A senior at Interlake High School in Bellevue, Vikram Jagannathan has played a lot of music. He plays alto saxophone in the school’s jazz band and shares just a few of his favorite jazz tracks as the first KNKX School of Jazz guest DJ for 2026.
Jagannathan began his musical journey singing traditional Indian Carnatic music when he was just four years old. Shortly after, he began playing Indian percussion instruments. The first sax player he heard was Kadri Gopalnath, a pioneer of the instrument within Indian classical music.
In eighth grade, Jagannathan joined the jazz band at Interlake High School. In his early days in the program, Nick Chesemore, an alumnus of the KNKX School of Jazz guest DJ program, was an important friend and mentor.
“He introduced me to Art Pepper, who I still credit with introducing me to what jazz can be as a soloist," Jagannathan said.
As he learns the language of jazz, Jagannathan explained that these skills are easily transferred to other disciplines — even rocket science.
“On my rocketry team, we’ve got six different voices with six different ideas about how to build a rocket. You need to learn how to streamline those into one idea that will get you off the ground," Jagannathan said. "Jazz has helped me make sense of those contrasting ideas and be a more efficient team leader and collaborator.”
After participating in his school big bands, Jagannathan discovered late-20th-century big bands like Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band and even modernist groups like Snarky Puppy. As he’s matured as a fan and as a player, Jagannathan’s KNKX playlist showed a love for small groups and great solos.
In Jagannathan’s show, saxophone legend Wayne Shorter shares the spotlight with younger European sax players Baptiste Herbin and Shai Golan. Trumpeters Tom Harrell and Lee Morgan also appear, thanks to the influence of Jagannathan's music educators.
Jagannathan made sure to credit both Paul Gillespie and David Kim at Interlake High School, as well as Jim Sisko, director of the Bellevue College Big Band where Jagannathan has an internship.
Enjoy an hour of the passionate jazz favorites of alto saxophonist Vikram Jagannathan, a promising young musician and charming radio host, too.
Which instrument do you play and why?
I play the alto saxophone. I started playing inspired by a pioneer in the Indian Carnatic music genre (the first genre of music I was introduced to, before jazz), Dr. Kadri Gopalnath, and from then on explored the alto’s possibilities until I stumbled on jazz. Since then, I’ve been enamored by the creative voice that this instrument affords, and I continue to find new ways of exploring the saxophone every day!
What's your all-time favorite jazz piece?
Art Pepper’s “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To," off of his album Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section. My favorite alto player on my favorite jazz album – it doesn’t get much better than that! I credit Art Pepper with truly opening my mind to the possibilities of the alto saxophone in a small group setting – his recordings of this piece and of “Holiday Flight” were what made me fall in love with jazz past big band music. This is the first solo I ever transcribed, and I still see bits of his ideas and melodies in this track coming up in my solos to this day.
Who is your jazz hero?
My jazz hero is probably Mr. Paul Gillespie. As an educator and player, Mr. Gillespie has consistently nurtured my growth as a musician, and it is to him that I owe much of what makes me the musician I am today. Since ninth grade, he would give me pretty much free private lessons and teach me about jazz theory, show me different musical ideas, and sit me down at the piano to gain an understanding of harmony, which culminated in me having a strong musical foundation, off of which I built my own personal voice as a musician. I have gained so much insight from him in many facets of music – composition, jazz, classical music, arranging, and more – and he continues to be one of the most inspiring and influential people I have ever met.
Why jazz?
The creative possibilities of jazz and the unique voice that I am able to cultivate as a result of jazz’s focus on improvisation is a quality that keeps making me come back to the genre wanting more. The dynamic, fluid nature of jazz music and the myriad of sound concepts and styles that arise from this one medium of expression continues to inspire me to practice and perform, hopefully solidifying my personal voice as a musician, improviser, and artist along the way!
