$30 Seated & $20 Bar/Standing
7:00pm Show
Lauded saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa returns to Minneapolis with his Hero Trio. This trio pays tribute to several of Mahanthappa’s greatest influences and inspirations, such as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Lee Konitz, Ornette Coleman, Keith Jarrett, Johnny Cash, and Stevie Wonder.
Band Members:
Rudresh Mahanthappa - Saxophone
François Moutin - Bass
Rudy Royston - Drums
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Alto saxophonist, composer, and educator Rudresh Mahanthappa is widely known as one of the premier voices of jazz in the 21st century. He has over a dozen albums to his credit, including the acclaimed Bird Calls, which topped many critics’ best-of-year lists in 2015 and was hailed by PopMatters as “complex, rhythmically vital, free in spirit while still criss-crossed with mutating structures.” Mahanthappa has been named alto saxophonist of the year nine times in DownBeat magazine’s Critics’ Polls and six times by the Jazz Journalists Association. He won alto saxophonist of the year in the 2015-2018 and 2020 JazzTimes Magazine Critics’ Polls and was named the Village Voice’s “Best Jazz Artist” in 2015. He has also received the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, and he is currently the Anthony H. P. Lee ‘79 Director of Jazz at Princeton University.
Born in Trieste, Italy to Indian émigrés in 1971, Mahanthappa was brought up in Boulder, CO, and gained proficiency playing everything from current pop to Dixieland. He went on to study at North Texas, Berklee, and DePaul University (as well as the Stanford Jazz Workshop) and lived in Chicago. Soon after moving to New York in 1997, he formed his own quartet featuring pianist Vijay Iyer. The band recorded an enduring sequence of albums — Black Water, Mother Tongue, and Codebook — each highlighting Mahanthappa’s inventive methodologies and deeply personal approach to composition. He and Iyer also formed the duo Raw Materials.
Coming deeper into contact with the Carnatic music of his parents’ native southern India, Mahanthappa partnered in 2008 with fellow altoist Kadri Gopalnath and the Dakshina Ensemble for Kinsmen, garnering wide acclaim. Apti, the first outing by Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition (with Pakistani-born Rez Abbasi on guitar and Dan Weiss on tabla), saw release the same year; Agrima followed nine years later. In 2020, Mahanthappa released Hero Trio, a critically acclaimed album of “covers” paying tribute to his musical heroes. He also co-led a project celebrating the centenary of Charlie Parker with the blessing of the Parker estate.
Mahanthappa has also worked with Jack DeJohnette, Mark Dresser, Danilo Pérez, Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, the collaborative trios MSG and Mauger, the co-led quintet Dual Identity with fellow altoist Steve Lehman, and another co-led quintet with fellow altoist and Chicago stalwart Bunky Green.
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François Moutin was born in Paris and earned a doctorate in physics at the age of 24 before electing to become a professional musician. As a member of the legendary Martial Solal Trio, Moutin was recognized as one of the finest young bass players in Europe. At 29, he began co-leading the Quintet Moutin with his twin brother Louis, a top-tier jazz drummer. This project has evolved into the Moutin Reunion Quartet.
In 1997, Moutin moved to New York, where he has found steady work in live performance and studio sessions with the premier artists on the New York jazz scene. A partial list of their names reads like the yellow pages of jazz: Franck Wess, Jimmy Heath, Monty Alexander, Benny Powell, Don Alias, Mike Stern, Lew Soloff, Steve Kuhn, Joe Locke, Billy Hart, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Victor Lewis, Billy Drummond, Dave Liebman, Oliver Lake, Harry Belafonte, Odean Pope, James Hurt, Ari Hoenig, Jean-Michel Pilc, Rick Margitza, Franck Kimbrough, Joel Frahm, Vijay Iyer, Adam Rogers, David Gilmore, Ben Monder, John Hart, Billy Drews, Jamie Haddad… Moutin is a familiar presence on the stages of such establishments as Birdland, Village Vanguard, Blue Note, and Lincoln Center, and he has also appeared in major jazz festivals including Newport Jazz Festival, Detroit Jazz Festival, and Monterey Jazz Festival.
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Rudy Royston has been a professional teacher, drummer, and percussionist for almost 20 years. Royston grew up playing drums in church, and found his voice while studying with Colorado’s celebrated trumpeter Ron Miles, whom Royston deems his greatest influence, and with whom he has played since 1991. He has taught, recorded, and performed all styles of music from jazz to marching percussion.
Since moving to New Jersey in 2006, Royston has completed a Masters in Music degree from Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick and has quickly integrated into the New York music scene, performing with world-class artists including Javon Jackson, Bill Frisell, Les McCann, David Gilmore, Ben Allison, Jason Moran, JD Allen, Sean Jones, Jeremy Pelt, Greg Osby, Jennifer Holiday, Tia Fuller, Ravi Coltrane, Ralph Bowen, Bruce Barth, John Ellis, Jenny Scheinman, John Patitucci, Dave Douglas, and Branford Marsalis. A lover of all genres of music, Royston continues to expand his horizons as he gains increasing recognition in the world of jazz.
