RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA
Genres: Avant-Garde Jazz, World Fusion, 21st Century Modern • Italy

Rudresh Mahanthappa(Kannada:ರುದ್ರೇಶ್ ಮಹಂತಪ್ಪ ) (b. May 4, 1971) is a New York-based jazz alto saxophonist and composer. Mahanthappa was born in Trieste, Italy, and grew up in Boulder, Colorado. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1992 and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in jazz composition from Chicago's DePaul University in 1998. During his time at Berklee, he was introduced to the music of Indian saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath, whose use of a Western instrument in the context of 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.  Mahanthappa has frequently been listed in Down Beat's Critics Poll since 2003, and was named both "#1 Rising Star Jazz Artist" and "#1 Rising Star Alto read more...