RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA — Dual Identity (review)

RUDRESH MAHANTHAPPA — Dual Identity album cover Live album · 2010 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
snobb
Rudresh was born in Trieste - the same town on the Adriatic coast as Italian jazz icon, trumpeter Enrico Rava. But being of Indian origin and living in New York from 1997, his music has no trace of the Italian jazz tradition. Oppositely, he plays high energy angular improvisational knotty jazz mixing Indian and modern NYC downtown traditions.

"Dual Identity" was recorded live in Portugal, at the Braga Jazz Fest. This album in fact is a recording of a strong duo of alto sax players - Rudresh Mahanthappa and Steve Lehman, supported by a very competent rhythm section and Liberty Ellman on guitar. It is not the first album, released by Rudresh in 2010 - another one is a studio recording of his duo with sax veteran Bunky Green (with excellent collaborators Jason Moran, François Moutin, Jack DeJohnette and the same drummer Damion Reid) on the Americal label Pi Records. Both works have one thing in common - both are alto saxophonist duo lead albums of high energy and surprisingly modern sound.

The great thing with "Dual Identity" is that although it is an openly avant-garde jazz musical recording with two alto saxes on the front of the sound, this album isn't too noisy or too screaming and doesn't contain too many "duels". Rooted in the tradition of the late 60s, the music on here is also very modern. There is no trace of chaos that could be found - everything is well organized, framed and precisely played. A slight Indian music flavor gives an even bigger freshness and originality to the whole sound.

Recorded live during a festival concert, this album sounds almost as if it was recorded in a studio (I don't think that the idea to cut the applause was good though). Even if this is not as solid and concentrated as the Apex (studio album of the same year), this release is really enjoyable listening.
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