over the past 15 years. His recordings are regularly recognized as among the best of the year, and his cast of collaborators includes artists who have earned similar distinction, including pianist Vijay Iyer, guitarist Rez Abbasi, and saxophonist Steve Lehman.
The last time Mahanthappa went into the studio with bassist François Moutin and drummer Rudy Royston they recorded one of the decade’s most acclaimed albums, 2015’s Bird Calls (ACT). The quintet session with pianist Matt Mitchell and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill featured the altoist’s original compositions inspired by the extraordinarily rich idiom forged by bebop architect Charlie Parker. In many ways, his new album Hero Trio is a companion piece to Bird Calls, but this time Mahanthappa draws directly on the music of his formative influences. Slated for release on the British label Whirlwind on June 19, 2020, Hero Trio offers a revelatory window into his wide-open aesthetic with a disparate program that begins and ends with Bird.
Mahanthappa says, ‘After having released 15 albums of original music as a leader/co-leader, it is an immense pleasure to record music that is not my own. Hero Trio pays tribute to several of my greatest influences and inspirations such as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, Ornette Coleman, Keith Jarrett, Johnny Cash, and Stevie Wonder. They have all played such a strong role in helping me to see music as a magical force that binds humanity.’
There are no tour dates listed for this artist.
HI-RES IMAGES
Solo
^ Photo Credit: Ethan Levitas
Hero Trio
^ Photo Credit: David Crow
Indo-Pak Coalition
^ Photo Credit: Ethan Levitas
VIDEO
Hero Trio – “Red Cross” (Embed)
Hero Trio – “Dewey Square” (Embed)
Indo-Pak Coalition – Agrima EPK (Embed)
Indo-Pak Coalition – “Alap-Snap” (Embed)
BIOGRAPHY/PROGRAM NOTES
Biography: Download (doc)
Hero Trio Press Release: Download (doc)
Hero Trio Promo Copy: Download (doc)
RECENT RELEASE
Agrima (2017)
Official Website: www.rudreshm.com
Label: ACT Music
PRESS REQUESTS
UK
Rupert Burley
rupert@dynamicagency.co.uk
Dynamic Agency
Benelux:
Inge De Pauw
inge@stilletto.be
France:
Sébastien Belloir
belloir.sebastien@gmail.com
Germany
Marcel Westphal
mw@qrious.de
Ann Braithwaite
ann@bkmusicpr.com
Braithwaite & Katz Communications
Please contact IMN’s Director of Marketing with any additional questions.
NPR Jazz Critics Poll
From NPR The 2020 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll By: Francis Davis 9. Rudresh Mahanthappa Hero Trio (Whirlwind) Points: 120 Votes: 22 It’s a gamble for a horn player to record in a trio without a keyboardist or guitarist. You risk detaching the listener from harmony even as you gain new freedom to improvise. Alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa rolls the...
Posted Jan 14th, 2021
Hero Trio & MoodSwing Videos
From WBGO Can Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Hero Trio Save the World? Find Out in This Week’s Take Five By: Nate Chinen Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Hero Trio, ‘I’ll Remember April’ Hero Trio, the forthcoming album by alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, was named in acknowledgment of musical heroes like Charlie Parker and Sonny Rollins. But at some point, Mahanthappa decided to have a little...
Posted May 12th, 2020
Rudresh Mahanthappa brings Sony Rollins-inspired trio
From The Mercury News Rudresh Mahanthappa brings Sony Rollins-inspired trio to San Jose, SF By: Andrew Gilbert “In 1957, Sonny Rollins established the saxophone, bass and drum trio as one of the essential formats in modern jazz on the strength of several classic albums. Particularly inspired by Rollins’ ‘A Night at the Village Vanguard’ (Blue Note), Rudresh Mahanthappa launched the...
Posted Jun 11th, 2019
Finalist for the BMW Welt Jazz Award
From BMW Group BMW Welt Jazz Award finalists 2019 announced By: Thomas Girst After six spectacular matinees, the BMW Welt Jazz Award 2019 enters its final round on 4 May, with a play-off between the Maciej Obara Quartet and Rudresh Mahanthappa Quintet. Taking to the stage in the auditorium of the BMW Welt, they will perform their interpretation of this...
Posted Apr 1st, 2019
Rudresh Mahanthappa Launches New Projects
From News India Times Indian-American Jazz-great Rudresh Mahanthappa launching new projects Award-winning Indian-American alto saxophonist, composer and educator Rudresh Mahanthappa announced some new initiatives for 2019. Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition conceived in 2008, includes Mahanthappa on alto saxophone, Rez Abbasi on guitar, and Dan Weiss on tabla. It was hailed by The New York Times as ‘a trio equally grounded in...
