Jazz Articles about Vijay Iyer

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Vijay Iyer: Reimagining

by Paul Olson
May 16, 2005

New York pianist/composer Vijay Iyer continues his string of remarkable recordings with his Savoy debut, Reimagining, his first release with his quartet since 2003's Blood Sutra. I hesitate to call this new CD his most mature statement to date, since Iyer sounded pretty fully-formed--and hardly callow--on his 1995 debut, Memorophilia. But I'll say it anyway: Reimagining might not reach the searing highs of Blood Sutra, but it substitutes an organic, austere consistency of vision and accomplishment that's simply stunning.

The ...

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Vijay Iyer: Blood Sutra

by Kurt Gottschalk
November 16, 2003

Pianist Vijay Iyer isn't afraid of big ideas. He premiered a song cycle about urban life and ethnicity and “lives in transit" at the Asia Society in May (documented on the Pi Recordings release In What Language, also released this month), and is the 2003 recipient of the CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts in the field of music. He was also nominated for Up and Coming Musician of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, and was listed as ...

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Vijay Iyer: Blood Sutra

by Dan McClenaghan
November 11, 2003

You get the feeling that piansist Vijay Iyer is shifting into a period of transition with the opening track on his new CD, Blood Sutra. “Proximity (Crossroads)" is – uncharacteristicaly for Iyer – a slow tempo bit of introspection, with a swish of brush and stickwork painting washes behind the hard-edged piano notes. But the “Brute Facts" jolts out of the speakers next, in a full frontal assault, in very Iyer-esque fashion. Propulsive, urgent, jarring even, riding a relentless rhythmic ...

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Vijay Iyer: Panoptic Modes

by Jim Santella
March 1, 2002

What a combination. Vijay Iyer's music contains the adventurousness and dramatic tension that you'd expect from avant-garde jazz; as well as a light, rhythmic swing, for those of us who live in the mainstream. His third album is accessible to one and all. They're his originals, and they're interpreted by a stellar quartet. By limiting the ensemble to four members, Iyer ensures that each voice can be understood by the listener. Traditional Indian scales, changing meters, and romantic elements from ...

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Vijay Iyer: Panoptic Modes

by Joel Roberts
December 1, 2001

Although Vijay Iyer has a Ph.D. in music and cognitive science, his dazzling new CD, Panoptic Modes , shows the New York-based pianist more focused on spiritual concerns than purely intellectual ones.

Melding Vedic chant and South Indian rhythms with the more obvious influences of Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, Iyer creates a unique and vibrant sound, but one that's highly accessible and solidly within the progressive end of the jazz spectrum. The most direct comparison that comes to mind ...

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Vijay Iyer: Architextures

by Robert Spencer
April 1, 1998

Vijay Iyer is “one of the most fascinating jazz pianists around," says Berkeley's East Bay Express, and I couldn't have said it better myself. It is getting ever more difficult to hear someone with something really new to say, but Architextures should establish Vijay Iyer as a pianist to be reckoned with. He credits Duke, Monk and Cecil Taylor as influences, but there are other, more arcane echoes, especially in the solo “Prelude" and “Postlude: Prayer" - notably Olivier Messiaen, ...