MSG - Belfast
Rudresh Mahanthappa - alto saxophone
Ronan Guilfoyle - acoustic bass
Chander Sardjoe - drums
"Music that is at once technically brilliant yet musically cogent...... Mahanthappa takes listeners into fascinating Eastern idioms that are otherwise virtually unheard in jazz today." - Chicago Tribune
Three names to conjure with in this international trio put to the service of music with an uncompromising commitment to creativity.
At its apex is alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, incorporating the rich tradition of his Indian ancestry to forge a strikingly original jazz concept, with a visceral and emotionally direct style that summons the spirit of late period Coltrane. Based in New York, he's its current talking point, sweeping the Downbeat polls and drawing unanimous praise among the great jazz city's demanding cognoscenti.
Providing the counterpoint to Mahanthappa are two outstanding European musicians. Drummer Chander Sardjoe is Indo-Dutch, and that duality has stimulated exhaustive study of both Western and South Indian traditions, creating a tour de force of colour and fluency in this rarified rhythmic environment. Irish bassist Ronan Guilfoyle, another well versed in the subtle complexities of Indian classical music, sounds very at home with his counterparts, and equally responsive to the universe of rhythmic possibility that opens up when this trio cuts loose.
Poised between familiarity and discovery, they collectively improvise, opening a world of possibility between two great musical traditions.