Jazz Articles about Vijay Iyer

About Vijay Iyer

Album Review

When Vijay Iyer signed to ECM Records in 2013, he joined a prestigious group of world-class musicians (including fellow pianist Keith Jarrett). With Uneasy, Iyer returns to familiar territory by leading a combo of bass, drums and piano. This album's trio can intuitively improvise and, with the revered pianist-composer at the helm, the music they present is intricate, complex and, at times, enticingly sparse. Longtime Iyer bassist Stephen Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore sit this one out. As ...

Album Review

Vijay Iyer: Uneasy

by Mike Jurkovic
April 28, 2021

If we are watching it all unfold in real time, why not listen in the same way? So, like most things these dire days, Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh and Tyshawn Sorey start Uneasy on a slow burn that engulfs the listener into another realm beyond isolation, beyond our societies of one. As the best street music does, Uneasy presents a riot of ideas. Some are finely hewn, others mere hints. Some suggest joy and sorrow, others ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Diverse Musical Settings of Vijay Iyer - Solo, Duo, Trio & Sextet

by Russell Perry
November 3, 2020

The last decade was one of immense consequence and productivity for pianist/composer Vijay Iyer. In 2012 alone, in the DownBeat International Jazz Critics Poll he was voted Artist of the Year, Pianist of the Year, Small Group of the Year (the Vijay Iyer Trio), Album of the Year (Accelerando), and Rising Star Composer of the Year. Then in 2013, he received the McArthur Fellowship, often called the McArthur Genius Grant. He started the decade recording for Munich based ACT Music ...

Album Review

Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd: InWhatStrumentals

Read "InWhatStrumentals" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
June 27, 2020

In 2003 Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd released In What Language?, a hybrid jazz/hip hop response to post-9/11 American paranoia. Inspired by many related injustices, the inflection point was the extended detention, handcuffing and humiliation of a prominent Iranian filmmaker passing through JFK International Airport. Seventeen years later America was mired in multiple unprecedented crises, giving cause to repurpose that album. Iyer and Ladd had the instrumental masters from 2003, and release them here as InWhatStrumentals: Music from In What ...

Live Review

Vijay Iyer at Sonic Laboratory

by Ian Patterson
January 20, 2020

Vijay Iyer Sonic Laboratory, Sonic Arts Research Centre Belfast, N. Ireland January 13-14, 2020 Queen's University's world-renowned Sonic Laboratory, at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) in Belfast, got the new decade off to fine start, with two evenings in the company of Vijay Iyer. The first evening was a solo piano performance; the second, a presentation-cum-Q&A session. Iyer's concert came almost a year after the solo piano gig in SARC by Craig ...

Live Review

Vijay Iyer Sextet at the Jazz Standard

by Akinfe Fatou
February 8, 2019

Vijay Iyer Sextet Jazz Standard New York, NY January 22, 2019 Vijay Iyer's sextet astounded the audience in their highly anticipated, sold out show at the Jazz Standard. From the moment Iyer graced the stage, the audience erupted into an earth-shattering ovation that danced into his greeting and band introductions. The sextet features Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Nick Dunston on bass, Jeremy Dutton on drums, Steve Lehman on alto saxophone, and Graham Haynes on ...

Radio & Podcasts

Vijay Iyer, Max Moran and more

by Joe Dimino
November 19, 2018

This week we begin with Vijay Iyer playing music from Far From Over, the powerful release he has recorded with his Sextet and profiling their show in Kansas City at The Gem Theater headlining a stellar night of jazz that was kicked off by a performance with Hermon Mehari and Logan Richardson. We also focus on Pittsburgh's jazz cat DK Anderson and a look into a chance meeting he had with the great Stanley Turrentine. We also ...