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VERSION:2.0
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UID:1483@poonamusic.com
DTSTART:20190118T183000Z
DTEND:20190118T183000Z
DTSTAMP:20190113T025557Z
URL:https://poonamusic.com/events/richard-bennett-jazz-pianist/
SUMMARY:Richard Bennett\, jazz pianist
DESCRIPTION:In a programme of Chopin: Waltz in A flat Op. 69 No. 1\; Thomas
  'Fats' Waller: Ain't Misbehavin'\, Jitterbug Waltz\; Edward 'Duke' Elling
 ton: East St. Louis Toodle-oo\; Billy Strayhorn: A flower is a lovesome th
 ing\; Thelonious Monk: Blue Monk\; Harold Arlen &amp\; Yip Harburg: Over t
 he Rainbow\; Consuelo Velaquez: Besame Mucho\; Keith Jarrett: Treasure Isl
 and\; Josef Zawinul: Birdland\; Richard X Bennett: Vital grace\, Again and
  again and again\, Game on!\, Sans Paroles 3\, Parade\, B Phone\; The Bass
  Remembers\, Say Om 108 times and Paula Jeanine Bennett: The way of love i
 s the way of spirit and Haru no Hana.\n\nFrom Jimi Hendrix in swinging Lon
 don to the Art Ensemble of Chicago in the protest-roiled Paris of 1968\, g
 round-breaking American musicians have found an audience and honed their s
 ound abroad before returning home to make their mark. For New York pianist
  Richard X Bennett\, the path to his arresting raga jazz repertoire runs t
 hrough India\, where he’s recorded a series of acclaimed albums for the 
 nation’s largest record label (and several classical labels as well).\n\
 nThough Bennett has spent almost three decades playing a diverse array of 
 music on the New York scene\, his two new albums serve as an eye-opening i
 ntroduction to this bracingly original jazz artist. With his first U.S. al
 bums under his own name slated for release on Ropeadope Records\, Bennett
 ’s mesmerizing raga-powered quintet project Experiments With Truth and m
 elodically charged trio session What Is Now announce the emergence of a ma
 jor voice unlike any other on the American scene.\n\nBoth albums feature t
 he dynamic rhythm section tandem of bassist Adam Armstrong and drummer Ale
 x Wyatt\, with the Experiments session expanded by Lisa Parrott on bariton
 e saxophone and Matt Parker on tenor and soprano sax. More than the additi
 on of the horns\, what sets the two projects apart is the quintet concept\
 , which brings music that Bennett originally conceived and performed with 
 North Indian classical musicians into a jazz context.\n\nBennett says the 
 quintet’s repertoire is “kind of like Mingus meets raga in the 21st ce
 ntury. This is the first time I’ve brought this music back into jazz ins
 trumentation. I don’t claim to be a raga musician\, because first off\, 
 the piano isn’t a raga instrument. I’d say it’s raga-based. I like t
 he analogy they use on cooking shows\, ‘This is my take on a dosa.’ As
  a jazz musician\, this is my take on raga\,” the vast vocabulary of mel
 odic structures\, or modes\, upon which classical Indian music is based.\n
 \nExperiments With Truth opens with “The Fabulist\,” a long\, persuasi
 vely surging piece based on a particularly ancient raga (raga malkauns). W
 ith the horns playing a thick unison line\, the piece generates galloping 
 momentum\, building on the entrancing melodic refrain. “Portrait in Sepi
 a” feels like an Ellingtonian tone poem by way of Calcutta\, opening wit
 h an ominously swaying cadence designed for Parrott’s brawny bari.\n\nTh
 e album’s centerpiece is the two-movement “Durga Suite\,” which evok
 es dual but very different aspects of the multifarious warrior goddess Dur
 ga (also known as Devi and Shakti). The title track\, which borrows its na
 me from the Mohandas K. Gandhi’s autobiography The Story of My Experimen
 ts with Truth\, is a stimulating and increasingly wild piece inspired by t
