Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa Interviewed at AAJ

While Bobby Jindal and Indra Nooyi are making Indian-Americans' presence felt in the corridors of political and corporate power in the US, another front seems ready to be claimed by them: the arts. And nothing represents the American arts like jazz. Despite being an international musical currency, jazz is still an unbroken American tradition and a reservoir of the American spirit.

Nothing heralds the entre of Indian-Americans into the sanctum sanctorums of the American society better than the presence of Rudresh Mahanthappa as a leading, vital voice of jazz. The New York-based, thirty-something alto saxophonist and composer is, according to another all-American institution, The New Yorker “...a talent to keep a steady eye on." Down Beat Magazine has named him a “Rising Star of the Alto Saxophone" for the past four years, (number two on the 2006 critics' poll list). The sound of his alto saxophone, that recalls as much the fluency of John Coltrane as the sharpness of Indian pickles has critics and audiences guessing its provenance.

New York-based Rudresh Mahanthappa, in conversation with Hemant Sareen. The interview first appeared in the March-April issue of M, a New Delhi-based men's magazine.

Check out Rudresh Mahanthappa: Between Kadri and Coltrane at AAJ today!