Piece image

JazzStories: Rudresh Mahanthappa

From: Murray Street Productions
Series: JazzStories
Length: 11:32

Embed_button
"And he said we’ll I don’t want to play any of those 7s or 11s or 13s or 22s. I don’t want to play any of that stuff that you’re writing. He said because even if I work on it and get it together I’m never going to feel comfortable playing it. And he’s 75 years old, why would he want to do anything that made him feel uncomfortable." Read the full description.

Web_small

"Alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa is one of the most innovative young musicians and composers in jazz today and has been named Alto Saxophonist of the Year for two years by the Jazz Journalists Association. Mahanthappa
has incorporated the culture of his Indian ancestry into his music. He speaks about his work with his mentor Bunky Green and how the two are trying to put the spotlight on the alto sax.

Also in the JazzStories series

Piece image

JazzStories: Mulgrew Miller (11:02)
From: Murray Street Productions

“I think of a lot of things when I’m playing the piano and one of the last things I think about is the piano…you try to somehow think and feel like a singer or horn player ...
Piece image

JazzStories: Michael Cuscuna (17:26)
From: Murray Street Productions

"I guess it was about 3rd or 4th grade that I got hooked on R & B and early rock & roll. I just became a fanatical record collector even at that age. Not a massive ...
Piece image

JazzStories: Reid Anderson (16:32)
From: Murray Street Productions

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," in particular sounds like a modal jazz tune. That's one of the funniest things to me. It says so much about people's attitudes in jazz towards rock ...
Piece image

JazzStories: Mary Halvorson (18:32)
From: Murray Street Productions

"I want to have clarity of ideas and I want to be able to execute ideas. So if I'm going to play something really sloppy, I want it to be sloppy on purpose, not sloppy ...
Piece image

JazzStories: Stefon Harris (07:39)
From: Murray Street Productions

"When I started to play jazz... I started in the middle. I wanted to play Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and all of that stuff first... When I started checking out Louis ...
Piece image

JazzStories: Christian McBride (16:39)
From: Murray Street Productions

"I always thought of the acoustic bass as the quintessential jazz instrument... I knew that jazz meant cool, and hip, and on the cutting edge, and to me that was my great ...
Piece image

JazzStories: Freddie Hubbard (11:41)
From: Murray Street Productions

"When people get two trumpet players it becomes very competitive...It was [Booker Little], Lee Morgan and myself at the time. We we're the young guys here. So it was very ...
Piece image

JazzStories: The Three Cohens (14:45)
From: Murray Street Productions

"We have a mixture of many elements from the world. The classical music from Europe- the sense of melody and deep harmonic sense- and on the other side we have people coming ...
Caption: Dr. Lonnie Smith

JazzStories: Dr. Lonnie Smith (10:19)
From: Murray Street Productions

"They name it -- they just come up with all kinds of names..."'Funk'... 'jazz' or... 'acid jazz.' Or they named it 'boogaloo.' We don't know anything about that. We just ...
Caption: Toshiko Akiyoshi, Credit: Amanda Brown

JazzStories: Toshiko Akiyoshi (12:08)
From: Murray Street Productions

"The fact is my parents lost all of their assets. If I didn't have something (I was) really into, in my case was piano and jazz, I think it would have been really difficult ...

Piece Description

"Alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa is one of the most innovative young musicians and composers in jazz today and has been named Alto Saxophonist of the Year for two years by the Jazz Journalists Association. Mahanthappa
has incorporated the culture of his Indian ancestry into his music. He speaks about his work with his mentor Bunky Green and how the two are trying to put the spotlight on the alto sax.