Posted Feb 4th, 2019
Rudresh Mahanthappa: Transmission and Perception
From Music Without Borders: Innerviews Rudresh Mahanthappa: Transmission and Perception By: Anil Prasad More than ever, jazz is a global genre. Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa’s output is emblematic of an evolution that’s blown far past dogmatic, purist worldviews on what’s possible within it. His most recent album Agrima, released by his trio Indo-Pak Coalition, reflects a drive to expand vocabulary, unleash...
Posted Dec 14th, 2018
Jazz on a Summer’s Day: Newport Jazz Festival
From Ottawa Citizen Jazz on a summer’s day at the 2018 Newport Jazz Festival By: Peter Hum […] I left Chinen’s talk early to make sure that I got a good seat for alto saxophonist Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition, a trio completed by guitarist Rez Abbasi and drummer-tabla player Dan Weiss. In fact, I’d seen these three musicians play together before,...
Posted Aug 7th, 2018
The Indo-Pak Coalition – Agrima
From Jazziz Magazine Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition ‘” Agrima By: John Frederick Moore From the beginning of his career, alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa has traveled in multiple musical universes, but the music of southern India has always been a polestar. For his latest album, Mahanthappa reunites his Indo-Pak Coalition ‘” with guitarist Rez Abbasi and percussionist Dan Weiss ‘” the...
Posted Apr 19th, 2018
South Asian Grunge
From WBUR 90.9 Jazz Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition Brings South Asian Grunge To ICA By: Claire Dickson ‘I wanted to evoke a rock energy and feel with an almost grungy sound, but still have South Asian stuff in there.’ It might come as a surprise that jazz saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa ‘” a Princeton professor of music and Guggenheim fellow...
Posted Mar 28th, 2018
Engaging and Intelligent
From The Arts Fuse Jazz Concert Review: Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition at the ICA By: Michael Ullman Augmented with electronics, which Mahanthappa uses for echo effects as well as to deliver comments during the performance, the group’s efforts are high energy, rhythmically complex, and yet carefully constructed. Mahanthappa’s playing is full of virtuoso flourishes: at one point at the ICA...
Posted Mar 20th, 2018
20 Best Avant Albums of 2017
From The Rolling Stone 20 Best Avant Albums of 2017: The year’s best in ambient, noise, out-jazz, experimental electronic and more By: Christopher R. Weingarten In 2017, a generation of electronic musicians continued to distend and distort, Lee Gamble seeming to plumb our past and Chino Amobi navigating our nightmare present. The two-disc Celebrate Ornette closed the nearly 60-year career...
Posted Jan 2nd, 2018
NYT: The Best Albums of 2017
From the New York Times The Best Albums of 2017 By: Giovanni Russonello RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA’S INDO-PAK COALITION ‘Agrima’ (self-released): Mr. Mahanthappa, an alto saxophonist, writes along the divide between contemporary jazz and South Asian classical, always with a sense of acute direction and well-hewn architecture. But it’s his trio’s synergy that gives ‘Agrima’ what it needs: possibility, irony, tenderness. AVISHAI...
Posted Dec 11th, 2017
Geoffrey Himes – Best of 2017
From Paste Magazine The Curmudgeon: Music for an Empire in Decline By: Geoffrey Himes ‘Last year was a son of a bitch for nearly everyone we know,’ Jason Isbell sings on ‘Hope the High Road,’ from one of 2017’s best albums, The Nashville Sound. If 2016 was a hard pill to swallow, 2017 was more bitter still. It was a...
Posted Nov 30th, 2017
Rudresh Mahanthappa, ‘Agrima’
From All About Jazz Rudresh Mahanthappa: Agrima By: Angelo Leonardi Long-awaited, this week’s Agro -Indo-Pak Coalition is released by Rudresh Mahanthappa , an album where eastern and contemporary traditions blend into articulate and enthralling paths. At nine years of the only record work ( Apti Innova, 2008), the trio collects the fundamental features of that project by adding new solutions,...
Posted Oct 16th, 2017
NPR ‘First Listen’: Rudresh Mahanthappa
From NPR Music WBUR First Listen: Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition, ‘Agrima’ By: Nate Chinen Indo-Pak Coalition, an improvising trio led by the alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, finds its purpose in myriad forms of convergence. A decade ago the group released its auspicious debut album, Apti, announcing an inspired accord between Mahanthappa, a second-generation Indian-American; guitarist Rez Abbasi, who was born...
