Apex: Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green

[relyles]

I made it down to NYC last night to catch the first set of this new band. The rest of the band included Jason Moran, bassist Francois Moutin and drummer Damion Reid. They were debuting new music, which I believe will be recorded soon. From the musicians' obvious reliance on the charts I suspect the music was still somewhat new to the music. However, what they may have lacked in familiarity with the music they more than amply made up for with energtic and passionate playing. Mahanthappa and Green smoked and worked well together in the front line. Moutin and Reid pushed the soloists all night and when they had an opportunity to solo each was impressive. Moran was - well - Moran. I just heard Mahanthappa a couple of days ago playing with Jack DeJohnette and also heard him once before with Mauger. He impressives in every setting. I had never heard Green live and he was my primary motivation for attending the show. I had a chance to introduce myself to him before the set. When he realized I was the person that had sent him copies of European radio and television broadcasts of his performances that he did not have, he gave me a big hug showing how warm and gracious a person he is.

Combined with the facts that the set did not feel abbreviated (unlike my last trip to the Jazz Standard), I encountered no significant traffic issues in either direction (also unlike my last trip to the Jazz Standard) and was able to get home at a reasonable hour, it was a great Tuesday night of music.

The group will also be playing at Jazz Standard tonight.