Kinsmen feat. Rudresh Mahanthappa & Kadri Gopalnath live at Jazzfest Berlin 2010

Rudresh Mahanthappa alto sax
Kadri Gopalnath alto sax
A. Kanyakumari violin
Rez Abassi guitar
Poovalur Sriji mridangam
Carlo de Rosa bass
Dan Weiss drums
recorded live at Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Main Stage, November 4, 2010

1. Introspection/ Ganesha
2. Snake!
3. Carlo-Alap/ Kalyani
4. Kadi-Alap/ Kanya-Alap/ Convergence

Kinsmen is Rudresh Mahanthappa’s collaboration with Kadri Gopalnath, a living legend of Indian music known as “The Emperor of the Saxophone”, a true innovator in bringing the saxophone to Indian classical music. The music on the homonymously titled album Kinsmen, featuring their co-led Dakshina Ensemble, is exemplar of successful multicultural, transnational collaboration. Utilizing his extensive knowledge of both jazz and the traditional melodic and rhythmic concepts of Indian music, Mahanthappa has masterfully provided a framework that has brought out the best in all the musicians, resulting in spectacular interaction and virtuosic displays. The music burns with passionate interplay: Mahanthappa’s biting attack intertwined with Gopalnath’s staccato outbursts; Kanyakumari’s slippery portamento and Abbasi’s Mahavishnu-like single note runs. Rather than “Indo-jazz fusion”, the music harmoniously synthesizes the cultural and musical divide, creating a sound that truly transcends labels and genre.

Utilizing Indian ragas, songs, and rhythmic cycles as a starting point, Mahanthappa composes new melodies and harmonies that connect them with a jazz sensibility. About the collaboration, Rudresh says, “The piece is really about finding this middle ground where we’re both comfortable playing in this setting that is half-Western and half-South Indian, and maybe pushing to a point where it actually becomes neither (…) Eventually though, I would just ask Kadri to think of something contrapuntally to play with my parts, and he’d sit there and think for a minute and then come up with these beautiful melodies, these lines weaving in and out of each other. It was really amazing.”