Rajesh Mehta

Trumpeter and composer Rajesh Mehta, who has released multiple jazz-improv albums, also excels as an electrical engineer. Born in Calcutta, India, in 1964, he grew up in New Jersey, where he first learned to play the trumpet. Arriving at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as a student in the early 1980s, Mehta initially focused exclusively on electrical engineering. His passion for music soon became impossible to set aside, however, prompting him to pursue both musical and engineering paths concurrently. The 'Eloranta Fellowship' he received in 1986 enabled jazz studies in France, an opportunity he embraced and later identified as the moment he was "turned into an avant-garde musician." Prior to launching his solo endeavors in the late 1990s, Mehta contributed trumpet performances to recordings by other artists, including Mark Harvey's Aardvark Steps Out and the 1996 self-titled album by Pavel Fajt & Pluto. His discography to date features Day in Benedict, Orka, Window Shopping, Reconfigurations, and Innovative Music Meeting. Additionally, he appears live leading two ensembles of his own.