Angel City Jazz Festival
Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Hero Trio and For Living Lovers
- Price
- $25*
- Genre
- Music
- Season
- Fall 2025
- DATE
- OCT 19
- TIME
- SUN, 8 PM
- RUNTIME
- Approx. 120 minutes, with intermission
- COUNTRY
- USA
* Discounts available for REDCAT members, students & the CalArts faculty and staff
Join the conversation in the REDCAT LOUNGE
About
The 18th annual Angel City Jazz Festival presents a dynamic double bill featuring two innovative bands.
Jazz leader Rudresh Mahanthappa presents Hero Trio, a performance drawing from his most recent album of original arrangements by artists who have inspired his career, including Charlie Parker, Stevie Wonder, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Keith Jarret, among others. This varied group mirrors Mahanthappa’s own commitment to pushing artistic boundaries and the diverse range of styles he draws from, including classic bebop, electric fusion, and Carnatic music. His characteristically original interpretations are played by himself and his longtime associates François Moutin on bass and Rudy Royston on drums.
For Living Lovers—the acoustic duo of guitarist Brandon Ross and acoustic bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi—open the evening. Founded in 2002, the duo developed while Ross and Takeishi were members of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Threadgill’s quintet Make A Move. Realizing a common musical sensibility (and the shared influence of playing string instruments designed by legendary luthier Steve Klein), Ross and Takeishi have showcased their collaboration in their album Revealing Essence, on Sunnyside Records.
Rudresh is definitely one of the strongest voices on the jazz scene.
—
Paula Edelstein, All Music
about the artists
Hailed by Pitchfork as “jaw-dropping … one of the finest saxophonists going,” alto saxophonist, composer, and educator Rudresh Mahanthappa is widely known as one of the premier voices in jazz of the 21st century. He has over a dozen albums to his credit, and his most recent release, Hero Trio, was considered to be one of the best jazz albums of 2020 by critics and fans alike. Rudresh has been named Alto Saxophonist of the Year for nine of the last eleven years running in DownBeat Magazine’s International Critics’ Polls (2011-2013, 2015-2018, 2020-2021), and for five consecutive years by the Jazz Journalists’ Association (2009-2013) and again in 2016. He won Alto Saxophonist of the Year in the 2015-2018 & 2020 JazzTimes Magazine Critics’ Polls and was named the Village Voice’s Best Jazz Artist in 2015. He has also received the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, among other honors, and is currently the Anthony H. P. Lee ’79 Director of Jazz at Princeton University.
For Living Lovers is the Chamber Music for Improvisors acoustic duo of Brandon Ross and Stomu Takeishi. The duo’s debut album Revealing Essence was released to critical acclaim, and as a recipient of Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works grant, Ross was commissioned to compose the duo’s new work titled Immortal Obsolescence.
The Angel City Jazz Festival—LA’s most adventurous jazz festival—was conceived in 2008 as a vehicle to present the best contemporary West Coast jazz and beyond. Since then the festival has grown into an essential multi-day celebration of creative jazz from around the world, at some of the most exciting & prestigious venues in LA, such as LACMA, REDCAT, Zipper Hall, the World Stage, Zebulon and 2220 Arts + Archives (formerly the Bootleg). The festival is presented by Angel City Arts, a nonprofit organization committed to cultivating and revitalizing jazz culture in Los Angeles by producing concerts by established and emerging music innovators who have brought forward a significant contribution to the evolution of jazz and improvised music. The Angel City Jazz Festival consistently features the most innovative and original musicians working today, balancing established artists with emerging talent and focusing on West Coast creative jazz, past, present, and future.
cast & creative team
Rudresh Mahanthappa Hero Trio
Alto Saxophone: Rudresh Mahanthappa
Acoustic Bass: François Moutin
Drums: Rudy Royston
For Living Lovers
Acoustic Guitar: Brandon Ross
Acoustic Bass Guitar: Stomu Takeishi
