Riley Mulherkar

Trumpeter Riley Mulherkar is a founding member of The Westerlies and in 2024 released his debut album, Riley, hailed as "über hip, modern yet timeless... one of the best debut records to come out in a long, long time"(DownBeat). The trumpeter has had audiences on their feet since he was in middle school, a prodigious and disciplined player soaking up everything he could from Seattle's unexpectedly rich and rooted jazz community. Playing under legendary band directors Robert Knatt and Clarence Acox prepared him for The Juilliard School, where he quickly found a musical home with Jazz at Lincoln Center and its leader, Wynton Marsalis.

Since, he has played with everyone from Kenny Barron and Dee Dee Bridgewater to Anna Deavere Smith and Alan Cumming, and in 2020 received Lincoln Center’s prestigious Emerging Artist Award for his work as "an original bandleader, composer, arranger, educator, community activist and advocate for jazz and the arts."

Riley, his opening recorded salvo as a soloist, is the sonically modern setting for Mulherkar’s vulnerable, melodious interpretation of the rich tradition with sound design shaped by producers Rafiq Bhatia and Chris Pattishall. Enveloping Mulherkar within a series of textured, intricately-crafted spaces, Bhatia and Pattishall train a cinematographer’s lens on the continuum of great old songs, as well as new Mulherkar pieces which fit right into a radically bold audio framework for the emotional pronouncements of Riley’s horn.

Mulherkar's quartet, featuring pianist Chris Pattishall, bassist Barry Stephenson, and drummer Jason Burger, has toured across the United States and internationally in support of the album. Recent performances include Newport Jazz Festival, Abu Dhabi Festival, New York Winter Jazzfest, and Earshot Jazz Festival.