The Hyphenate of Jazz
Last Friday night I had the pleasure of seeing Ragamala Dance and Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Song of the Jasmine. This perfect combination of Hindu dance and modern jazz is based on the 8th century Tamil mystic poet Andal’s Nachiar Tirumozhi (Sacred Sayings of the Goddess).
The event was a perfect Matryoshka doll where the outside layer stood the solid white Walker Art Center, the middle held the solid black McGuire theater, and the center cradled the brilliantly colored Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy’s five-member Ragamala Dance and Rudresh Mahanthappa’s five-member jazz band. Downstage left were around 80 brass bells hung by brass chains at varying lengths, creating a feeling of ascension to the Hindu’s Supreme God Vishnu. Only at the end, which was signified by the only time a bell was rung, did I check my watch for the time. The only time any member of the collective was given a break during the 90-minute performance was to allow for another to have a solo which was always followed by applause. The combination of Hindu dance and several central-Asian instruments perfectly complimented Mahanthappa’s Bela Bartok inspired jazz composition. All the pretention that I feel comes with the leotard clade interpretive dance movement was washed away with smiles and the brilliant shades of blue, red, and gold worn by Ragamala Dance. Mahanthappa has mastered both sides of the Indian-American hyphen making him The Hyphenate of Jazz. Although Song of the Jasmine has ended its May 15-18 stint at the Walker Art Center, you can check out Ragamala Dance performing Sacred Earth at On Being Studios in Minneapolis June 14th from 9:00pm – 12:00am and they’ll be performing Song of the Jasmine at the Dance USA Conference June 19th at the Goodale Theater in The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. For more information, you can check out Ragamala Dance’s website at rudreshm.com. Rudresh Mahanthappa will be starting his Canada tour in Edmonton on June 21st promoting his new album Gamak with David Fiuczynski, François Moutin, and Dan Weiss. You can find more information and tour dates at rudreshm.com.
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