MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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A warm March night, with a special magnetism
(L to R) Rudy Royston, Rudresh Mahanthappa and François Moutin
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Pizza Express, Soho
AFTER many records expressing the depth and complexity of his own unique musical essence, alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa’s new eponymous album with his Hero Trio — bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Rudy Royston, he counts it as “an immense pleasure to record music that is not my own.”
At Soho’s Pizza Express he performed a selection of these tunes with astonishing fluidity, breakneck speed and warm empathy with his confreres. Moutin’s deeply twanging artistry and Royston’s command of every percussive surface created a threesome unity of rampaging and moving sound.
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