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Duke Arts Presents

Rez Abbasi Invocation feat. Vijay Iyer & Rudresh Mahanthappa

Friday, January 22, 2016 | 8:00 pm

Baldwin Auditorium


In light of impending inclement weather, Duke Performances is canceling the presentation of Rez Abbasi Invocation feat. Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa. We are planning to reschedule the concert with the Invocation during the 2016/17 season and will announce the new date as soon as it’s been confirmed. Ticket holders should check their e-mail for a message regarding exchanges & returns.

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Invocation is Pakistani-born jazz guitarist Rez Abbasi’s quintet featuring pianist Vijay Iyer and saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa. In this performance at Baldwin Auditorium, 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 triptych made by Abbasi 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 who are forging distinctly South Asian-inflected voices on the contemporary scene. Abbasi comes to this endeavor honestly: he is one of the foremost guitar players in modern jazz, a product of the Manhattan School of Music, but early in his career he made a pilgrimage to India to study with tabla master Ustad Alla Rakha, father of Zakir Hussain. The mission of Invocation’s music, Abbasi declares, is “to create a global-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

The performance of Rez Abbasi Invocation, presented in collaboration with Asia Society and Walker Art Center, is supported by Presenter Consortium for Jazz, a program of Chamber Music America funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.