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An ongoing evolution/exploration

greg taylor | Portland, Oregon United States | 03/05/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rudresh Mahanthappa has been leading recording sessions since the mid-1990's. From his earliest recordings it has been apparent that he was different. His sound is unique- his alto tone frequently reminds of the nasality of the double reed instruments. His sense of time is incredibly sophisticated and varied. He studied with Steve Coleman and has absorbed the M-Base ideas about polyrhythm. As I remarked on a review of his first CD, Yatra, his sense of time has a slipperyness to it that I love. He doesn't so much just change time as he glides seemlessly into a different rhythm.

For years, along with his friend and fellow musical explorer, Vijay Iyer, Mahanthappa has also looked at the way his two musical heritages can interact. This trio is the latest such exploration and it may be his most successful. His bandmates are Rez Abassi on guitars and Dan Weiss on tabla. The choice of band mates is perfect. Abassi gets remarkably different tones out of his guitars. Some times it is a slightly fuzzy electric tone, other times it is acoustic and sometimes he does something to give his guitar a slightly sitarish sound. His ability to get droning effects and to constantly vary the sound of what is happening behind what Mahanthappa is doing is essential to this experiment. And Weiss' tabla is perfect. Tabla in the right hands is an astounding instrument. There are great variety of tone that accentuate the rhythm, the rhythms of Indian music are complex and propulsive- perfect for jazz. There is a constant pushing of Mahanthappa, a constant suggesting of resources for use and the drum volume is loud enough to be always there but it never dominates.

What Mahanthappa plays is largely fairly straightforward postbop to my ears. The first song Looking Out, Looking In is the most Indian sounding I guess. He bends his notes and plays with his tone. But a lot of the time after the statement of the theme the music sounds a lot like what we have heard from him lately.

This is not a criticism. Miles in his electric period played a lot like what he played in either of his classic quintet days. By changing the musical context that he was playing on top of, Miles initiated enormous changes in jazz. Mahanthappa is on to something similar here.

Jazz is enormously adaptable to new base materials. I constantly rant about the greatness of Italian jazz and its use of the musical traditions of Italy. Ten years from now I hope to be ranting about the greatness of Indo-American jazz or Indian jazz and its use of the many musical traditions of the Indian sub-continent. Mahanthappa is an important step in that development people. Listen up. If for some reason it is not available on Amazon, try the Innova site. The Innova label is another of those small labels that puts out a ton on interesting CDs of very high quality.

And please note- I saw that the New Yorker recently did a nice long article on Mahanthappa. I haven't had a chance to read it yet but I cannot imagine that you won't learn a lot more about the man and his music from it. Check it out."

Top-notch trio

Anthony Cooper | Louisville, KY United States | 08/06/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Rudresh Mahanthappa put out last year's "Kinsmen", one of the better discs of 2008. He's done it again with a trio in 2009. Mahanthappa takes guitarist Rez Abbasi and percussionist Dan Weiss from last year's group and creates a great disc. This is high-level jazz - ferocious jamming over complicated lines -- and very listenable to boot. All of the songs except for "Vandanaa Trayee" (by Ravi Shankar) are originals, and they are in his signature style. Rez Abbasi's guitar twins with Rudresh Mahanthappa's alto very well, and Dan Weiss is consistantly energetic and inventive on the tablas. A certain amount of sameness to the songs keeps it (barely) out of 5-star territory. Highly recommended!

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Apti

Quiet | 04/22/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Took me a long time to track this one down but someone important wanted it! You can wade into the rhythms and luxuriate in the mixture of sounds and feelings. Yes, this is a very short review. You don't need to read my words as much as you need to hear this CD!"