Arun Luthra
Encyclopedia
Arun Luthra is a jazz
musician (saxophonist, composer, and arranger) based in New York, N.Y., U.S.A.
, U.S.A. of an India
n father and a British mother. He began his formal music training in Belgium at the age of nine, studying European classical guitar. He eventually focused on the saxophone as his primary instrument and soon began an active performing and writing career.
, Eddie Henderson
, Kenny Garrett
, Dennis Irwin
, Joe Chambers
, Charli Persip, Bobby Porcelli, Portinho
, Zé Renato
, The Temptations
, The Four Tops, Frankie Valli
, Bobby Short
, Lew Soloff
, Bernard Purdie
, and Ray Vega
.
Luthra has also performed and/or studied with such notable Hindustani and Karnatic music masters as Pandit Trichy Sankaran
, Pandit Samir Chatterjee, Krishnan Lalgudi & Vijayalakshmi Lalgudi, Pandit Karaikudi Subramaniam, Steve Gorn
, Kiran Ahluwalia, Sufi singer Zila Khan
, and the iconic 1970s Indian cross-over star Asha Puthli
.
As a recording artist Luthra has been featured as a band leader, composer, arranger, and sideman. In addition to his career as a performer, composer, and arranger, Luthra is also a faculty member at the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music in New York alongside such jazz and world music greats as Bobby Sanabria
, Reggie Workman, Chico Hamilton, and Junior Mance.
Arun Luthra & Rachel Eckroth "Louder Than Words" (SaReGaMa Records)
Red Baraat "Chaal Baby" (Sinj Records)
David Rozenblatt "Music for Dwight Rhoden's Ballet 'Othello'" (Mishigas Music)
The Russ Spiegel Jazz Orchestra "Transplants" (Ruzztone Music)
Quimbombó "Conga Eléctrica" (Testa Dura)
Björkestra "Enjoy" (Koch Jazz)
Russ Spiegel Sextet "Chimera" (Steeplechase)
The New York Funk Exchange "Funkonomic Stimulus Plan" (Funk In Da Trunk Records)
Billy Fox "The Uncle Wiggly Suite" (CleanFeed)
Mosaïc Orchestra "The Journey" (Blue Lemon Records)
Karl Wenninger's Wake Up Call "Wake Up Call" (Bancroft Records)
Broadway's Greatest Gift - "Carols For A Cure" Vol. 9 (Rock-It Science Records)
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician (saxophonist, composer, and arranger) based in New York, N.Y., U.S.A.
Early life
Arun Luthra was born in Worcester, MassachusettsWorcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
, U.S.A. of an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n father and a British mother. He began his formal music training in Belgium at the age of nine, studying European classical guitar. He eventually focused on the saxophone as his primary instrument and soon began an active performing and writing career.
Career
As a performer he has shared the stage and recorded with many of the greatest jazz, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and pop artists in the world, including Billy HarperBilly Harper
Billy Harper is a Jazz saxophonist, "one of a generation of Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists" with a distinctively stern, hard-as-nails sound on his instrument.-Biography:...
, Eddie Henderson
Eddie Henderson (musician)
Eddie Henderson is an American jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player. Henderson's influences include Booker Little, Clifford Brown, Woody Shaw and Miles Davis.-Family influence and early music history:...
, Kenny Garrett
Kenny Garrett
Kenny Garrett is a Grammy Award-winning American post bop jazz saxophonist and flautist who gained fame in his youth as a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra and of Miles Davis's band. He has since pursued a critically acclaimed solo career...
, Dennis Irwin
Dennis Irwin
Dennis Irwin was an American jazz double bassist. He toured and recorded with John Scofield and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra among others, and played on over 500 albums.-Biography:...
, Joe Chambers
Joe Chambers
Joe Chambers is an American jazz drummer, pianist, vibraphonist and composer. He attended the Philadelphia Conservatory for one year. In the 1960s and 70s Chambers gigged with many high-profile artists such as Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Lou Donaldson, Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Giuffre...
, Charli Persip, Bobby Porcelli, Portinho
Portinho
Portinho is a town on São Tomé Island in the nation of São Tomé and Príncipe....
