Rudresh Mahanthappa: Dancing on the Edges of Time

AAJ: It sounds like your idea of slowing down would be others' ideas of speeding up! Just like your playing! You have a lot on your plate. Tell us a little more about your personal life when you're not pursuing your craft. What do you do when you're not doing music?

RM: There are several TV shows I like to watch. We don't get out that much. We rent a lot of movies-on-demand or Netflix. I also read a lot of science fiction. I've always been a science fiction lover. The best science fiction has a foot in the future and a foot in the past, and that's how life unfolds, and I feel that the greatest music is like that too.

AAJ: Who is your favorite science fiction writer?

RM: Lately, it's Stephen Baxter. I like that his work is well-researched, and his science is sound. So it all has plausibility to it. And then, of course, I like the classics: Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, and all those guys.

AAJ: You've mentioned your son, Talin. Tell us a little about your married life.

RM: My wife, Pooja Bakri, is fabulous. I thank her on every one of my recordings. She's amazing. I met her on a gig with Vijay Iyer at the Jazz Gallery in June, 2002, and she was sitting in the front row. That was it -it was all I needed! She's a beautiful beacon of positive energy. She's a great role model for me on a daily basis. She lets every situation roll and makes the most out of it. She has several careers. She's a painter, an abstract expressionist, and there's a lot of elements of Indian symbolism in what she does. She's an amazing graphic designer and had a studio in New York for many years. Currently, she's a creative arts therapist. She counsels kids coming from very troubled situations, using art to have them express their feelings and find their way through them. And she's a great mother too. So we've had a wonderful ride and keep looking forward to all the stuff we're gonna do together.

AAJ: What's your take on spirituality? Do you have a spiritual practice? How do you think about the "big picture?"

RM: That's a good question. I don't practice meditation on a daily basis. I was raised Hindu, and I like a lot of what it conveys, but I think a lot of what religion is really about is being a good person, the brotherhood of man. I think spirituality is manifest in a global way when we are good to each other as human beings. The more we do good things to help one another, the more that becomes part of the human race. Hopefully, that's what I would like to pass on to my child to pass along to his children. To me, that's where spirituality really lies, not necessarily in the Beyond or in a concept of God. It's energy that we all can create.

AAJ: "God is in our hearts;" "God is Love."

RM: Exactly. My favorite moments when I'm playing music are when I feel that the audience and the band are one. I'm not playing for you; you're not listening to me. We're in this together. When that clicks, that's the most spiritual moment of playing music for me.

Photo Credit: Jimmy Katz

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