Thursday January 14, 2021
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 dice and comes up seven, generating such a swarm of piercing, confident notes that the harmonies and melodies of these jazz and pop classics are always present even as they’re filled with digressions their composers never imagined. ‘“Geoffrey Himes