Why Vijay Iyer is precious to contemporary jazz
3 years, 11 months ago

Why Vijay Iyer is precious to contemporary jazz

Live Mint  

I have to sheepishly admit that my favourite track by the celebrated jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer is not one of his own compositions. But Iyer’s track on the somewhat overwhelming Day Of The Dead album stood out as a jazz rarity and nudged me into paying more attention to his own very impressive catalogue of music. Historicity can be an ideal album to start exploring Iyer’s music but his collaborations and band configurations make for an overwhelming range of music to navigate. Although Iyer leads the trio, all three musicians appear to play equally important roles in the ensemble, the drums and bass as essential to the direction of tracks as Iyer’s piano. The outcome is an album where East doesn’t merely meet West but the two disparate genres—Indian classical and Western jazz—blend uniquely, proving once again that Iyer is contemporary jazz’s precious treasure.

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History of this topic

Review: Vijay Iyer jazzes up the Ojai Music Festival
7 years, 9 months ago

Review: Vijay Iyer jazzes up the Ojai Music Festival

LA Times  

Music Critic The Ojai Music Festival began Thursday night by demonstrating three sides of Vijay Iyer. The evening began with the American premiere of “Emergence,” in which Iyer’s jazz trio interacts with a chamber ensemble. The world premiere of what you might say is Iyer’s classical violin concerto, “Trouble,” with Jennifer Koh as the dazzling soloist, followed. Although Iyer says …

Vijay Iyer Trio: Tiny Desk Concert
9 years, 10 months ago

Vijay Iyer Trio: Tiny Desk Concert

NPR  

Vijay Iyer Trio: Tiny Desk Concert Vijay Iyer is probably best known as a pianist and bandleader in the African-American creative improvisational tradition — most say "jazz" for short — though he's also several other things in music. In one continuous performance, Iyer, Crump and Gilmore treated us to a few pieces from Iyer's deep catalog, including two from the …

JAZZMATAZZ: The incandescent piano of Vijay Iyer
10 years, 3 months ago

JAZZMATAZZ: The incandescent piano of Vijay Iyer

Live Mint  

The children of the Indian diaspora that immigrated to the US in the sixties and seventies have started to excel in many facets of American life, carving a niche for themselves in many fields of endeavor, from science and technology to entrepreneurship and governance, from literature to music. Although he has been releasing albums since the mid 1990s, debuting with …

Vijay Iyer On Q2 Music's 'Spaces' : NPR
10 years, 11 months ago

Vijay Iyer On Q2 Music's 'Spaces' : NPR

NPR  

Vijay Iyer On Q2 Music's 'Spaces' Pianist, composer, improviser and 2013 MacArthur Fellow Vijay Iyer has built a career of making musical connections. Increasingly recognized as one of the most inventive musicians working today, he received an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in music cognition at UC Berkeley, released three albums with poet and hip-hop artist Mike Ladd, and blended traditional Indian and …

First Listen: Vijay Iyer Trio, 'Accelerando'
13 years ago

First Listen: Vijay Iyer Trio, 'Accelerando'

NPR  

First Listen: Vijay Iyer Trio, 'Accelerando' Enlarge this image toggle caption Jimmy Katz Jimmy Katz Audio for this feature is no longer available. It lends its name to the new trio album from composer and pianist Vijay Iyer, and to its ninth track, where the tempo speeds up, resets, speeds up, resets, speeds up, resets, and so forth. That might …

Vijay Iyer Trio: Live In Concert
13 years, 2 months ago

Vijay Iyer Trio: Live In Concert

NPR  

Vijay Iyer Trio: Live In Concert Pianist and composer Vijay Iyer leads a trio that traffics in grooves, crackling and heavy. The band led off its packed-house performance at Le Poisson Rouge with a number by the disco-funk band Heatwave, created a sort of acoustic Detroit techno, stretched out a Michael Jackson classic and played Ronnie Foster's "Mystic Brew" with …

Vijay Iyer: Self-Taught Jazz Pianist Goes 'Solo' : NPR
14 years, 5 months ago

Vijay Iyer: Self-Taught Jazz Pianist Goes 'Solo' : NPR

NPR  

Vijay Iyer: Self-Taught Jazz Pianist Goes 'Solo' Enlarge this image toggle caption Jimmy Katz Jimmy Katz Jazz musician Vijay Iyer started playing the violin when he was 3, but when he was 4 or 5, he wanted to play another instrument: the piano. "The piano was around because my sister was taking lessons, and so I just started messing on …

Vijay Iyer Trio: Colliding With The Jazz Dialectic
15 years, 4 months ago

Vijay Iyer Trio: Colliding With The Jazz Dialectic

NPR  

Vijay Iyer Trio: Colliding With The Jazz Dialectic Vijay Iyer Trio: Colliding With The Jazz Dialectic I'm no critic, so I'm in no position to declare anything an "Album of the Year." Or you could Beyond Standards Apart from the title song, Iyer's singular contribution here, the trio — bassist Stephan Crump, an Iyer associate for more than a decade, …

Losing Jazz's Preconceptions With 'Historicity'
15 years, 4 months ago

Losing Jazz's Preconceptions With 'Historicity'

NPR  

Losing Jazz's Preconceptions With 'Historicity' In the last few years, some enterprising younger players have reinvented the piano-bass-drums jazz combo. In Stevie Wonder's "Big Brother," Iyer reminds us that jazz versions of radio pop are nothing new, sneaking in a quote from Ramsey Lewis' '60s hit "The In Crowd." One more way Iyer breaks with tradition — or, rather, reconnects …

Vijay Iyer Trio: Newport Jazz 2009
15 years, 7 months ago

Vijay Iyer Trio: Newport Jazz 2009

NPR  

Vijay Iyer Trio: Newport Jazz 2009 Vijay Iyer might be a genius. He's also a largely self-taught pianist — and a powerhouse player at that — and composer for string quartet, theatre, film, orchestra, spoken-word multimedia, free improvisation, ESPN commercials, etc. Iyer's forthcoming trio disc Historicity, featuring longtime collaborator Stephan Crump on bass and young phenom Marcus Gilmore on drums, …

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