Rudresh Mahanthappa

Rudresh Mahanthappa (born May 4, 1971) is a New York-based jazz alto saxophonist and composer.

Rudresh Mahanthappa
Background information
Born	May 4, 1971 Trieste, Italy
Genres	Jazz, avant-garde jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instruments	Alto saxophone
Years active	1990s–present
Labels	Pi, ACT
Website	www.rudreshm.com

Biography

Mahanthappa is the son of Indian emigrants to the U.S. He was born in Trieste, Italy as a result of his father's job in academia, but spent most of his life in Boulder, Colorado. He graduated from Fairview High School in 1988,[1] subsequently receiving a BM from the Berklee College of Music in 1992[2] and an MM in jazz composition from Chicago's DePaul University in 1998.[3]

After moving to New York City in 1997, he released the album Architextures with pianist Vijay Iyer. The two would continue to collaborate often, releasing the albums Black Water, Mother Tongue and Codebook with Mahanthappa's quartet, and Raw Materials as a duo.[4]

Manthappa is currently the Anthony P. Lee'79 Director of Jazz at Princeton University,[5] where he teaches improvisation and directs small groups. In 2019, he organized the first annual Princeton University Jazz Festival, which featured headliner Dave Holland along with other student and professional musicians.[6]

Musical influences

Rudresh Mahanthappa

During his time at Berklee, he was introduced to the music of Indian saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath, whose use of a Western instrument in carnatic music surprised and inspired Mahanthappa. He would later travel to India on a grant to work with Gopalnath; the two played together in concert between 2005 and 2008 and collaborated on the album Kinsmen (2008), which fuses Western and Indian approaches to improvisation.[7]

Rudresh Mahanthappa in Moscow 2013Festival "Triumf jazz"

In 2010, Mahanthappa recorded and released Apex with saxophonist Bunky Green. As Mahanthappa tells it, "I first heard about Bunky from the late great saxophone teacher Joe Viola when I was a student at Berklee in the early 90s. Joe heard me warming up once and recommended that I check Bunky out as he thought that my approach was on track to being something similar to his. He loaned me Bunky's record Places We've Never Been (Vanguard) which totally knocked me out!" Mahanthappa sought Green out and sent him a tape of his playing to which Green responded by providing some encouraging feedback, leading to a long friendship.[8]

Mahanthappa traveled again to India for his Guggenheim Fellowship so that he could study and gain a better understanding of the formal elements of carnatic music. In a 2011 interview with Westword newspaper about the resulting album, Samdhi, Mahanthappa said, "my idea was to take whatever I learned—take that knowledge—and really put in a setting that has nothing to do with Indian classical music.[1] Mahanthappa further claims The Brecker Brothers, The Yellowjackets, David Sanborn, Grover Washington, Jr., and Miles Davis' electric bands as influences in creating Samdhi.

Groups

He leads or co-leads the Rudresh Mahanthappa Quartet (with Vijay Iyer or Craig Taborn on piano, François Moutin on bass, and Dan Weiss on drums), Raw Materials (with Vijay Iyer), Indo-Pak Coalition (with Rez Abbasi on sitar-guitar and Dan Weiss on tabla), MSG (with Ronan Guilfoyle on bass and Chander Sardjoe on drums), Dakshina Ensemble septet, and various groups playing under the label Dual Identity.

Awards and honors

Since 2003, Mahanthappa has been listed frequently in the Critics' Poll of Down Beat magazine. He was named both "No. 1 Rising Star Jazz Artist" and "No. 1 Rising Star Alto Saxophonist" in the 2010 poll.[9] In 2011, he was voted the No. 1 Alto Saxophonist of the Year by the 59th Annual Down Beat Critics' Poll.[10]

He was given a grant by the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Music (2006), three Rockefeller MAP grants, and two grants from the New York State Council on the Arts.

In 2007, he was named a Guggenheim fellow to pursue his interest in how carnatic music can inform and inspire American jazz.[11]

The Jazz Journalists Association named Mahanthappa Alto Saxophonist of the Year in 2009,[12] 2010,[13] and 2011.[14]

Discography

As leader/co-leader

Year	Title	Artist	Label	Footnotes
1994	Yatra	Rudresh Mahanthappa	Red Giant	[15]
2002	Black Water	Rudresh Mahanthappa	Red Giant	[16]
2004	Mother Tongue	Rudresh Mahanthappa	Pi	[17]
2006	Raw Materials	Vijay Iyer & Rudresh Mahanthappa	Savoy Jazz	[18]
2006	Codebook	Rudresh Mahanthappa	Pi	[19]
2006	The Beautiful Enabler	Mauger Trio (Rudresh Mahanthappa, Mark Dresser, Gerry Hemingway)	Clean Feed	[20]
2008	Kinsmen	Rudresh Mahanthappa & Kadri Gopalnath: The Dakshina Ensemble	Pi	[21]
2008	Apti	Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition	Innova	[22]
2010	Dual Identity	Rudresh Mahanthappa & Steve Lehman	Clean Feed	[23]
2010	Apex	Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green	Pi	[24]
2011	Tasty!	MSG: Rudresh Mahanthappa, Chander Sardjoe, Ronan Guilfoyle	Plus Loin	[25]
2011	Samdhi	Rudresh Mahanthappa	ACT	[26]
2013	Gamak	Rudresh Mahanthappa	ACT	[27]
2015	Bird Calls	Rudresh Mahanthappa	ACT

