Smooth out your pink cashmere twin-set! We’re going to hop into our trusty DeLorean with Flashion Backward, a feature that’s the spiritual cousin of Flashion Forward. Here, we rifle through our treasure trove of interviews to fish out a vintage gem–the better to explore the strange vortex in which fashion and musicians meet. And speaking of smoooth, let’s take a gander at Rudresh Mahanthappa.
When ya think of a dapper and cosmopolitan (and perhaps just slightly wicked) man about town, Rudresh’s image should instantly, magically and effortlessly pop into your head, just as the Octomom’s does when the phrase “hot psychological mess” is summoned, quite unbidden, from the depths of your superficial celebrity psyche.
Rudresh is based in New York, was born in Trieste, Italy, and reared in Colorado. Of Indian descent (his parents are first gen), Rudresh is inspired by ragas and uses tal-like rhythmic forms in his work, often collaborating with Carnatic sax great Kadri Gopalnath.
Rudresh is perpetually on the cusp of hitting the big time in the jazz world: he’s been named a rising star by Down Beat four times and his grant writer must be his BFF, considering the bumper crop he’s received (a NY Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Music, three Rockefeller MAPs and two New York State Council on the Arts grants–huzzah!). Like many a cool cat, he has his fingers firmly rooted in many juicy pies when he’s not actually twiddling with the alto saxophone–a teaching gig at New School University here, a co-leader of seven musical projects there.
And if you’re impressed with Rudresh and his tall, dark and handsome bespoke besuited, almost hypnotic charisma, then that goes double for him.
When Rudresh meets a celebrity, his first instinct is to talk about himself. While he acknowledges this might be a “problem” I think it just indicates that he possesses an admirable level of panache and self confidence. Which is definitely necessary when attempting to pull off a non-ironic version of the short-sleeved brightly hued button-down look without looking like my dweeby Uncle from Cleveland–which Rudresh always does without missing a smooth, head-swaying, hip-shaking, finger-snapping Daddy-o beat.
TOPICS: Flashion Backward, Kathleen Willcox