Asia Society Presents a Performance and Album Launch - TIRTHA
Pianist-composer Vijay Iyer, guitarist-composer Prasanna, and tabla player Nitin Mitta are highly accomplished artists who shift easily among multiple musical languages. Together, they have achieved an exciting and truly innovative collaboration as a trio called Tirtha, with a newly released and critically acclaimed album of the same title on ACT music. Join Asia Society for the album launch and two performances, April 1 and 2, at 8:00 p.m.
Tirtha was formed by Iyer, one of the most respected young American jazz artists today, in response to an invitation from the Indian government, in 2007, to put together a concert celebrating 60 years of Indian independence. He invited the Chennai (formerly Madras)-born Prasanna, who brings the perspective of Carnatic/south Indian tradition, and Hyderabad native Nitin Mitta, who is a student of Hindustani/north Indian classical expression. Combining the elemental directness of rock, the chamber-like intimacy of raga and bebop‘s hard, angular drive, Tirtha achieves a profound interplay of melody and rhythm that characterizes the best jazz.
The full press release is attached below.
Image, above:Tirtha; Nitin Mitta, Vijay Iyer and Prasanna.