Posted Oct 9th, 2017
Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition Rocks Litchfield Jazz Fest
From DownBeat Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition Rocks Litchfield Jazz Fest By: Phillip Lutz A dozen years ago, Rudresh Mahanthappa seemed intent on establishing the kind of musical connection to his Indian heritage that his upbringing in Boulder, Colorado, hadn’t afforded him. So the alto saxophonist formed the Indo-Pak Coalition’“a trio, with Rez Abbasi on guitar and Dan Weiss on tabla, that...
Posted Aug 9th, 2017
DownBeat International Critics Poll
From DownBeat DownBeat International Critics Poll Rudresh Mahanthappa and his new album Bird Calls wins Album Of The Year, Alto Saxophonist Of The Year, and Rising Star Composer Of The Year. To read more click here
Posted Jun 23rd, 2015
New York Times: ‘Bird Calls’
From The New York Times Reviews: Rudresh Mahanthappa and Father John Misty Get Deep By: Ben Ratliff and Jon Caramanica “This album is not a tribute to Charlie Parker,” the alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa writes in the linear notes to “Bird Calls.” That’s about 50 percent disputable, or, to put it another way, just true enough that he could have...
Posted Feb 9th, 2015
Rudresh Mahanthappa: Indo-Pak Coalition
Few musicians share the ability of alto saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa to embody the expansive possibilities of his music with his culture. What has materialized is a sound that hybridizes progressive jazz and South Indian classical music in a fluid and forward-looking form that reflects Mahanthappa’s own experience growing up a second-generation Indian-American.
Hailed by The New York Times as possessing “a roving intellect and a bladelike articulation,” Mahanthappa has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, 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 has been named alto saxophonist of the year in Downbeat Magazine’s International Critics’ Polls, Jazz Journalists’ Association and JazzTimes Magazine Critics’ Poll along with a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, one of the most prominent arts awards in the world. In 2016, he was named the Director of Jazz and the Associate Director of the Program in Musical Performance at Princeton University.
Agrima, the long-awaited follow-up album of his Indo-Pak Coalition trio – Mahanthappa on alto saxophone, Rez Abbasi on guitar, and Dan Weiss on tabla – finds Mahanthappa and the group expanding aesthetic horizons: adding a modified drum set, incorporating effects and electronics, and working with a broader audio canvas overall. The core of the band’s sound, the vibrant presence of Indian rhythmic and melodic elements in a charged, modern improvisational framework born of the New York jazz scene, remains firmly in place.
Fly Higher: Charlie Parker @ 100
Acclaimed co-musical directors Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto saxophone) and Terri Lyne Carrington (drums) celebrate one of the most innovative and influential artists in modern musical history and examine his impact in pop, hip-hop, rap, rock, and jazz.
Joined by a superb lineup including Charenee Wade (vocals), Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), Kris Davis (piano), Larry Grenadier (bass), and Kassa Overall (dj), Mahanthappa and Carrington will honor Charlie Parker’s centennial year by showcasing “Bird’s” uncompromising musical joy, humor, and beauty by mining his deep repertoire and showcasing new, modern compositions.
“In a time where the words ‘innovation’ and ‘genius’ are overused, we are excited to celebrate a man who truly embodied both,” says Rudresh, “and the best way one shows admiration is not to age their work but to show their influence and how their work resonates in a modern age.” Rather than imitating the original, Fly Higher strives to forward the artform by developing new perspectives on tradition. That is the true substance of contemporary expression and, as Rudresh says, “we firmly believe that Bird would have wanted his legacy to resonate in this fashion.” After all, the only way to address the present is to place one foot in the past and one foot in the future.
Jaw-dropping, one of the finest saxophonists going.
Pitchfork
The US-raised alto saxophonist who astutely fuses western and Indian traditions with mind-bending jazz rhythms
The Guardian
Definitely one of the strongest voices of the jazz scene.
All Music Guide
A roving intellect and a bladelike articulation.
The New York Times
A landmark convergence of styles that didn’t lend itself to easy analysis… new music of this caliber hasn’t been attempted before.
JazzTimes
Mahanthappa makes music like no other in this city. This kind of development and perfection is not simply above the norm; It redefines the standard.
All About Jazz
Mahanthappa is characterized by an inwardly urgent tone and by an access that catches one at the collar and makes it impossible for the listener to turn away.
The New Yorker