Monday, June 29, 2015

Alto Saxophonist RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA named DownBeat Magazine's 63rd Critics Poll Triple Crown Winner

2015 saw not one, but two, Triple Crown winners as alto saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa joins American Pharoah in this illustrious group.

Mahanthappa, whose ACT Music +Vision release Bird Calls has garnered global acclaim, placed first for Jazz Album of the Year, Alto Saxophone (for the 4tth time in the past five years), and for Rising Star-Composer.

Though it pays homage to one of jazz’s Founding Fathers and arrived at the outset of Charlie Parker’s 95th birthday year, Bird Calls is not a tribute album in the traditional sense. There isn’t a single Parker composition to be found on the album, which consists entirely of new music penned by Mahanthappa for the occasion. But Bird’s DNA is strongly present in every one of these pieces, each of which takes a particular Parker melody or solo as its source of inspiration. Each is then wholly reimagined and re-contextualized by Mahanthappa and his quintet which features trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist François Moutin, and drummer Rudy Royston.

Select Bird Call Tour Dates
(complete Rudresh tour dates can be found at rudreshm.com)
July 3 - Iowa City, IA / Iowa City Jazz Festival
July 11 - Krefeld, Germany / Kulturfabrik
July 12 - Rotterdam, The Netherlands/ North Sea Jazz Festival
Aug 23 – New York, NY / Charlie Parker Jazz Festival
Sept 5  - Detroit, MI / Detroit International Jazz Festival
Sept 20  - Monterey, CA / Monterey Jazz Festival
Oct 24-25 – Washington DC / Blues Alley
Oct/Nov – Tour of Europe
Dec 12  - New York, NY / Miller Theatre
Jan 14, 2016  – Santiago, Chile / Jazz Festival
Feb 26, 2016 – Chicago, IL / Orchestra Hall
Feb 27, 2016- Columbus, OK / Wexner Center for the Arts

March 19, 2016 – Buffalo, NY / UB Center for the Arts


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