“Eschewing any sense of East-meets-West juxtaposition, the approach favors organic flow and communication between the musicians in ways true to a wealth of traditions, while transcending all of them.” – Steve Hochman, AOL Spinner
The US Bank Portland Jazz Festival Presented by Alaska Airlines announce Vijay Iyer + Prasanna + Nitin Mitta = TIRTHA on a program titled “New York to Tamil Nadu” at the Crystal Ballroom on Saturday, February 25th at 3:00pm.
Individually, Indian-American pianist-composer Vijay Iyer, Chennai (formerly Madras) born guitarist/composer Prasanna, and Hyderabad native and tabla player Nitin Mitta are already highly accomplished artists who shift easily among multiple musical languages. Together, they have achieved a fully realized, deeply thoughtful, and truly innovative collaboration. 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 jazz at it’s best.
These artists’ musical and cultural experiences are part of their creative DNA. Immediately, for example, you hear the distinctly South Indian, meticulous ornamentations of Prasanna’s guitar in dialogue with Iyer’s gloriously spacious harmonic palette, and Mitta’s superbly crisp Hindustani (north Indian classical) grooves and virtuosic, grounding presence. You hear familiar structural elements of jazz, Hindustani, and Carnatic music. However, the group completely shuns any musical clichés or previously heard “fusions” of those genres.
Iyer summarizes, “For us Tirtha represents a unity that only recently became possible, after several decades of South Asian global mobility, transition, and flow: it’s the sound of a new reality.”
Tirtha: Tribal Wisdom (Part 2):
http://www.youtube.com/thepdxjazzchannel - p/f/7/zinN6sT2fBs
Ticketing Info:
For online tickets, visit: https://www.boxofficetickets.com/pdxjazz
Portland Jazz Festival Box Office
Hours of Operation: 2 - 5:30PM, Monday - Friday
Order by Phone: (503) 228-5299
In Person: 133 SW 2nd Avenue, Ste. 420 Portland, OR 97204
PDX Jazz Members receive no ticketing fees when purchased at the PDX Jazz Box Office
For ticketing questions, please email: abarker@pdxjazz.com
(please do not send any credit card information via email)
Crystal Ballroom Box Office
Walk Up: 1332 W Burnside, 11:30AM - 6PM Daily
By Phone: 855-CAS-TIXX
Online: www.cascadetickets.com
Tickets range from $25-$45
Ticket Packages:
The Newmark: Tickets to all 4 shows in the Newmark, seated in price level 2, $159
The Crystal: Tickets to 3 shows at the Crystal Ballroom, general admission, $99
Packages are available exclusively through the Portland Jazz Festival box office
Gold Circle Tickets (best seats) for $45
Reserved Seating for $40
www.pdxjazz.com
For more info about The Crystal Ballroom, visit: http://www.mcmenamins.com/crystalballroom
For media information, contact:
Maureen McFadden- maureen@dlmediamusic.com