 he early morning raga ramkali. Rather than indicating delusions of grandeu
 r on the part of the composer\, the purloined title is a trickster’s con
 fession for a self-invented artist navigating between musical realms.\n\nB
 ennett credits the combustible chemistry between saxophonists Lisa Parrott
  and Matt Parker with energizing the raga project. Rather than writing out
  the ragas\, he presents it as a regular tune\, albeit one with unusual no
 tes for a Western ear. Parrott’s affinity for Ornette Coleman’s music 
 provides a trenchant point of entry.\n\n“Harmolodics have a certain comm
 onality with raga in the way they deal with melody. She’s a melodic impr
 oviser\, and Matt is our wild man. His notes slide and glide\, like Bismil
 lah Khan. I love ’em both. They have such power.”\n\n&nbsp\;The trio a
 lbum What Is Now displays a very different facet of Bennett’s musical ex
 pression. He is featured as a bold\, percussive instrumentalist and as a c
 omposer of themes that beg for lyrics. The album's mood\, energy\, and ton
 e range from the tender opener "Vital Grace" to the afro-pop "Go Against t
 he Tide\," from the sanctified sway of "Sefrou Soul" to the cinematic scop
 e of "Bittersweet Success." The only ringer is a doo-wop arrangement of "O
 ver the Rainbow."\n\nSince moving to New York\, Bennett has thrived workin
 g in a wide array of contexts. Today Bennett also works with Honk &amp\; T
 onk\, a "N.O.L.A. meets Noir" duo with fellow Ropeadope artist\, saxophoni
 st Michael Blake\, and composes for modern dance\, most recently a piece f
 or the Alvin Ailey Company performed at the Essence Festival in New Orlean
 s. He introduced his Indo-jazz concept on the 2009 solo album Ragas on Pia
 no (Dreams Entertainment)\, and expanded the instrumentation with bass and
  tabla on 2011’s Raga and Blues (Mystica Music). Picked up by Times Musi
 c\, India’s biggest label\, he released 2013’s critically hailed New Y
 ork City Swara\, and followed up on the label with the 2015 duo album Mumb
 ai Masala with Hindustani vocalist Dhanashree Pandit Rai.\n\nIn many ways 
 Bennett’s raga jazz flows from his affinity for vocals\, and he’s hone
 d his music in Mumbai\, a metropolis known for its masterly singers. While
  many jazz musicians drawn to classical Indian music delve into the intric
 ate rhythmic cycles\, he’s drawn inspiration from the extended melodic l
 ines improvised by singers.\n\n“I was always interested in minimalism\,
 ” Bennett says. “The blues is like a specific raga\, and if you play i
 t academically it won’t sound right. With Indian music\, everybody else 
 was doing fusions based on complicated rhythmic figures. I’m much more i
 nterested in the melodies.”\n\nBennett also expresses himself with a sin
 gular fashion sense and a generally eccentric attitude. Inspired by Beyonc
 e’s “Lemonade”\, he has made short videos for all the songs on both 
 albums with moods ranging from comic to metaphysical.\n\nIn Bennett’s ha
 nds\, the singular synthesis of ancient ragas\, minimalism\, and jazz make
  Experiments With Truth a unique accomplishment. Add his consistently comp
 elling trio session What Is Now into the mix and there’s an incontrovert
 ible case for Bennett’s ascension into jazz’s top ranks.\n\n
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://poonamusic.com/pms_wp/wp-content/uploads
 /2018/12/Richard-Bennett1.jpg
CATEGORIES:Piano recitals
LOCATION:Mazda Hall\, Sardar Dastur Hoshang Boys High School\, Pune\, India
GEO:18.5198845;73.87824479999995
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Sardar Dastur Hoshang Boys 
 High School\, Pune\, India;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Mazda Hall:geo:18.51
 98845,73.87824479999995
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