, Zé Renato
Zé Renato
Zé Renato is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, and guitarist....
, The Temptations
The Temptations
The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...
, The Four Tops, Frankie Valli
Frankie Valli
Frankie Valli is an American musician, most famous as frontman of The Four Seasons. He is well-known for his unusually powerful falsetto singing voice...
, Bobby Short
Bobby Short
Robert Waltrip "Bobby" Short was an American cabaret singer and pianist, best known for his interpretations of songs by popular composers of the first half of the 20th century such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Noel Coward and George and Ira Gershwin.He...
, Lew Soloff
Lew Soloff
Lew Soloff is a jazz trumpeter, composer and actor. He studied trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. He is likely best known for his work with Blood, Sweat & Tears from 1968 to 1973...
, Bernard Purdie
Bernard Purdie
Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie is an American session drummer, and is considered an influential and innovative exponent of funk...
, and Ray Vega
Ray Vega
Ray "The Don" Vega is a producer of Adult Entertainment in the US. Known for colorful advertisements depicting a fictional mob family of which Mr. Vega was Godfather reminiscent of the hit HBO show The Sopranos, Mr...
.
Luthra has also performed and/or studied with such notable Hindustani and Karnatic music masters as Pandit Trichy Sankaran
Trichy Sankaran
Trichy Sankaran is an Indian percussionist, composer, scholar, and educator. He is acknowledged as one of the foremost virtuosos of the mridangam and also plays the kanjira on occasion. Since the early 1970s, he has performed and recorded in a number of cross-cultural projects.Sankaran has lived...
, Pandit Samir Chatterjee, Krishnan Lalgudi & Vijayalakshmi Lalgudi, Pandit Karaikudi Subramaniam, Steve Gorn
Steve Gorn
Steve Gorn is a master bamboo flautist and saxophone player.Gorn has performed Indian classical music, jazz and new American music on the bansuri bamboo flute and soprano saxophone in concerts and festivals throughout the world...
, Kiran Ahluwalia, Sufi singer Zila Khan
Zila Khan
Zila Hussain Khan is an Indian sufi singer. She sings classical and semi-classical musical forms She performs in the tradition of Imdadkhani gharana.-Early life:...
, and the iconic 1970s Indian cross-over star Asha Puthli
Asha Puthli
Asha Puthli is an Indian-born singer-songwriter, producer and actress.Best recognized for her daredevil vocals on the "Science Fiction" album by jazz iconoclast Ornette Coleman, Asha Puthli has recorded ten solo albums for labels like EMI, CBS/Sony, and RCA...
.
As a recording artist Luthra has been featured as a band leader, composer, arranger, and sideman. In addition to his career as a performer, composer, and arranger, Luthra is also a faculty member at the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music in New York alongside such jazz and world music greats as Bobby Sanabria
Bobby Sanabria
Bobby Sanabria is an American drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, bandleader, educator, producer, and writer specializing in Latin jazz.-Biography:Sanabria was born at St. Francis Hospital in the South Bronx, where he grew up...
, Reggie Workman, Chico Hamilton, and Junior Mance.
Partial discography
Arun Luthra's Svaha "Tangibility" (SaReGaMa Records)Arun Luthra & Rachel Eckroth "Louder Than Words" (SaReGaMa Records)
Red Baraat "Chaal Baby" (Sinj Records)
David Rozenblatt "Music for Dwight Rhoden's Ballet 'Othello'" (Mishigas Music)
The Russ Spiegel Jazz Orchestra "Transplants" (Ruzztone Music)
Quimbombó "Conga Eléctrica" (Testa Dura)
Björkestra "Enjoy" (Koch Jazz)
Russ Spiegel Sextet "Chimera" (Steeplechase)
The New York Funk Exchange "Funkonomic Stimulus Plan" (Funk In Da Trunk Records)
Billy Fox "The Uncle Wiggly Suite" (CleanFeed)
Mosaïc Orchestra "The Journey" (Blue Lemon Records)
Karl Wenninger's Wake Up Call "Wake Up Call" (Bancroft Records)
Broadway's Greatest Gift - "Carols For A Cure" Vol. 9 (Rock-It Science Records)