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Riley Mulherkar
Riley Mulherkar has been recognized as a “smart young trumpet player” by The New York Times, praised by The Wall Street Journal as a “youngster to keep an eye on,” and is a 2020 recipient of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award for his work as “an original bandleader, composer, arranger, educator, community activist and advocate for jazz and the arts.”
Riley works with a number of leading artists of our time, including Wynton Marsalis, Anna Deavere Smith, and Alan Cumming, and is a founding member of The Westerlies, a new music brass quartet that creates the rarest of hybrids: music that is both “folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). Riley also serves as Artistic Director at Joye in Aiken, bringing leading young talent to the historic city of Aiken, South Carolina.
Born and raised in Seattle, Riley moved to New York in 2010 to study at The Juilliard School, where he completed his Bachelor’s Degree in 2014 and his Master’s in 2015. In 2014, he was the first recipient of the Laurie Frink Career Grant at the Festival of New Trumpet Music.
Riley is actively engaged in educational initiatives, founding the Joye in Aiken Jazz Camp in 2021, directing the Summer Advanced Institute at Seattle JazzEd from 2017-2019, and serving as an ambassador for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Jazz for Young People” program in New York and St. Louis from 2016 – 2018. Riley is also a faculty member of The College of Performing Arts at The New School in New York, NY.
Riley is an Edwards Artist and performs on Edwards trumpets.
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Riley Mulherkar is in pursuit of a feeling
by Leo Sidran
Riley Mulherkar grew up in Seattle, the Pacific Northwest enclave that has been home to so many musical innovators over the years. He went to Garfield High School, a school that has fostered countless talents going all the way back to Quincy Jones who was himself a young trumpet player at the school in the 1940s. Riley was just eight years-old when he began seeing the legendary Garfield High School big band play free gigs in his Seattle neighborhood; it's ...
Continue ReadingA Few of My Favorite 2024 Jazz Things (so far), Part 5
by Ludovico Granvassu
Last week we started looking back at albums released in 2024 that we have been fascinated by. From these albums we have been cherry picking the songs that struck us the most. Enjoy the fifth installment of this retrospective on the first six months of jazz releases.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Haroldo Bontempo “Sobe e Desce" Indie Hippie Retrô Brasileiro (YB) 0:16 Host talks 5:35 Cassie Kinoshi ...
Continue ReadingRiley Mulherkar: Riley
by Jerome Wilson
Trumpeter Riley Mulherkar is best known as the leader of brass group the Westerlies. This, his debut solo album, is a heavily atmospheric session where his trumpet fills plush, cushioned spaces with spare accompaniment from piano, rhythm and voice created by the sound designs of Chris Pattishall and Rafiq Bhatia. With several classic tunes in the set list, this album acknowledges the jazz trumpet tradition even as it subtly distorts it. “Chicken Coop Blues" and Jelly Roll Morton's ...
Continue ReadingOwen Broder: Hodges: Front and Center: Vol. Two
by Pierre Giroux
Owen Broder's Hodges : Front and Center Vol.Two is a respectful yet refreshing tribute to Johnny Hodges, a saxophonist with an iconic sound while injecting a contemporary vitality into the mix. Hodges' influence looms large throughout the album, guiding Broder's approach to the music. In this quintet's musical journey, Broder, on both alto and baritone saxophone, is accompanied by trumpeter Riley Mulherkar, pianist Carmen Staaf, bassist Barry Stephenson and drummer Bryan Carter. In both his playing and composing, Hodges showed ...
Continue ReadingOwen Broder: Hodges: Front and Center: Vol. Two
by Dan McClenaghan
At times, while listening to random classics in the collection, one can have the idea that everything in jazz evolved from the late '40s to early '50s bebop. But before bop was swing. Duke Ellington stayed with swing through bop, funk, and fusion. And so did alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges (1906-1970), who played in Ellington's band from its early days, the late-1920s. A much-admired player with a distinctive tone and a beautiful way with a melody, Hodges also ...
Continue ReadingRiley Mulherkar: Riley
by Vincenzo Roggero
Il nome di Riley Mulherkar potrebbe risultare sconosciuto ai più, ma il trentaduenne trombettista originario di Seattle presenta un percorso artistico di tutto rispetto. Vanta due mentori come Wynton Marsalis e il compianto Frank Kimbrough, collaborazioni con musicisti come Theo Bleckmann e Dave Douglas e soprattutto è co-fondatore di Westerlies, il quotato quartetto di ottoni con nove album alle spalle e una miscela esplosiva di tradizione e modernità. Tradizione e modernità che ritroviamo anche nell'album di debutto ...
Continue ReadingOwen Broder: Hodges: Front and Center, Vol.1
by Pierre Giroux
Johnny Hodges was a unique instrumentalist whose alto saxophone playing was readily recognizable due to his tone, phrasing, and melodic engagement in improvisation. For the greater part of his musical life, he was anchored in the middle chair of the Duke Ellington Orchestra's saxophone section. However Hodges never turned down an opportunity to stretch out in a small group setting on such albums as Back To Back and Side By Side. Additionally, there were several sessions with organist Wild Bill ...
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Music
Used to Be Duke
From: Hodges: Front and Center: Vol....By Riley Mulherkar
Bokonon
From: Unstuck in Time: The Kurt...By Riley Mulherkar
