Pi. Recordings
2004
Mother Tongue
About This Album
If there's any complaint about the creative bond (symbiosis? telepathy?) between alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa and pianist Vijay Iyer, it's a mutual tendency towards the cerebral and conceptual. It's impossible to deny the freshness of the music but their focus can bring an aura of severity that at times makes you wish the two would just lighten up and have some fun playing.

Mother Tongue, Mahanthappa's third disc as a leader, offers no indication of anything other than business as usual at first glance. The disc is part of a larger suite based on the different languages spoken by people from India, supported by grants from major arts-funding organizations. It's an intriguing idea, using the speech patterns drawn from interviews to fashion the music, but still a bit daunting -- severe side again, no?

Well, surprise, folks -- maybe it's that good old human dimension, but "The Preserver" takes off like a shot with Mahanthappa's alto flashing a lighter, brighter tone than his familiar tartness. There's something like an orthodox "jazz tune" structure here and Iyer actually comps in a vaguely Monk-ish vein with a light touch. It's way more freewheeling blowing than we're accustomed to from these two, and Mahanthappa blows up another serious storm playing the kind of extended scale runs he rarely employs on the fractured-with-flow "Telugu.
Track List (try tracks 1,3 and 4)

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