Label: ECM Records, 2021
Personnel - Vijay Iyer: piano; Linda May Han Oh: double bass; Tyshawn Sorey: drums
The musical genius of post-modern jazz pianist Vijay Iyer reaches new heights on Uneasy, his fourth trio album and sixth release on the ECM Records as a leader/co-leader. Having forged a revolutionary path in jazz, Iyer continues to break new ground, this time benefiting from the rhythmic wonders of a new trio with the drummer Tyshawn Sorey, a longtime partner, and the bassist Linda May Han Oh, with whom he recorded in 2011 for the Dave Douglas Quintet. The music takes a more jazzified route here, in the sense that it’s intrinsically connected to tradition and form, detaching from that free-er and experimental side presented in his works with Craig Taborn and Wadada Leo Smith.
Composed over a span of 20 years, some of the pieces strive to bring sociopolitical predicaments and disorders in America to the human conscience. The opener, “Children of Flint”, is one of those cases, calling the attention for the lead poisoning water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Written in 2019, it emerges here with an astonishingly detailed theme statement and angular melodic refinement, as well as an elegant bass solo over Sorey's dry flat tom-tom sounds and curious cymbal patterns.
Another good illustration is “Combat Breathing”, which relates to the early Black Lives Matter movement and materializes in coiled blues threads that gravitate around an 11-beat cycle. The introductory solo piano section leads to firm pedal points and sagaciously bluesy lines ironed out with sporadic assertive motifs rather than cryptic patterns. The intensity refrains during a twinkle-toed bass dance that comes firmly guided by emotions.
Three pieces ooze relaxation and poignancy from its pores - “Touba” is handled in five and resulted from the fruitful collaboration between Iyer and Boston hip-hop artist Mike Ladd; “Augury” is an emotionally strong solo piano effort; and “Entrustment”, a tribute to the cave temples of Dunhuang in China and its multicultural heritage, is delivered in seven with a warm compelling sound.
“Uneasy” channels a sense of restlessness at the outset but soon morphs into an ecstatic trip with variations in dynamics, attack and density. In turn, “Configurations” harkens back to 2001, bringing back the South Indian sonics and impressively intricate progressions of the album Panoptic Modes (Pi Recordings).
The pianist also squeezes in the jazz standard “Night and Day” and Geri Allen’s “Drummer’s Song”. The former, inspired by McCoy Tyner’s piano work in Joe Henderson’s version, flows in a peripatetic 7/8 bliss; while the latter number, a tribute to the late influential pianist and mentor who composed it, links African folk tradition with imaginative post-bop via groove.
Many moments of pleasure come out from listening to this record, in which the virtuosity of the three musicians involved is constantly put at the service of the music.
Grade A
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Children of Flint ► 02 - Combat Breathing ► 08 - Uneasy