Rez Abbasi
Invocation feat. Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa & Dan Weiss

Saturday, December 17, 2016 | 8:00 pm

Baldwin Auditorium

Invocation is Pakistani-born jazz guitarist Rez Abbasi’s quintet featuring pianist Vijay Iyer and saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. In this performance at Baldwin Auditorium (replacing a concert cancelled last season due to snow) the quintet unveils a new project that explores Carnatic classical music from Southern India through the idiom of jazz. This is the final installment in a project that puts a jazz lens on the musical traditions of South Asia; Invocation previously explored Hindustani music and qawwali in a pair of critically acclaimed recordings. All About Jazz calls Abbasi’s music “neither Eastern nor Western, but effortlessly global … proof that jazz can be as vital and boundary-pushing as ever.”

Abbasi — along with Iyer and Mahanthappa — is one of a trio of jazz musicians bringing distinctly South Asian-inflected voices to the contemporary scene. One of the foremost guitar players in modern jazz, Abbasi graduated from the Manhattan School of Music, then made a pilgrimage to India to study with tabla master Ustad Allarakha, father of Zakir Hussain. Invocation’s mission, Abbasi declares, is “to create a globally-based music steeped in jazz. This tradition follows in the footsteps of some of the greatest jazz musicians. Coltrane, Ellington, and Gillespie all immersed themselves in music from around the world.”

Rez Abbasi, Guitars
Rudresh Mahanthappa, Alto Saxophone
Vijay Iyer, Piano
Johannes Weidenmueller, Bass
Dan Weiss, Drums
Elizabeth Means, Cello