The Jazz Cryptographer
How can we resist blogging about Rudresh Mahanthappa’s latest album, as covered in “From Crypto to Jazz” at Wired News:
To the uninitiated, modern jazz can sound like a secret language, full of unpredictable melodies and unexpected rhythms. For alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, however, the idea of jazz as code is more than just a metaphor.
Mahanthappa is best known for combining avant-garde jazz with Indian classical music. But for his latest release, Codebook, from Pi Recordings, the artist looked instead to cryptography and number theory for inspiration.
See his home page at RudreshM
Red Giant Records page for “Black Water,” The Pi Recordings page for “Mother Tongue.”
I understand that if you play the last track backwards, you’ll hear the words “When Bruce Schneier decrypts the Da Vinci Code, the ending doesn’t suck.” But that may just be a rumor. I’m looking forward to the album.
For us lowbrow types, or in case your black turtleneck is at the cleaners, there’s also math rock.
It ain’t got that swing.