Codebook

Rudresh Mahanthappa | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 12, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Pi Recordings
• ASIN: B000H5TURC
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,880 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

No description available.
Genre: Jazz Music
Rating:
Release Date: 0000-00-00
Media Type: Compact Disk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Talent Deserving Wider Recognition, February 29, 2008

By 

Rooster (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Codebook (MP3 Download)

I will give my Cambridge neighbor below the benefit of the doubt that what he is saying is that he prefers the sounds of Stan Getz and Ben Webster (not Kenny G!) over that of Rudresh Mahanthappa. I love the sound of a lush, lyrical ballad but jazz doesn't need another Stan Getz or Ben Webster. Rudresh and his current piano partner Vijay Iyer are creating and playing some real fresh music. They recently played at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Unfortunately for me it was sold out. Funny I would think that the new Contemporary Institure of Art would be a more appropriate setting than the drapery lined walls of the ISG Museum but it's great that they are bringing cutting edge music to this jazz starved town. Check out the track samples here on this CD as well as Mother Tongue, Blackwater and anything by Vijay Iyer (check out Vijay's collaborations with Mike Ladd if your really open minded and like a challenge). This is not cacophonously challenging in the avant-garde sense such as Evan Parker (awesome as well!). This is powerful, driven, edgy stuff (Pardon the lame cliches but I am obviously not a musician, critic or a student of music). His tone really appeals to me as do his compositions. All I can say is more please!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cacophony on the Outside, Harmony on the Inside, January 17, 2009

By 

Moi Auci (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Codebook (Audio CD)

Rudresh Mahanthappa (here with his frequent partner in crime, Vijay Iyer) is a practioner of controlled cacophony: that is, the tonal language of free jazz, applied to highly composed and thought-out musical structures. Loud, brassy tones and twisty, disjointed lines appear on the surface to have little relation to each other. But prop the lid up just a little bit, and what emerges is a complex, highly rhythmic language of intense modern jazz. A lot of that rhythm derives from Mahanthappa's South Asian heritage, a feature which, along with an extremely mathematical mind, adds to his music's distinctive nature.

To catch a clearer glimpse of the method beneath the madness, take a listen to D (Dee Dee), Mahanthappa's take on a more traditionally oriented jazz tune; or better yet, check out the frankly beautiful ballad, My Sweetest, which closes out the album. It's a luscious piece of work, and in its own way brings the logic of Mahanthappa's work here full circle around the jazz perimeter. All in all, an excellent entry in the catalog of this exciting young composer/musician.

1.0 out of 5 stars Utterly awful, pretentious dreck, May 30, 2011

By 

Django - See all my reviews

This review is from: Codebook (Audio CD)

This album sounds sort of like someone shouting random math equations in a loud, harsh, obnoxious voice. There's some logic to what's being said but it's extremely unpleasant to listen to and what, ultimately, is the point?

This is the type of music that is created for both the musician and his few misguided fans to show how original, intellectual and "advanced" they are. The two parties form a small, self reinforcing feedback loop. You see, the more painfully pointless, atonal and awful the music is, the "smarter" it is. No one with an ounce of sense actually likes listening to it. If you want to clear a room in a hurry, put this on.

I bought this CD because I like some of Mahanthappa's work with Vijay Ayer. I'm disinclined to sample any of his other recordings. Ornette Coleman he ain't.