Over the course of an illustrious twenty-five-year career Rudresh Mahanthappa's music making has constantly pushed at the artistic boundaries to encompass such diverse influences as classic bebop, the ash and fury of electric fusion, and the complexities of Carnatic music, while always maintaining a clear sense of his own fiercely intelligent, uncompromising musical personality.
On ‘Hero Trio’, his sixteenth release as a leader/co-leader, he has moved the focus away from his own compositions to pay tribute to his greatest influences with an album of interpretations.
All of the material is presented in Mahanthappa's characteristically
original arrangements, and to approach them with the greatest degree of freedom
and spontaneity he chose to record in trio format, enlisting the talents of
long-time associates Francois Moutin on bass and Rudy Royston on drums. Their
effortless collective virtuosity, and the perfect attunement of their musical
thinking honed over two decades of playing together, makes this album an
outstanding addition to the genre. “Playing chordless trio, you're very
exposed but you also have a degree
of freedom that's very special. There's also a great history of piano trios
that have a beautiful way of functioning like a single organism, and I wanted
to capture that energy. I wrote the arrangements, and when we came together to
rehearse I didn't have to reorganise a thing. I felt like within ten minutes
we were ready to make an album.”