The Vijay Iyer Quartet trafficks in a surging, complex, mutant strain of post-bop, steeped in portent and incident. Led by Mr. Iyer, a relentlessly probing pianist, the group relies equally on the exertions of the alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, the bassist Stephan Crump and the drummer Marcus Gilmore. It doesn't sound like any other band on the jazz landscape, as it confirmed at the Jazz Standard on Friday night.
Mr. Iyer began the evening's second set by noting that the quartet was celebrating 10 years, and would take the occasion to play old material along with the new. (His history begs one bit of qualification: Mr. Gilmore is the latest in a series of drummers with the group.) Then Mr. Crump commenced with an ominous drone, over which Mr. Iyer played a ripple of glissandos. Mr. Mahanthappa articulated a prayerful incantation with his horn.
They were playing “The Weight of Things," the same overture that opens their most recent album, “Tragicomic" (Sunnyside). And as on the record their modal investigation evoked both the early-1960s output of the John Coltrane Quartet and the Carnatic music that partly informed that output. Mr. Iyer and Mr. Mahanthappa have each made a serious study of such South Indian traditions: “Kinsmen" (Pi), an album by Mr. Mahanthappa due out this month, explores them deeply.
Mr. Iyer began the evening's second set by noting that the quartet was celebrating 10 years, and would take the occasion to play old material along with the new. (His history begs one bit of qualification: Mr. Gilmore is the latest in a series of drummers with the group.) Then Mr. Crump commenced with an ominous drone, over which Mr. Iyer played a ripple of glissandos. Mr. Mahanthappa articulated a prayerful incantation with his horn.
They were playing “The Weight of Things," the same overture that opens their most recent album, “Tragicomic" (Sunnyside). And as on the record their modal investigation evoked both the early-1960s output of the John Coltrane Quartet and the Carnatic music that partly informed that output. Mr. Iyer and Mr. Mahanthappa have each made a serious study of such South Indian traditions: “Kinsmen" (Pi), an album by Mr. Mahanthappa due out this month, explores them deeply.
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