Rudresh Mahanthappa

Sat., Dec. 6, 7 and 9 p.m., $25, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, paintedbride.org.

by Shaun Brady

Jazz

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Despite the assumptions he's dealt with all his life, Rudresh Mahanthappa began seriously connecting with his Indian heritage only in recent years. The first major results of those explorations came in 2005, when the alto saxophonist unveiled his Dakshina Ensemble at the Painted Bride. A collaboration with saxophonist Kadri Gopalnath, the project fused jazz and South Indian classical music into a stunning hybrid which, with a few years of refinement, spawned this year's CD Kinsmen (Pi). But Mahanthappa's experimentation didn't stop with simply melding the two musics; he's been splicing the results with other sounds to create even more experimental sounds. At a festival in Pittsburgh in October he debuted Samdhi: Diasporic Connection, which combined jazz and raga with electronics and drum 'n' bass. He returns to the Bride with another derivation, a version of the same project sans electronics called Samdhi Unplugged. Given his restless imagination, expect Mahanthappa to be tinkering with exactly what that will be up until you actually hear it.

Sat., Dec. 6, 7 and 9 p.m., $25, Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., 215-925-9914, paintedbride.org.