Rudresh Mahanthappa

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

Biography Mahanthappa is the son of Kodava 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, subsequently receiving a BM from the Berklee College of Music in 1992 and an MM in jazz composition from Chicago's DePaul University in 1998.

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.

Mahanthappa is currently the Anthony P. Lee'79 Director of Jazz at Princeton University, 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.

Musical influences

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.

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.

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. In 2011, he was voted the No. 1 Alto Saxophonist of the Year by the 59th Annual Down Beat Critics' Poll.

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.

The Jazz Journalists Association named Mahanthappa Alto Saxophonist of the Year in 2009,

Discography

As leader/co-leader

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

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