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Rudresh Mahanthappa: Hero Trio
by Mark Corroto
All great jazz musicians are omnivores, admired for their ability to ingest and synthesize large schools of music. Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa is one such omnivore, maybe best described as an alpha predator. His music, whether it is advancing modern jazz or fusing the Carnatic music of southern India with his American experience, occupies the highest level of the musical food chain. Like other predacious jazzmen, he can make a meal of everything from pop songs to jazz standards. Mahanthappa's Hero ...
Continue ReadingRudresh Mahanthappa: Hero Trio
by Troy Dostert
After topping so many best-of-year lists with his extraordinary quintet on 2015's Bird Calls (ACT), alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa has gone into trio mode. His gritty, self-released Indo-jazz-rock album Agrima (with guitarist Rez Abbasi and drummer Dan Weiss) was one of the highlights of 2017, and now he's at it again, this time with bassist François Moutin and drummer Rudy Royston, both of whom were featured on Bird Calls. An overt nod to some of his formative musical influences, some ...
Continue ReadingRudresh Mahanthappa: Hero Trio
by Dan McClenaghan
In the chordless trio tradition of tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins on A Night At The Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1957) and alto saxophonist Lee Konitz with his Motion (Verve, 1961), alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa offers up his Hero Trio, a saxophone, bass and drums outing nodding to his influential musical heros. Mahanthappa began his career in the shadow of Vijay Iyer, playing on the pianist's Panoptic Modes (Red Giant, 2001), Blood Sutra (Pi Recordings, 2003), and Reimagining (Savoy ...
Continue ReadingMoutin Factory Quintet: Mythical River
by Dan Bilawsky
Not so long ago, fresh off a two-week tour that stretched along the path of the Mississippi River, the Moutin Factory Quintet took to a Paris studio to record the material that would come to constitute this album. Drawing inspiration from those mythic waters while stylistically keeping a good distance from sounds that emerged from its depths previously, bassist François Moutin and his drumming brother, Louis, put together a program that's bold, bracing, and thought-provoking in nature. ...
Continue ReadingMarcello Pellitteri: Acceptance
by Tyran Grillo
From branches of sadness have sprouted leaves of affirmation, and these are their songs. As the first in a series of albums dedicated to Marcello Pellitteri's late daughter, Veronica (1991-2014), Acceptance marks a turning point in the renowned drummer's career that no one could have foreseen. Despite its mournful theme, the album is filled with so much light that it feels like nothing less than a catharsis. In a recent email interview, Pellitteri confirmed this impression with the ...
Continue ReadingRudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls
by Dave Wayne
On Bird Calls, alto saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa takes on the music of Charlie Parker in a personal and profound way, accompanied by his whip-smart, uber-hip and youthful backing band. Let's face it, folks; this is the sort of thing a jazz fan's daydreams are made of. The result doesn't disappoint; Bird Calls is a masterpiece, and will certainly grace many a critic's year end “Top 10" list. It's evident that Mahanthappa thought this album through from ...
Continue ReadingRudresh Mahanthappa: Bird Calls
by Dan Bilawsky
Charlie Parker has been deified, his methods have been codified, and his recordings have been analyzed ad infinitum. Six decades have passed since he left this realm, yet he remains the lodestar for a significant portion of the jazz community, from the aspiring to the elite, and his influence hasn't waned one bit. Given all of that, it's astonishing to realize that so few players have taken chances by looking beyond the songs, the music theory, the recordings, and the ...
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