As sideman

Year	Title	Artist	Label	Footnotes
1992	Plays Music by Rich Latham	The Oversize Quartet	Accurate	[28]
1994	Big Band Basie	Clark Terry with the DePaul University Big Band	Reference	[29]
1998	Architextures	Vijay Iyer	Red Giant	[30]
2001	Panoptic Modes	Vijay Iyer	Red Giant	[31]
2003	Blood Sutra	Vijay Iyer	Pi	[32]
2003	In What Language?	Vijay Iyer	Pi	[33]
2005	Far Side of Here	Brooklyn Saxophone Quartet	Omnitone	[34]
2005	Reimagining	Vijay Iyer	Savoy Jazz	[35]
2006	Bazaar	Rez Abbasi	Zoho	[36]
2007	The Chicago Sessions	Clark Terry with the DePaul University Big Band	Summit	[37]
2007	Two Rivers	Amir ElSaffar	Pi	[38]
2008	A Celebration of the Music of Miles Davis	Miles from India, produced by Bob Belden	Four Quarters	[39]
2008	Real People	Anders Morgensen	Blackout	[40]
2008	Tragicomic	Vijay Iyer	Sunnyside	[41]
2009	Things to Come	Rez Abbasi	Sunnyside	[42]
2010	The Two Faces of Janus	Jason Robinson	Cuneiform	[43]
2010	Providencia	Danilo Pérez	Mack Avenue	[44]
2011	Live at Yoshi's 2010	Jack DeJohnette	Golden Beams	[45]
2011	Suno Suno	Rez Abbasi	Enja	[46]

References

1. Solomon, Jon (30 September 2009). "Rudresh Mahanthappa on his new album, mentally practicing and growing up in Boulder". Westword. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
2. "David Fiuczynski's Micro Jam Featuring Rudresh Mahanthappa". Berklee College of Music. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
3. "DePaul Alum Brings Jazz Fusion to Chicago". Demon Tracks. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
4. "About". Rudresh Mahanthappa. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
5. "Rudresh Mahanthappa". Princeton University Department of Music. Retrieved 22 February 2020.
6. "Announcing Inaugural Princeton University Jazz Festival". Department of Music at Princeton University. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
7. Giddins, Gary (2 March 2009). "A Passage to India". The New Yorker. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
8. "Bunky Green - Apex". Pi Recordings. Retrieved 5 June 2012.
9. "57th Annual Critic's Poll Official Results". Down Beat. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
10. "Jason Moran Wins DownBeat Critics Poll". DownBeat Magazine. Maher Publications. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
11. "Rudresh K. Mahanthappa". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 January 2013. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
12. "Rudresh Mahanthappa". AllAboutJazz.com. All About Jazz. Archived from the original on 2010-01-16. Retrieved 2010-06-15.
13. "2010 JJA Jazz Awards Winners". AllAboutJazz.com. All About Jazz. 2010-06-15. Archived from the original on 2010-06-18. Retrieved 2010-06-15.
14. "JJA Jazz Awards 2011: 2011 Winners". Jazz Journalists Association. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
15. Adler, David R. "Yatra". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
16. Edelstein, Paula. "Black Water". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
17. Snowden, Don. "Mother Tongue". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
18. Widran, Jonathan. "Raw Materials". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
19. Yanow, Scott. "Codebook". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
20. "The Beautiful Enabler". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
21. Westergaard, Sean. "Kinsmen". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
22. Nastos, Michael G. "Apti". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
23. Nastos, Michael G. "Dual Identity". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
24. Freeman, Phil. "Apex". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
25. "Tasty!". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
26. "Samdhi". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
27. "Gamak". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
28. "Plays Music by Rich Latham". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
29. Yanow, Scott R. "Big Band Basie". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
30. Adler, David R. "Architextures". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
31. Adler, David R. "Panoptic Modes". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
32. Snowden, Don. "Blood Sutra". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
33. Nickson, Chris. "In What Language". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
34. Yanow, Scott. "Far Side of Here". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
35. Jurek, Thom. "Reimagining". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
36. Yanow, Scott. "Bazaar". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
37. Collar, Matt. "The Chicago Sessions". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
38. Jurek, Thom. "Two Rivers". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
39. Westergaard, Sean. "Miles From India". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
40. "Real People". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
41. Dryden, Ken. "Tragicomic". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
42. Jurek, Thom. "Things To Come". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
43. "The Two Faces of Janus". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
44. "Real People". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
45. "Live at Yoshi's 2010". JackDeJohnette.com. Archived from the original on 30 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
46. "Suno Suno". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 18 October 2011.

External links

• Official website
• Rudresh Mahanthappa at AllMusic
• Saxophone Stylings, With A South-Asian Flair - NPR Fresh Air Interview